Source: Ofcom published on this website Wednesday 29 July 2026 by Jill Powell
In just one year, age checks are being deployed at an unprecedented scale, ensuring the UK is at the forefront of global efforts to make online experiences safer for children. But, as the UK prepares to introduce a social media ban for under 16s, more action from the tech industry is needed to further strengthen protections for children across the system.
A new report published by Ofcom reveals that age checks are now being deployed at an unprecedented scale across the pornography, social media, dating and gaming sectors. Many services are taking steps to ensure these checks are highly effective in practice, in line with Ofcom’s industry guidance.
The proportion of children being asked to prove their age who encountered highly effective age checks increased from 25% to 43% between July 2025 and January 2026. All of the UK’s top 10 and the majority of the top 100 porn sites now have age checks in place.
Among the minority of online children who attempt to access pornography (8%), the presence of age checks acts as an effective deterrent. Half of these children only reached sites with age checks in place. Nearly nine in ten of these children’s visits (87%) to porn sites were for under 30 seconds, and 65% were for less than 10 seconds.
Checking up on age checks
Despite this significant progress, the job is not done. More action is needed from the tech industry to increase the effectiveness of age checks to protect children online, particularly with a view to the Government’s planned expansion of age assurance measures to restrict under 16s’ use of social media.
Specifically, Ofcom’s report identifies shortcomings in some services’ implementation of age checks, as well as areas requiring further collaboration and innovation from the wider tech industry.
We want to see action in the following four areas:
- Too many porn sites still don’t have age checks in place
Many porn sites with age checks in place have experienced sharp declines in traffic, while some without have gained in popularity. Four per cent of children who participated in our study visited at least one porn service with no age checks in place.
Action:
All porn services without age checks must introduce them without delay, in line with Ofcom guidance.
So far, Ofcom have opened 23 investigations into the providers of 88 adult services. Ofcom will continue to take action against services which flout the law and put children at risk, using the full extent of their enforcement powers.
- Children finding porn sites without age checks via search
In many cases, children are able to easily find porn sites without age checks via search engines.
Ofcom found that 33% of results returned on the first page of Google Search and 54% on Bing were to pornography sites without age checks or other protections.
Action:
Google and Bing will be working with Ofcom as a priority on practical solutions to tackle the discoverability of porn sites without age checks via their services.
- Serious doubts about age inference methods used by some popular social media companies, with Tiktok under investigation
Under Ofcom’s Children’s Codes, social media companies must use highly effective age assurance to identify who their child users are to tailor their online experience and protect them from harmful material – including pornography, self-harm and suicide content.
Some social media companies have chosen to rely primarily on age inference methods to identify their child users.] This is despite them not being included in our guidance as methods that are capable of being highly effective for this purpose.
Evidence in the report reinforces our long-standing, serious doubts about the effectiveness of some of these models. In some cases, companies may be failing to correctly detect significant numbers of children on their platforms, meaning children risk being exposed to harmful content.
Action:
Ofcom have particular concerns about the effectiveness of TikTok’s approach to age assurance and have today launched a formal investigation into whether it is complying with its duties to protect children from encountering harmful content on its service.
The message to social media companies is clear: those which use age inference models to comply with their child protection duties should switch to other methods listed in the guidance as highly effective without delay. If they don’t, they must be able to prove using reliable and compelling evidence to Ofcom that their current method is highly effective.
- Age checks need implementing more effectively, including by dating services
Despite having age checks in place to prevent children’s access, over one in ten 15 to 17-year-olds were continuing to visit and spend time on three of the most used dating apps in December 2025. This suggested that their age assurance methods needed to be improved and more closely aligned with our guidance.
Action:
All relevant services must ensure that their age checks are highly effective. That means following Ofcom guidance in full, conducting regular due diligence on any third-party vendors they use to deliver age checks and complying with privacy and data protection obligations.
Many dating services have started improving their age assurance processes following engagement with Ofcom. We expect them to continue to make further changes, in line with the guidance, including by introducing a ‘challenge age’ and ‘liveness detection’.
Next steps for under 16s’ use of social media
When implemented properly, highly effective age checks work, and they will be vital in underpinning future social media restrictions for under 16s.
But Ofcom are clear that social media firms’ current age inference methods are insufficient in preventing children from accessing a service at the point of entry to implement a ban, nor can they be used to enforce minimum age restrictions effectively. As such, sites and apps must strengthen their approach.
Building on the existing guidance, Ofcom will deliver to Parliament by the end of October a rapid assessment of what highly effective age checks look like in practice to determine whether someone is over 16. This will help inform parliamentary debate ahead of potential age restrictions coming into force in 2027.
The wider industry should also be prepared to play their part in strengthening protections for children. Ofcom have already seen action in this space, including from Apple, and expect to see further innovation including from app stores, operating systems and at a device level.
Ofcom will publish a statutory report about the role of app-store level protections by January 2027.
