Ofcom Online Safety Act enforcement update

Ofcom has issued a progress report on its enforcement activity under the UK’s Online Safety Act.

On 13 October, Ofcom issued an update on how it is conducting investigations and taking regulatory action to keep young people safe online.

Since March 2025, it has launched five enforcement programmes and is conducting 21 formal investigations into 69 sites and services. The following updates are on 11 of those cases.

File-sharing platforms and CSAM

One key focus has been file-sharing services. These are often abused and used to distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Ofcom’s file-sharing enforcement programme has flagged two services, 1Fichier.com and Gofile.io, for serious safety failings.

Following engagement with Ofcom, both providers have now adopted perceptual hash-matching technology, an automated tool designed to detect and remove CSAM before it is shared. Because of their co-operation and evidence of improvements, Ofcom has decided against further enforcement action on them – for now.

Fines for non-compliance

Online sites and services are obliged to comply with statutory information requests to enable the regulator to assess whether they are upholding their legal obligations to users in the UK.

Some providers do not take this seriously, however. For example, 4chan failed to provide its illegal-harms risk assessment and also ignored a second request for revenue data. Ofcom has therefore imposed a £20,000 fine, with an additional daily penalty of £100 per day for up to 60 days – or until it complies.

Ofcom has also issued provisional decisions against Im.ge and AVS Group Ltd for similar non-compliance with information requests. Additionally, Ofcom says that AVS is not deploying the “highly effective age checks” needed to prevent children from encountering pornography.

Meanwhile, the investigation into porn provider, Youngtek Solutions Ltd, has been expanded to examine its response to an information request and its age assurance measures.

Geo-blocking

Instead of implementing any safety measures, some platforms have responded to UK regulatory pressure by simply blocking access from UK IP addresses (geo-blocking). Examples include file-sharing sites Krakenfiles, Nippydrive, Nippyshare and Nippyspace. Although the cases involving these services have now been closed, they will remain on Ofcom’s monitoring list.