Who is this page for?
If you allow pornography on your online service, this page is for you. It explains what you need to know about the Online Safety Act and what you need to check to ensure you follow the rules.
You might work in the online adult industry or provide a social media service that allows pornographic content.
Check if the rules apply to you
Use our tool to check if the rules are likely to apply to you, and what you can do next. Answer six short questions about your business and the service you provide, then get a result.
Read our proposals on…
…illegal harms
You should check our proposals on how all services should mitigate the risk of illegal content.
Here are the harms we think might be most relevant for pornography services, and where we cover them in our consultation:
- Child sexual abuse offences - Covered in Volume 2, Section 6C and Volume 5, pages 30-34.
- CSAM Hash matching and URL detection -Covered in Volume 4, Section 14.
- Intimate image abuse - Covered in Volume 2, Section 6M and Volume 5, pages 47-49.
- Extreme pornography - Covered in Volume 2, Section 6L and Volume 5, page 47.
- Adult sexual exploitation offences - Covered in Volume 2, Section 6K and Volume 5, pages 45-46.
- Human trafficking offences - Covered in Volume 2, Section 6J and Volume 5, pages 50-51.
…age assurance for user-to-user services
User-to-user services that allow pornography are covered by a set of proposals under Part 3 of the Online Safety Act.
We are consulting on these proposals until 17 July. We have provided a summary of them and here are the ones most relevant to you:
Volume 3: The causes and impacts of online harms to children
- Section 7.1: Risk of harm to children of pornographic content
- Section 8.2: Guidance on the definition of pornographic content
Volume 5: What should services do?
- Section 15: Age assurance measures
Annexes
- Annex 10: Draft guidance on highly effective age assurance
…and guidance for publishers of pornography
Services that publish or produce pornography are covered by a set of proposals under Part 5 of the Online Safety Act.
Read our proposals in full or a quick guide to them.
No matter whether the content on your service is covered by Part 3 or Part 5 of the Act, you must use highly effective age assurance measures to stop under-18s accessing pornography.
Stay in touch and up to date
Sign up to Ofcom’s Online Safety Briefing newsletter and you’ll be the first to know when we publish updates on our online safety work.
Want to know more? You can get in touch with the Porn Supervision team here. We may not respond to every query but may update our website with more advice.