The company behind the pornography website Fapello has been fined £630,000 by Ofcom for failing to introduce any age checks for UK users – and then ignoring the regulator’s requests for information. It is the latest in a string of penalties as the watchdog steps up enforcement of laws designed to keep children away from adult content.
Since July 2025, sites that host porn or other adult material have been legally required to use “highly effective” age assurance to ensure visitors are 18 or older. But Ofcom said the operator of Fapello had not put any checks in place. The regulator opened an investigation into the company in November.
“Ofcom fines Fapello operator £630,000 for no age checks; site now blocks UK visitors.”
On Thursday, Ofcom announced it had fined the firm £600,000 for failing to implement age verification, and a further £30,000 for not responding to its requests for information on time. “Age checks are no longer optional for porn sites in the UK,” said George Lusty, director of enforcement at Ofcom. “They are a cornerstone of our laws to protect children from content they should not be seeing.” He added that providers who fail to supply accurate information on time “should expect to face enforcement action, including fines.”
The website has since blocked visitors from the UK, but Ofcom said it would continue to monitor its compliance.
The fine is one of several handed down by the regulator in recent months. In May, Ofcom fined adult site operator YoungTek Solutions £600,000 for failing to age-check UK visitors. Before that, it levied a £1.35m penalty on another porn site operator for the same reason.
But Ofcom’s enforcement of the age-check rules has come under scrutiny. In December, it emerged that the regulator had never heard from a firm that had been fined £1m, prompting questions about whether monetary penalties are enough to secure action. (That company later began complying with Ofcom’s rules.)
The regulator is also locked in a separate dispute with the online message board 4chan, which has refused to pay a £520,000 fine. A lawyer for the site has mocked Ofcom’s threats with AI-generated images of hamsters.
Ofcom has outlined acceptable methods for age verification, including credit card checks, photo ID matching, and estimating age from a selfie. Whatever method a platform chooses, it must be “technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair.”
On Thursday, the regulator also announced a new investigation into another porn provider, Bit Hive, over concerns that one of its age-check methods “may not be highly effective.”