Ofcom has fined 4chan £450,000 for not having age checks in place to prevent children from seeing pornography on its site.
In 2025, the Children’s Commissioner found that 59% of children had accidentally come across pornography without looking for it. The Online Safety Act requires sites which contain pornographic material to use highly effective age assurance methods to prevent children from accessing that content. Data shows that nearly 80% of the top 100 pornography sites in the UK now have age checks in place.
Following Ofcom’s investigation, it fined 4chan £450,000 for failing to comply with the UK’s online age check requirements. 4chan was required to implement highly effective age assurance by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £500.
Ofcom also fined 4chan £50,000 for failing to assess the risk of people encountering illegal content on its site. The platform was informed that it must carry out a suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessment by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £200.
Ofcom issued 4chan with a third fine of £20,000 for failing to specify in its terms of service how individuals are protected from illegal content. Assuming 4chan failed to address this by the 2 April deadline, they are now required to pay a daily penalty of £100.
According to the BBC, 4Chan’s lawyer Preston Byrne said: “In the only country in which 4chan operates, the United States, it is breaking no law and indeed its conduct is expressly protected by the First Amendment. This raises the question of how Ofcom can enforce against overseas companies, although it may seek a court order for ‘business disruption measures’, such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring Internet Service Providers to block a site in the UK.
