Ofcom publishes update on 11 investigations under the Online Safety Act

On 13 October 2025, Ofcom announced the updated status of 11 of its investigations under the OSA. Since March 2025 (when Ofcom’s Codes of Practice came into force), Ofcom has been focussing its enforcement efforts on the following areas:

1. File-sharing services used to distribute CSAM: On 17 March 2025, Ofcom launched an enforcement programme to assess the safety measures being taken by file-sharing services, which are often used to disseminate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) at scale. Two services which were investigated as part of the programme were 1Fischier.com and Gofile.io. Ofcom confirmed that these services have now worked with the regulator to deploy perceptual hash-matching technology which can quickly identify and remove CSAM, meaning that no further action will be taken against them.
    
2. Age assurance: Since January 2025, Ofcom also has in place an enforcement programme to protect children from encountering pornographic content through the use of effective age assurance. In its update, Ofcom announced that it has provisionally decided that AVS Group Ltd (AVS) is failing to comply with its duty to put in place the necessary age checks.
    
3. Risk assessment duties: Regulated providers of  user-to-user and search services were required to carry out an illegal harms risk assessment by March 2025 (see our page here) to identify, prevent and mitigate against illegal harms online. Ofcom has been investigating online discussion board ‘4chan’ in relation to its assessment as of 10 June 2025. Ofcom confirmed in its update that it had taken the decision to fine 4chan £20,000 for failing to respond to requests: (i) to supply the regulator with a copy of its risk assessment; and (ii) about its qualifying worldwide revenue.

Ofcom additionally confirmed that it has issued two further provisional decisions against file-sharing service Im.ge and pornography service provider AVS for similar failures to respond to statutory requests. Ofcom has also extended its investigation into Youngtek Solutions Ltd. for the same failure to respond to Ofcom’s requests, notwithstanding its existing investigation into the age assurance measures the pornography provider has in place.

Geoblocking as a solution?

Some services have responded to Ofcom’s investigations by geoblocking UK users from accessing their sites.  Four file-sharing services (Krakenfiles, Nippydrive, Nippyshare, Nippyspace), have taken this approach and as a consequence, Ofcom has closed its investigations.

Similarly, in response to Ofcom’s investigation, an online suicide forum (which has not been publicly named) geoblocked UK IP addresses. However, Ofcom has made clear in its update that the forum is still on its watchlist to ensure there are no efforts by the forum to encourage UK users to get around the block. Previously, the same forum had messaging on its landing page, explaining to UK users how they could circumvent the block. The forum only removed this messaging following further engagement with Ofcom.

This update serves as a helpful illustration of Ofcom’s enforcement approach and current priorities. To learn more about the OSA and Ofcom’s regulatory efforts, visit our online safety resource hub, The Safety Net and in particular our dedicated page on enforcement.