That means companies have effectively been treating all users as if they’re adults, leaving children potentially exposed to porn and other types of harmful content. Services that are likely to be accessed by children must comply with children's risk assessment duties and children's safety duties.Ofcom will publish Protection of Children Codes and children's risk assessment guidance in April 2025. Services likely to be accessed by children must conduct a children's risk assessment within three months of the guidance publication (by July 2025). Based on the risk assessment, services must implement measures to protect children, such as introducing age checks.All services that allow pornography must have highly effective age assurance processes in place by July 2025. Services that publish their own pornographic content, including certain Generative AI tools, must begin implementing robust age checks immediately.“As age checks start to roll out in the coming months, adults will start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services.

Source: The Times January 16, 2025 20:46 UTC