4chan hit with £450,000 UK fine over age checks
POLITICO (archive.ph)
By Mizy Clifton
2026-03-19 10:49:57GMT
LONDON — The U.K.'s media regulator Ofcom fined 4chan £450,000 on Thursday for failing to comply with age check requirements under the Online Safety Act.
The regulator also levied two additional fines of £50,000 and £20,000 on the company for not assessing the risk of users encountering illegal material and failing to specify in its terms of service how they are to be protected from such content, respectively.
Ofcom previously fined 4chan £20,000 for failing to respond to to requests for information from the regulator.
4chan has until 2 April to implement age assurance, carry out a “suitable and sufficient” illegal harms risk assessment, and rewrite its terms of service or face a daily penalty of £200.
“Companies – wherever they’re based – are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the U.K. And society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different,” Suzanne Cater, Ofcom's director of enforcement, said in a statement.
4chan did not immediately respond when contacted for comment.
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4Chan responds to £520,000 Ofcom fine with AI picture of hamster
BBC News (archive.ph)
By Zoe Kleinman
2026-03-19 12:13:04GMT
The UK online safety regulator Ofcom has fined the US messaging platform 4Chan a total of £520,000 for failing to comply with various aspects of the Online Safety Act.
It includes £450,000 for failing to put in age checks to prevent children from seeing pornography on the platform.
However, a lawyer representing the company - which has previously said it won't pay such fines - has responded to the demand with an AI-generated cartoon image of a hamster.
In a follow-up post on X, 4Chan's lawyer Preston Byrne wrote: "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."
The fines also include £50,000 for failing to assess the risk of illegal material being published and a further £20,000 for failing to set out how it protects users from criminal content.
4Chan has refused to pay all previous fines from Ofcom.
Ofcom responded to the BBC's request for a reply to Byrne's posts with a statement from Suzanne Cater, its director of enforcement.
"Companies – wherever they're based – are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the UK. And society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different," she said.
"The UK is setting new standards for online safety. Age checks and risk assessments are cornerstones of our laws, and we'll take robust enforcement action against firms that fall short."
She did not comment on the image 4Chan had published in response to the fine.
Lawyers for 4chan responded to Ofcom with an AI-generated picture of a giant hamster
In February 2025 Vice President JD Vance told an audience of world leaders at the AI Summit in Paris that the administration was "growing tired" of foreign countries attempting to regulate its tech businesses.
4chan is known to be an anarchic messaging space, and has often been at the heart of online controversies since it launched 22 years ago.
Ofcom has issued nearly £3m in fines to tech companies around the world for breaches of the UK's online safety laws.
However most of this money has not yet been received.
Ofcom says one company called Itai Tech, which runs a nudification site, paid its fines of £50,000 and £5,000, and blocked UK users from its service, while two other firms added age verification.
It added that other fines were still within their timeframe to be paid, and it was "considering next steps" for those who had missed payment deadlines.
In December the regulator told the BBC it had never heard from a company running 18 porn sites, which it had fined £1m, although the company did later add age verification to its platforms.
Last month Pornhub restricted access to its website in the UK, blaming the introduction of stricter age checks, and said its traffic had fallen by 77%.
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4chan fined £450,000 for not protecting children from online pornography
www.ofcom.org.uk (archive.ph)
2026-03-19 12:33:15GMT
Ofcom has today fined 4chan £450,000 for not having age checks in place to prevent children from seeing pornography on its site.
The UK’s online safety watchdog has also fined the company £50,000 for not assessing the risk of illegal material appearing on its platform, and £20,000 for not setting out in its terms of service how it protects people from criminal content.
Age checks help prevent kids seeing porn
Last year, the Children's Commissioner found that 59% of children had stumbled across pornography accidentally, without looking for it. Since then, rules under the UK’s Online Safety Act have come into force, meaning sites that host pornographic material must use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from readily accessing that content.
As in other industries, companies that provide an online service to people in the UK must comply with UK laws. The Online Safety Act is concerned with protecting people in the UK. It does not require platforms to restrict what people in other countries can see.[1]
Data shows that nearly 80% of the top 100 pornography sites in the UK now have age checks in place. This means that on average, every day, over 7 million visitors from the UK are accessing pornography services that have deployed age assurance.
4chan fined for failing to protect children
Following investigation, we have fined 4chan £450,000 for failing to comply with the UK’s online age check requirements. The platform must now implement highly effective age assurance by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £500.
We have also fined 4chan £50,000 for failing to assess the risk of people in the UK encountering illegal content on its site. This is fundamental to keeping users safe – in order to put in place appropriate safety measures to protect people, especially children, providers must first understand how harm could take place on their platforms.
The company must now carry out a suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessment by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £200.
Additionally, we have fined 4chan £20,000 for failing to specify in its terms of service how individuals are to be protected from illegal content, which it must now do by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £100.
Suzanne Cater, Director of Enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Companies – wherever they’re based – are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the UK. And society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different.
“The UK is setting new standards for online safety. Age checks and risk assessments are cornerstones of our laws, and we’ll take robust enforcement action against firms that fall short.”
Payment of fines
We have issued 16 fines under the Online Safety Act against six companies, totalling nearly £4 million, several of which have not yet passed their deadlines to pay. The Act states that we must allow firms a reasonable amount of time to pay a fine, which must be at least 28 days.[2]
If a company fails to pay a fine, there are various options open to us for seeking recovery of that debt – including through the courts.
Where appropriate, if a provider fails to comply with its safety duties, we can also 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.
Notes to editors
POLITICO (archive.ph)
By Mizy Clifton
2026-03-19 10:49:57GMT
LONDON — The U.K.'s media regulator Ofcom fined 4chan £450,000 on Thursday for failing to comply with age check requirements under the Online Safety Act.
The regulator also levied two additional fines of £50,000 and £20,000 on the company for not assessing the risk of users encountering illegal material and failing to specify in its terms of service how they are to be protected from such content, respectively.
Ofcom previously fined 4chan £20,000 for failing to respond to to requests for information from the regulator.
4chan has until 2 April to implement age assurance, carry out a “suitable and sufficient” illegal harms risk assessment, and rewrite its terms of service or face a daily penalty of £200.
“Companies – wherever they’re based – are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the U.K. And society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different,” Suzanne Cater, Ofcom's director of enforcement, said in a statement.
4chan did not immediately respond when contacted for comment.
---
4Chan responds to £520,000 Ofcom fine with AI picture of hamster
BBC News (archive.ph)
By Zoe Kleinman
2026-03-19 12:13:04GMT
The UK online safety regulator Ofcom has fined the US messaging platform 4Chan a total of £520,000 for failing to comply with various aspects of the Online Safety Act.
It includes £450,000 for failing to put in age checks to prevent children from seeing pornography on the platform.
However, a lawyer representing the company - which has previously said it won't pay such fines - has responded to the demand with an AI-generated cartoon image of a hamster.
In a follow-up post on X, 4Chan's lawyer Preston Byrne wrote: "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."
The fines also include £50,000 for failing to assess the risk of illegal material being published and a further £20,000 for failing to set out how it protects users from criminal content.
4Chan has refused to pay all previous fines from Ofcom.
Ofcom responded to the BBC's request for a reply to Byrne's posts with a statement from Suzanne Cater, its director of enforcement.
"Companies – wherever they're based – are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the UK. And society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different," she said.
"The UK is setting new standards for online safety. Age checks and risk assessments are cornerstones of our laws, and we'll take robust enforcement action against firms that fall short."
She did not comment on the image 4Chan had published in response to the fine.
Lawyers for 4chan responded to Ofcom with an AI-generated picture of a giant hamster
In February 2025 Vice President JD Vance told an audience of world leaders at the AI Summit in Paris that the administration was "growing tired" of foreign countries attempting to regulate its tech businesses.
4chan is known to be an anarchic messaging space, and has often been at the heart of online controversies since it launched 22 years ago.
Ofcom has issued nearly £3m in fines to tech companies around the world for breaches of the UK's online safety laws.
However most of this money has not yet been received.
Ofcom says one company called Itai Tech, which runs a nudification site, paid its fines of £50,000 and £5,000, and blocked UK users from its service, while two other firms added age verification.
It added that other fines were still within their timeframe to be paid, and it was "considering next steps" for those who had missed payment deadlines.
In December the regulator told the BBC it had never heard from a company running 18 porn sites, which it had fined £1m, although the company did later add age verification to its platforms.
Last month Pornhub restricted access to its website in the UK, blaming the introduction of stricter age checks, and said its traffic had fallen by 77%.
---
4chan fined £450,000 for not protecting children from online pornography
www.ofcom.org.uk (archive.ph)
2026-03-19 12:33:15GMT
Ofcom has today fined 4chan £450,000 for not having age checks in place to prevent children from seeing pornography on its site.
The UK’s online safety watchdog has also fined the company £50,000 for not assessing the risk of illegal material appearing on its platform, and £20,000 for not setting out in its terms of service how it protects people from criminal content.
Age checks help prevent kids seeing porn
Last year, the Children's Commissioner found that 59% of children had stumbled across pornography accidentally, without looking for it. Since then, rules under the UK’s Online Safety Act have come into force, meaning sites that host pornographic material must use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from readily accessing that content.
As in other industries, companies that provide an online service to people in the UK must comply with UK laws. The Online Safety Act is concerned with protecting people in the UK. It does not require platforms to restrict what people in other countries can see.[1]
Data shows that nearly 80% of the top 100 pornography sites in the UK now have age checks in place. This means that on average, every day, over 7 million visitors from the UK are accessing pornography services that have deployed age assurance.
4chan fined for failing to protect children
Following investigation, we have fined 4chan £450,000 for failing to comply with the UK’s online age check requirements. The platform must now implement highly effective age assurance by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £500.
We have also fined 4chan £50,000 for failing to assess the risk of people in the UK encountering illegal content on its site. This is fundamental to keeping users safe – in order to put in place appropriate safety measures to protect people, especially children, providers must first understand how harm could take place on their platforms.
The company must now carry out a suitable and sufficient illegal content risk assessment by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £200.
Additionally, we have fined 4chan £20,000 for failing to specify in its terms of service how individuals are to be protected from illegal content, which it must now do by 2 April or face a daily penalty of £100.
Suzanne Cater, Director of Enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Companies – wherever they’re based – are not allowed to sell unsafe toys to children in the UK. And society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different.
“The UK is setting new standards for online safety. Age checks and risk assessments are cornerstones of our laws, and we’ll take robust enforcement action against firms that fall short.”
Payment of fines
We have issued 16 fines under the Online Safety Act against six companies, totalling nearly £4 million, several of which have not yet passed their deadlines to pay. The Act states that we must allow firms a reasonable amount of time to pay a fine, which must be at least 28 days.[2]
If a company fails to pay a fine, there are various options open to us for seeking recovery of that debt – including through the courts.
Where appropriate, if a provider fails to comply with its safety duties, we can also 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.
Notes to editors
- More information on jurisdiction is available here.
- See Section 137 (5)(e) and (6) of the Online Safety Act.
