The AVS Group did in fact implement
ID/Age verification for UK visitors which requires a verifiable email and a photo for age estimation. However ths system did not check that this was a selfie and any photo of an any adult seems to suffice.
The AVS Group Ltd sites are:
The BBC notes that Ofcom has never received any replies from queries to TubeCorporate, the company behind AVS
Group Ltd. TubeCorporate apparently has a registered address in Belize that is shared with many other offshore companies, and it may prove difficult to enforce these fines.
Ofcom has determined that AVS Group Ltd has failed to comply with section 12 of the Act and this failure is ongoing. Section 12 imposes a duty on providers of services that fall under Part 3 of the Act, and allow pornographic content, to ensure that
children are prevented from encountering pornographic content through the use of highly effective age assurance.
From 25 July 2025 until at least 25 November 2025, each of the AVS Group websites either:
did not implement any age assurance measures; or
implemented measures that were not highly effective at determining whether a user was a child. In particular, AVS Group Ltd deployed a photo upload
check on its services that does not include liveness detection and as such is vulnerable to circumvention by children (for example, by uploading a photo of an adult). Ofcom considers that this method is not capable of being highly effective within the
meaning of the Act.
We are imposing a penalty on AVS Group Ltd of £1,000,000 in respect of the contravention of section 12. This penalty was set having regard to our Penalty Guidelines.
In addition, AVS Group Ltd is
now required to comply with section 12 by taking steps to implement highly effective age assurance on all remaining AVS Group websites that do not currently have such measures in place by 5pm GMT on 6 December 2025.
Should AVS
Group Ltd fail to comply with this requirement, a daily rate penalty of £1,000 per day will be imposed starting from 6 December 2025 until the section 12 duty is complied with or 16 March 2026, whichever is sooner.
Ofcom has also
determined that AVS Group Ltd has failed to comply with section 102(8) of the Act by failing to respond to a statutory request for information within the specified time frame issued as part of the investigation. We are imposing a penalty on AVS Group Ltd
of £50,000 in respect of the contravention of section 102(8). This penalty was set having regard to our Penalty Guidelines.
In addition, AVS Group Ltd is now required to take immediate steps to provide Ofcom with a complete list
of all sites operated by AVS Group Ltd.
Should AVS Group Ltd fail to comply with this requirement, a daily rate penalty of £300 per day will be imposed starting from 4 December 2025 until the section 102(8) duty is complied with
or 1 February 2026 whichever is sooner.