Internet Porn Censorship

Undress.cc is a nudification website from Itai Tech where users can submit a clothed image and receive the unclothed estimation. The website is currently self blocked to UK users.

It seems that this website maybe the first to be punished by Ofcom. Maybe the company was asking for trouble being an adult company that is stupidly registered in the UK. Ofcom writes:

Following an investigation, Ofcom has provisionally determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe Itai Tech Ltd has failed / is failing to comply with section 81 of the Online Safety Act (OSA). Section 81 imposes a duty on providers of services that fall under Part 5 of the OSA to ensure, through the use of highly effective age verification or age estimation (or both), that children are not normally able to encounter content that is regulated provider pornographic content.

Ofcom therefore issued a provisional notice of contravention to Itai Tech Ltd on 17 September 2025 under section 130 of the OSA. The notice also sets out our provisional view that Itai Tech Ltd has infringed its duties under section 102(8) of the OSA by failing to respond to a statutory request for information issued as part of the investigation.

The notice sets out the facts that Ofcom has relied upon to reach its provisional view, the actions we propose to take, and the rationale for those decisions. Itai Tech will now have a period of 20 working days to make representations to Ofcom, which will be carefully considered before reaching a final decision.

Ofcom has launched censorship investigations into the compliance of five companies -- which collectively run 22 pornography sites -- on grounds of lack of ID/age verification being implemented. Ofcom writes:

We have opened formal investigations into whether the following providers have highly effective age checks in place to protect children from encountering pornography across 22 websites: Cyberitic LLC, Web Prime Inc, Youngtek Solutions Ltd, ZD Media s.r.o and the provider of xgroovy. If we identify any further sites run by these companies, they will be added to our investigations.

These sites have been prioritised based on the risk of harm they pose and their user numbers, including where there have been significant increases in their user numbers since the 25 July deadline. Collectively, these sites have over 8 million unique monthly UK visitors.

We are also expanding the scope of our existing investigations into 8579 LLC and Itai Tech.

As well as investigating their compliance with the requirement to introduce age checks for pornographic content, we are now also investigating whether they have failed to respond adequately to statutory information requests from Ofcom.

 

The  Cyberitic LLC adult site is still available in the UK without ID/age verification:

• www.shesfreaky.com

The  Web Prime Inc adult sites are still available in the UK without ID/age verification:

• www.anysex.com
• www.fapality.com
• www.mylust.com
• www.xcafe.com
• www.yourlust.com

The Youngtek Solutions sites are set to introduce ID/Age verification:

• www.imagefap.com
• www.empflix.com
• www.moviefap.com,
• www.pornrepublic.com
• www.tnaflix.com

The  ZD Media adult sites are still available in the UK without ID/age verification:

• www.hello.porn
• www.homo.xxx
• www.max.porn
• www.ok.porn
• www.ok.xxx
• www.perfectgirls.xxx
• www.pin.porn
• www.pornhat.com
• www.pornhat.one
• www.pornstars.tube

XGroovy.com is still available in the UK without ID/age verification.

The 8579 LLC adult sites are still available in the UK without ID/age verification:

• 4kporn.xxx
• crazyporn.xxx
• love4porn.com
• hoes.tube.

Newspaper reports are suggesting that visits to the three main porn websites, all now inflicting ID verification, have significantly declined. The reports have only published a few partially defined example stats from an analytics company called SimilarWeb that don't readily stack up with themselves.

Papers report that

• the most popular, Pornhub dropped from an estimated 3.8m on July 24 to 2.0m for an average day in August, a drop of 47%. The Daily Mail adds that this figure has dropped to 1.8m by 18th August.
• the second most popular,  XVideos dropped by a similar 47%
• the third most popular, xHamster dropped from an estimated 2.0m on July 24 to 1.2m for an average day in August, a drop of 39%.

That would seem to be an average drop of about 45%.

There are now three straightforward options for porn viewers to continue their entertainment ie

• Stupidly submit to the ID verification
• Simply move to the many smaller websites that haven't implemented ID verification, see list of adult websites and their ID verification status
• Use a VPN to continue to browse any porn site of your choice.

So it would seem a fair assumption that no porn viewers need be deprived of their adult entertainment and that they would probably continue very much as before.

It would therefore be reasonable to assume that 55% of porn viewers have submitted to ID verification whilst 45% have moved to non restricted websites or are using a VPN.

Surely Ofcom, the Government and the parasitic age verification companies will all be well pleased that so many people have opted for ID verification.

The SimilarWeb analytics do indeed suggest that there has been a significant upsurge for the non ID verifying smaller websites. The Daily Mail comments that the traffic to non-complying PornHat.com increased by 130% in the same time frame. Pornhub commented:

As we've seen in many jurisdictions around the world, there is often a drop in traffic for compliant sites and an increase in traffic for non-compliant sites.

The traffic stats also suggest that there has been no significant decline in visitors to X and Reddit that have introduced ID verification, but only for their adult sections. The majority of their websites are unrestricted  to all for the large majority of their content.

Ofcom has launched censorship investigations into the compliance of four companies -- which collectively run 34 pornography sites -- on grounds of lack of ID/age verification being implemented. Ofcom writes:

We have opened formal investigations into whether the following providers have highly effective age checks in place across 34 websites: 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd.

These companies have been prioritised based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operate and their user numbers. Collectively, these websites have over 9 million unique monthly UK visitors.

These new cases add to Ofcom's 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, an online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, First Time Videos LLC and Itai Tech Ltd. We expect to make further enforcement announcements in the coming weeks and months.

We will now gather and analyse evidence to determine whether any contraventions have occurred. If our assessment indicates compliance failures, we will issue provisional notices of contravention to providers, who can then make representations on our findings, before we make our final decisions.

The 8579 LLC adult sites are:

• 4kporn.xxx
• crazyporn.xxx
• love4porn.com
• hoes.tube.

The websites are still available in the UK without ID/age verification

The AVS Group Ltd sites are:

• pornzog.com
• txxx.com, txxx.tube
• upornia.com
• hdzog.com, hdzog.tube
• thegay.com, thegay.tube
• ooxxx.com
• hotmovs.com
• hclips.com
• vjav.com
• pornl.com
• voyeurhit.com
• manysex.com
• tubepornclassic.com
• shemalez.com, shemalez.tube.

These sites now require ID/age verification in the UK but are available using a VPN.

The Kick Online Entertainment S.A site is

• motherless.com

The website is still available in the UK without ID/age verification

The Trendio Ltd sites are:

• theyarehuge.com
• tranny.one
• ah-me.com
• ashemale.one
• bdsm.one
• bemyhole.com
• gaygo.tv, gayxo.com
• shemale.pub,
• sunporno.com
• yesvids.com

These site now require ID/age verification in the UK via a hasslesome multi selfie approach from agerify. However the sites are still available using a VPN.

On July 25, 2025, the UK's Video-Sharing Platforms (VSP) regime was repealed, and all notified services are now regulated under the Online Safety regime.

The  VSP regime ran in the UK for four years and was the UKs flagship online censorship regulation. Following its repeal, Ofcom took a look back at its journey to highlight what was achieved, as well as 5 things industry can learn from online safety regulation in practice. See article from ofcom.org.uk

What Ofcom doesn't comment on in these wishy washy achievements is to note how few video sharing platforms have stupidly decided to be based in Britain.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has published its Annual Report for 2024, marking a 112-year-record for cinema film submissions. The report reveals significant achievements in advancing audience protection and delivering trusted age ratings across cinema, packaged media and video on demand (VOD) and streaming services, as well as pioneering developments in the use of AI for content classification.

Cinema classifications

In 2024, the BBFC classified 1,256 feature films for cinema, a 13% increase from 2023, and the highest number of submissions in the organisation's history. As in previous years, the most frequently issued age rating was 15, which was applied to 41% of cinema submissions. In contrast, the 18 classification was issued to 4% of all cinema films, remaining the least common rating.

The increase came as the BBFC implemented revised Classification Guidelines in May 2024. Shaped by extensive feedback from 12,000 people across the UK, these updated Guidelines reflect shifts in audience expectations, particularly regarding the classification of sex scenes at the 12/15 border, violence across the categories, and certain depictions of drug misuse. Participants reported depictions of sexual violence as their primary concern, followed by scenes of suicide and self-harm. Additionally, this research highlighted parents' worries about the potential normalisation of bad language for young children, especially terms with sexual or misogynistic connotations.

The Guidelines research also found that BBFC age ratings remain trusted and valued by audiences, with 97% of respondents seeing a benefit to age ratings, and 90% of parents saying that they trust BBFC age ratings all or most of the time. This research is carried out every four to five years to ensure BBFC standards continue to reflect UK audience expectations.

Packaged media

While total packaged media submissions (DVD and Blu-ray) marginally declined by 1% year-on-year, the total number of minutes classified increased by 11%, reaching 176,004 in 2024, up from 158,159 in 2023. This growth was driven by a remarkable surge in anime titles, which accounted for 38% of all packaged media classifications in 2024 203 up from 25% the previous year.

Partnerships with VOD and streaming services

As part of the BBFC's mission to protect audiences and help them make informed viewing decisions, the BBFC continued to work to extend the use of its trusted age ratings on VOD and streaming services. In 2024, the BBFC worked with 35 VOD platforms and strengthened its partnerships with the UK's leading services. Last July, the BBFC announced a four-year extension of its self-rating partnership with Netflix through to 2028, meaning that Netflix will continue to carry BBFC age ratings and content advice on 100% of its UK catalogue for years to come.

The partnership, which began in 2019, allows Netflix to generate age ratings and content advice in line with BBFC standards, ensuring that its UK users have access to trusted guidance when choosing what to watch. BBFC age ratings also power Netflix's parental controls, allowing parents to limit their children's access to age-inappropriate content.

In September 2024, the BBFC announced the commencement of a pilot to establish a new self-rating partnership with Prime Video. Following the successful completion of the pilot in July 2025, Prime Video can now generate BBFC age ratings and content advice in-house, marking a major step forward in delivering clarity and protection to UK audiences. With Ofcom's forthcoming video-on-demand code on the horizon, these voluntary, best practice partnerships reflect a shared commitment to empower viewers with reliable, transparent age ratings while safeguarding children from potentially harmful content. They also address consumer demand, as according to BBFC Guidelines research, 81% of people want streaming content to be classified in line with the same standards used for cinema and packaged media.

AI and technological innovation

In 2024, the BBFC advanced its AI-powered compliance tool, CLEARD, and established BBFC Technology, a dedicated new entity to support this innovation. CLEARD has been developed in collaboration with international regulators and partners to make it easier for digital platforms to adopt BBFC age ratings quickly, accurately, and at scale. Combining compliance data with AI and machine-learning algorithms, CLEARD generates trusted, localised age ratings and content advice for use on VOD and streaming services across multiple countries from a single human compliance viewing. This means more trusted BBFC age ratings for UK audiences on more online platforms.

BBFC Technology's development of CLEARD reflects the BBFC's ongoing commitment to supporting the film and TV industry in line with its core mission of empowering UK audiences to make informed viewing decisions. This initiative will not only make BBFC age ratings more cost-effective and accessible for streaming services, but any revenue generated will be reinvested into the BBFC's statutory classification services, ultimately helping to reduce the cost of classification for the film and entertainment industry.

Natasha Kaplinsky OBE, President of the British Board of Film Classification, said:

2024 was the BBFC's 112th year of helping people across the UK view what's right for them 203 and what a remarkable year it was. We classified more cinema features than ever before, and we have made significant progress towards extending the coverage of trusted BBFC age ratings on streaming services through new deals with Prime Video and Netflix. We launched our revised Classification Guidelines 203 ensuring that the standards we apply when classifying content continue to reflect the views of UK audiences. Perhaps most exciting of all, we have continued our pioneering work with AI, ensuring that the BBFC remains at the forefront of film and digital content regulation. It has been a genuine privilege to lead the organisation at such an exciting and transformative time.

David Austin OBE, Chief Executive of the British Board of Film Classification, added:

Once again, 2024 has demonstrated the film industry's resilience and adaptability in the face of ongoing challenges. Despite disruptions to the release schedule caused by Hollywood strikes in 2023, as well as the sad news of cinema closures across the UK, it was encouraging to see such a rich and diverse selection of films reaching UK screens. From Deadpool & Wolverine to Wicked, All of Us Strangers to The Substance, 2024 offered plenty to remind us all of why we love going to the cinema. The year also saw an increase in the volume of content submitted to the BBFC for classification. We classified a total of 1,256 cinema features across 2024, which marks an all-time record and demonstrates that after more than a century of content classification, the BBFC's work remains just as vital as ever.

So most of the major tube sites have decided to implement ID verification for UK viewers. But thankfully there are still plenty of options of websites that have not yet implemented ID verification requirements. Here is a useful list of porn sites to try to find those not inflicting ID verification: toppornsites.com .

For viewers stupidly subscribing to the risk of handing over ID to watch porn I noted that many websites were promising to not keep a copy of ID data provided for verification purposes and then immediately demanding an email address that will be kept for furture visits. Surely an email address is a key piece of identity data that should not be retained.

Surely a better idea is purchase a VPN and access porn as if in a different country from the UK. For the moment all the major porn sites stil allow access via VPN. Perhaps one day this will not be 5the case when ID verification is adopted worldwide. Also not that it is up to websites whether they allow access via VPN or not. Under threat of extreme punishment they could reasonably easily one day block access from VPNs. (as the likes of BBC and Netflix already do).

Another option is to install a tor browser (the onion ring I think). See torproject.org . This is a browser that looks bery much like Firefox but obtains page data via  complicated and encrypted routing that evades censorship and country specific blocking. It is not quite as 100% succesful as a VPN but can be used to watch porn on the main porn websites.

But of course the authorities will not be very pleased by these straightforward workarounds, and they have put in place a censorship rule to prevent adult websites from themselves promoting workarounds. According to Ofcom and the BBC, platforms must not host, share or permit content that encourages the use of VPNs to get around age checks and it will be illegal for them to do so.

An Aylo spokesperson, the parent company of Pornhub said parents are advised to block VPN usage just in case, and  told the BBC that the question of VPNs was an issue for governments, adding:

We certainly do not recommend that anyone uses technology to bypass the law.'

Aylo has publicly called for effective and enforceable age assurance solutions that protect minors online, while ensuring the safety and privacy of all users. The United Kingdom is the first country to present these same priorities demonstrably

Thankfully such censorship laws simply don't apply to websites out of Ofcom's remit so there will surely be plenty of sources of information available to workaround the dangers of ID verification for porn.

 

Update: VPNs galore

27th July 2025. From the Financial Times

The Financial Times has reported on the inevitably booming sales and downloads  of VPNs.

Proton VPN has leapfrogged ChatGPT to become the top free app in the UK, according to Apple. Proton VPN has experienced a 1800% increase in daily UK. sign-ups. NordVPN has seen 1000% increase in UK purchases.

A Proton spokesperson told Mashable:

This clearly shows that adults are concerned about the impact universal age verification laws will have on their privacy.

A dating safety app that allows women to do background checks on men and anonymously share red flag behaviour has been hacked, exposing thousands of members' images, posts and comments.

Tea Dating Advice, a US-based women-only app with 1.6 million users, said there had been unauthorised access to 72,000 images submitted by women. Some included images of women holding photo identification for verification purposes, which Tea's own privacy policy promises are deleted immediately after authentication.

The company also admitted that an additional 59,000 images from the app showing posts, comments and direct messages from over two years ago were accessed.

France's highest court, the Council of State, hasreinstated age/identity verification rules for EU-based porn websites under the country's Security and Regulation of the Digital Space (SREN) law, ruling in favor of the French government and against Hammy Media.

Cyprus-based Hammy Media, which operates the adult site Xhamster, challenged the application of SREN's age verification regulations to sites based in other EU countries. The Paris Administrative Court temporarily suspended enforcement of those rules, but French authorities appealed to the Council of State, which has now dismissed the company's immediate objections.

In its decision, the Council of State ruled that Hammy Media failed to demonstrate that the SREN rules would prevent the company from distributing adult content to users of legal age.

Pornhub parent company Aylo opted to block access to its sites in France rather than comply with AV requirements under SREN. When the Paris Administrative Court suspended those rules, the company reversed that move and made the sites available again. Because of the latest court decision,  Aylo has announced that it will resume blocking access.

The BBFC commissioned a survey to support its case to become the world's internet porn censor. The survey report has now been published. Here is the executive summary:

Published by the Government in February 2025, Baroness Bertin's Independent Pornography Review has recommended reform to align the regulation of online pornography with existing offline standards to tackle the present availability of violent and abusive content on online platforms.

In light of this review, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) have commissioned a survey of 2,000 adult pornography users in the UK, to measure their exposure to and attitudes towards violent or abusive content in online pornography.

This report summarises key findings from the survey under the following sections:

Exposure to violent or abusive content in online pornography

• A third of adult pornography users in the sample reported having been exposed to violent or abusive content in online pornography in the last three months.

• Of the four key categories of violent or abusive content, respondents most often reported having seen depictions of physical violence.

• Women were more likely to report having seen one or more types of violent or abusive content than men.

Attitudes towards violent or abusive content in online pornography

• Over half of the sample reported being concerned about the levels of violence and abuse depicted in online pornography, with 1 in 5 indicating that they felt very concerned.

• A majority of the sample (62%) thought that depictions of physical violence are normalised in online pornography.

• Two-thirds of the sample thought that violent or abusive pornography is contributing to the normalisation of violent sexual behaviour in the real world.

Attitudes towards regulation of violent or abusive content in online pornography

• Almost 9 in 10 adult pornography users in the sample said that they would support new rules to ensure online platforms verify that all individuals shown in content are consenting adults.

• 4 in 5 adult pornography users in the sample would support new rules to prevent online platforms from publishing or distributing pornography that depicts violence or abuse.

• For both types of regulation, women were more likely to be in favour than men.

Ofcom has commenced investigations into two pornographic services - Itai Tech Ltd and Score Internet Group LLC - under our age assurance enforcement programme.

Under the Online Safety Act, online services must ensure children cannot access pornographic content on their sites. In January, we wrote to online services that display or publish their own pornographic content to explain that the requirements for them to have highly effective age checks in place to protect children had come into force. We requested details of services' plans for complying, along with an implementation timeline and a named point of contact.

Encouragingly, many services confirmed that they are implementing, or have plans to implement, age assurance on around 1,300 sites. A small number of services chose to block UK users from accessing their sites, rather than putting age checks in place.

Certain services failed to respond to our request and have not taken any steps to implement highly effective age assurance to protect children from pornography.

We are today opening investigations into Itai Tech Ltd - a service which runs the nudification site Undress.cc - and Score Internet Group LLC, which runs the site Scoreland.com. Both sites appear to have no highly effective age assurance in place and are potentially in breach of the Online Safety Act and their duties to protect children from pornography. Next steps

We will provide an update on both investigations on our website in due course, along with details of any further investigations launched under this enforcement programme

 

Update: Low Scores

2nd July 2025. See article from ofcom.org.uk

Ofcom has closed its investigation of scoreland.com after the website introduced age/ID verification. The website now requires that UK users subscribe using a credit card (no debit cards) before content can be viewed. Visitors from other countries can see teaser images and can pay via several other options.

Ofcom writes:

In response to our investigation, Score Internet Group LLC have taken steps to implement highly effective age assurance to ensure compliance with their duties under Part 5 of the OSA.

As such, Ofcom is satisfied that the conduct that led to the opening of the investigation has ceased and we do not consider it appropriate to continue our investigation. We have therefore closed it without making any findings as to Score Internet's compliance with its duties, either currently or prior to its confirmation that it had taken steps to comply with the OSA.