Open
The provider of fapello.com
19 November 2025
We are investigating whether the provider of fapello.com (‘Fapello’) has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 to prevent children from encountering pornographic content on its service through the use of highly effective age assurance.
Sections 12 and 102(8) of the Online Safety Act 2023
Following an investigation, Ofcom has provisionally determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the provider of Fapello (‘Fapello’) has failed to comply with section 12 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’).
Section 12 imposes a duty on providers of Part 3 services that allow pornographic content, and that are likely to be accessed by children, to ensure that children are prevented from encountering pornographic content through the use of highly effective age assurance.
Ofcom therefore issued a provisional notice of contravention to Fapello on 12 May 2026 under section 130 of the Act.
The notice also sets out our provisional view that Fapello has infringed its duties under section 102(8) of the Act 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. Fapello will now have a period of 20 working days to make representations to Ofcom, which will be carefully considered before reaching a final decision.
On 12 December 2025, Ofcom issued a formal information notice to the provider of fapello.com (‘Fapello’) under section 100 of the Online Safety Act. As at the date of this announcement, we have not received a full response to the information notice. Ofcom has therefore now expanded this investigation to include considering whether Fapello has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duty to respond accurately to an information notice sent under the Act.
On 19 November 2025, under our enforcement programme to protect children from encountering pornographic content through the use of age assurance, we opened an investigation into Fapello in relation to the service it operates: fapello.com. As part of our investigatory process, if we identify further adult services operated by Fapello that fall within the scope of the Act, we may expand the investigation to include those services.
Ofcom’s investigation will examine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that the provider has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duties under section 12 of the Act, to prevent children from encountering pornographic content through the use of highly effective age assurance. These duties have applied since 25 July 2025.
Ofcom’s Online Safety Enforcement Guidance sets out how Ofcom will normally approach enforcement under the Act. This includes our approach to information gathering and analysis and the procedural steps we must take to fairly determine the outcome of the investigation.
We will provide an update on the investigation in due course.
CW/01328/11/25