Investigation into Bit Hive’s compliance with the duty to prevent children from encountering pornographic content through the use of age assurance

On 16 June 2026, under our enforcement programme to protect children from encountering pornographic content through the use of age assurance, we opened an investigation into Bit Hive in relation to its adult service, Eporner.com. 

Our investigation will examine whether there are reasonable grounds to believe that Bit Hive has failed, or is failing, to comply with the section 12 duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’), which requires providers to prevent children from encountering pornographic content by implementing highly effective age assurance.

The investigation will also examine whether Bit Hive has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duties under section 36 of the Act relating to children’s access assessments. These duties have applied since 16 April 2025 (in relation to children’s access assessments) and 25 July 2025 (in relation to age assurance).

Section 36 of the Act requires providers of regulated user-to-user services to carry out ‘Children’s Access Assessments’, in order to determine whether their service is likely to be accessed by children. Children’s access assessments must be suitable and sufficient, and providers must carry out an assessment in the circumstances set out in the Act. For more information, see our Children’s Access Assessment Guidance.

Section 12 of the Act imposes duties on providers of regulated user-to-user services that are likely to be accessed by children. These duties include the requirement to implement highly effective age assurance to prevent children of any age from encountering pornographic content by means of the service. For more information, see our guidance on highly effective age assurance for providers of user-to-user services.

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.