Investigation into Kick Online Entertainment S.A’s compliance with the duty to prevent children from encountering pornographic content through the use of age assurance

In accordance with section 132 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’), on 11 February 2026 we issued Kick Online Entertainment S.A. (‘Kick Online’) with a Confirmation Decision in relation to its failure to comply with section 12 of the Act and its failure to comply with a statutory information request.

Failure to comply with section 12 of the Act

Ofcom has determined that, from 25 July 2025 to 29 December 2025, Kick Online failed to comply with section 12 of the Act. Section 12 imposes a duty on providers of Part 3 services that allow pornographic content, and 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.

From 25 July until 29 December 2025, Kick Online failed to implement highly effective age assurance on its service, motherless.com. After Ofcom issued a Provisional Decision to Kick Online, it implemented a method of age assurance that is capable of being highly effective.

We are imposing a penalty on Kick Online of £800,000 in respect of its contravention of section 12. This penalty was set having regard to our Penalty Guidelines.

Failure to comply with section 102(8) of the Act

Ofcom has determined that Kick Online has failed to comply with section 102(8) of the Act by failing to respond to a statutory request for information within the specified timeframe issued as part of the investigation. We are imposing a penalty on Kick Online of £30,000 in respect of the contravention of section 102(8). This penalty was set having regard to our Penalty Guidelines.

In addition, Kick Online is now required to take immediate steps to provide Ofcom with a complete list of all pornographic sites that it operates.

Should Kick Online fail to comply with this requirement, a daily rate penalty of £200 will be imposed starting from 12 February 2026 until the section 102(8) duty is complied with or 13 April 2026, whichever is sooner.

A non-confidential version of the Confirmation Decision will be published in due course.

Following an investigation, Ofcom has provisionally determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe Kick Online Entertainment S.A (‘Kick Online’) has failed, and is failing, to comply with section 12 of the Online Safety Act (‘the Act’). 

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.

Ofcom therefore issued a provisional notice of contravention to Kick Online on 19 November 2025 under section 130 of the Act. 

The notice also sets out our provisional view that Kick Online 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. Kick Online 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 30 July 2025, Ofcom issued a formal information notice to Kick Online Entertainment S.A. under section 100 of the Online Safety Act. At the time of publishing this announcement, we have not received  a response to the information notice. Ofcom has therefore now expanded this investigation to include considering whether Kick Online Entertainment S.A. has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duty to respond accurately to an information notice sent under the Act.

On 16 January 2025, Ofcom opened an enforcement programme under the Online Safety Act (‘the Act’) to monitor compliance with regulated services’ duties to implement highly effective age assurance to prevent children from encountering pornographic content.

The programme initially focused on the duties of Part 5 services – those that publish or display their own pornographic content - to implement highly effective age assurance in accordance with section 81 of the Act. These duties have applied since 17 January 2025. The enforcement programme was expanded on 25 July 2025 to include Part 3 services – those that allow users to upload or generate their own pornographic content.

On 30 July 2025, under this expanded enforcement programme, we have opened an investigation into Kick Online Entertainment S.A. in relation to the adult site www.motherless.com.

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, which requires services to prevent children from encountering pornographic content through the use of highly effective age assurance.

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.