alt Hacker NewsThe "online safety act" introduced mandatory age verification starting in July 2025.
The government announced "plans to fine Imgur after probing its approach to age checks and use of children's personal data" in September 2025 [1]
Are you telling me those were unrelated? How are you going to fine a website over age checks without the law that requires age checks?
Replies
philjohn • yesterday at 9:31 PM
Seeing as the investigation was by the ICO instead of OFCOM, yes, very much so. Do you have any evidence to the contrary?
ww520 • yesterday at 9:28 PM
The governments of the countries that dabbling into the "think of the children" laws should build their own "safe" internets for their citizens, walling them in, requiring them to "verify their age" before letting them out of their cages into the Internet.
Yes. The ICO investigation that resulted in Imgur blocking the UK pre-dates the Online Safety Act coming into force.
As others have mentioned, Ofcom is responsible for enforcement of the OSA - but the investigation against Imgur was carried out by the ICO.