4Chan fined £450,000 by Ofcom for not protecting children from pornography

Controversial web forum 4Chan has been fined £450,000 by regulator Ofcom for not protecting children from seeing pornography on its site and a further £70,000 for other online safety failures.

The watchdog said 4Chan did not have age checks in place to stop children from being able to see pornography and said the US website must now put “highly effective” age assurances in place by April 2 or face further penalties of £500 a day.

Ofcom has also fined 4Chan an extra £50,000 for not assessing the risk of people seeing illegal material on its platform and another £20,000 for failing to set out in its terms of service how it protects users from illegal content.

It must also address these failings by April 2 or face extra daily penalties of £200 and £100 respectively.

Suzanne Cater, director of enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Society has long protected youngsters from things like alcohol, smoking and gambling. The digital world should be no different.

“The UK is setting new standards for online safety.

“Age checks and risk assessments are cornerstones of our laws, and we’ll take robust enforcement action against firms that fall short.”

It marks the latest Ofcom fine for 4Chan as it steps up pressure on the US firm to meet its online safety rules.

Ofcom hit the group with a £20,000 penalty last October for ignoring requests to share information about the risk of illegal content on its platform, which rose to £26,000 after 4Chan still failed to comply within 60 days.

4Chan was not immediately available for comment.

New online safety protections for children and adults came into force on July 25 last year under the UK’s Online Safety Act, which puts new duties on platforms to take down illegal and harmful content.

In August last year, 4Chan launched a legal case against Ofcom in the US over claims it attempted to “censor” the website.

In a legal complaint, representatives for the website said the Online Safety Act was being used to “target the free speech rights of American citizens” and the lawsuit aimed to “restrain Ofcom’s conduct and its continuing egregious violations of Americans’ civil rights”.

It comes after the regulator began an investigation into 4Chan in June last year following complaints about illegal activity on the site.

Ofcom said any service with links to the UK has duties to protect British users under the new rules, regardless of where in the world it is based.

It has submitted its motion to have the case dismissed in the US.

4Chan has still not paid the £26,000 in penalties levied by Ofcom from last October and will have 28 days to pay the latest fines.

If it does not, Ofcom can seek to recover the debt through the courts.

“Where appropriate, if a provider fails to comply with its safety duties, we can also seek a court order for ‘business disruption measures’, such as requiring payment providers or advertisers to withdraw their services from a platform, or requiring internet service providers to block a site in the UK,” Ofcom added.