Ireland and UK Online Safety Laws Strengths, Weaknesses and the Pornhub Gap
Parents and schools have watched platforms promise safety while children still encounter harmful content. Ireland and the UK both moved beyond self declaration in 2025. Mexico’s October 2026 decree shows how quickly governments can act when they actively choose to. Yet gaps remain both in Ireland and the UK.
This comparison examines Ireland and UK online safety laws, their strengths, their weaknesses, and why major adult platforms remain outside Ireland’s primary code.
Mexico’s Rapid 2026 Decree
Mexico’s Decreto de entornos digitales seguros para niñas, niños y adolescentes took effect on 14 October 2026. As set out in the Didit analysis of the Mexico age verification decree, platforms that let users interact or share content must keep under-18s away from seven categories of harmful material. These include cyberbullying, sexual violence, pornography and content that promotes suicide or eating disorders.
Platforms must use reliable and secure mechanisms to identify age, self-declaration alone is not enough. They must document and report the steps taken within 30 calendar days. The decree is mandatory, but not yet punitive, a working group will prepare further rules. The speed is striking, but the detail and enforcement powers are still limited.
Ireland’s Online Safety Code and Framework
Ireland’s framework rests on the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022. This created Coimisiún na Meán. The Online Safety Code, adopted in October 2024, binds designated video-sharing platforms with EU headquarters in Ireland. Designated services include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X.
Part B took effect on 21 July 2025 where platforms that permit pornography or gratuitous violence must use effective age assurance. Children must not normally encounter such content. Self-declaration is explicitly not effective. Parental controls are required for content that may impair the development of children under 16, so harmful content such as cyberbullying and promotion of self-harm must be restricted. Fines can reach €20 million or 10% of turnover.
Coimisiún na Meán has only launched one formal investigation under the Online Safety Code. On 8 September 2026 it opened the first such probe, into the provider of X. The investigation examines whether X has effective age assurance so children cannot normally see adult-only video content, and whether its parental controls meet the Code’s requirements. In the same period the regulator has opened five other investigations into Irish-established platforms under the EU Digital Services Act. It is also involved in four joint investigations opened by the European Commission. The Code therefore has enforcement tools, but activity under it remains limited so far.
The UK’s Online Safety Act and Highly Effective Checks
The UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 is enforced by Ofcom. Services that allow pornography, or user-to-user services that allow primary priority content harmful to children, must use highly effective age assurance. Ofcom’s guidance on highly effective age assurance judges methods on technical accuracy, robustness, reliability and fairness. Self-declaration does not count. Acceptable approaches include facial age estimation with liveness checks, photo-ID matching, open banking and certain digital identity services. Enforcement of children’s safety duties began on 25 July 2025. Ofcom has issued fines and opened multiple investigations, including one into Aylo, the provider of Pornhub, over the effectiveness of its age-assurance process.
Strengths and Weaknesses Side by Side
Both regimes have clear strengths. Ireland concentrates power on large video-sharing platforms headquartered in the State. This gives Coimisiún na Meán direct leverage over services used daily by Irish children. The Code sits inside a wider framework that includes the EU Digital Services Act.
The UK sets a sharper outcome standard. It has moved faster into active enforcement with published guidance and financial penalties. Both have rejected pure self-declaration. Mexico’s decree is broader in scope as it captures video games and app stores in one instrument and sets a short reporting deadline.
The weaknesses here remain significant. Ireland’s Code applies only to designated video-sharing platforms under Irish jurisdiction. Adult sites and some major services with headquarters elsewhere fall outside it. They rely on the Digital Services Act enforced by other Member States. Early reviews have shown limited visible change on some platforms.
The UK’s approach produced rapid age-gating. However, Ofcom’s own evidence indicates most children still encounter harmful content. Civil society groups have long raised privacy concerns about the proliferation of age-assurance providers, despite the proven effectiveness of age assurance platforms like YOTI.
Circumvention via VPNs remains straightforward in both countries. Neither regime yet mandates a single national privacy preserving standard or covers every interactive service children use.
Why No Action Against Pornhub Under Ireland’s Code
Pornhub’s parent company Aylo maintains Irish billing and related entities that have handled substantial revenue. However, the Online Safety Code does not apply to every company with an Irish presence. It applies only to designated video sharing platform services whose principal purpose, or an essential functionality, is the provision of audiovisual programmes or user generated videos, and which are established in Ireland for regulatory purposes under the relevant EU rules. The designated list comprises major social and video platforms.
Dedicated adult services such as Pornhub have not been designated under the Code. Their regulatory treatment for systemic risks involving minors has instead fallen primarily under the Digital Services Act, where the European Commission has opened its own investigation into Aylo and other adult platforms for failing to protect children.
Ofcom in the UK has separately opened an investigation into Aylo’s age-assurance arrangements. The jurisdictional design of Ireland’s Code therefore leaves the largest dedicated adult platforms outside its direct enforcement remit, even where related Irish companies exist.
Practical Lessons for Ireland
The lessons are here appear to be practical. Clear outcome based standards that rule out self-declaration work better than vague requirements. Enforcement capacity matters more than the text of the law. The UK’s early fines have concentrated minds. Ireland’s supervisory model is still building casework, with only one investigation under the Code to date. Privacy preserving methods such as facial age estimation that delete the image immediately reduce data risks that fuel public opposition.
Broader coverage of gaming, app stores and dedicated adult services, as Mexico has attempted and as the UK has applied more widely, closes gaps that pure social-media rules leave open. Parental controls and media literacy duties remain essential complements, however regulation alone does not replace conversation at home or in school. International coordination is unavoidable as platforms operate across borders so children in Ireland or the UK, can reach services regulated elsewhere in minutes.
For Irish families the immediate takeaway is clear. The Online Safety Code now gives Coimisiún na Meán stronger tools against the biggest designated video platforms. Gaps remain for other services, including major adult platforms, so parents will still need to use the platform safety settings and the device level controls that are available today.
Mexico’s decree shows governments can move quickly when political will exists. Ireland and the UK now have the laws. The next test is consistent, transparent enforcement that actually reduces the harm children encounter.
References
- Coimisiún na Meán Online Safety Code
- Coimisiún na Meán investigation into X under the Online Safety Code
- Ofcom guidance on highly effective age assurance
- Didit analysis of Mexico’s age verification decree
- Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022
- UK Online Safety Act 2023
