Age verification laws for creators mostly bind the platforms and websites that show adult content rather than the creator personally, but they decide who can reach your pages and what happens between your link and your profile. In the UK, the Online Safety Act requires highly effective age checks on sites that publish their own pornography and on platforms that host it, fan platforms included. In the US, the Supreme Court upheld Texas's age-verification law in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, and platforms now check visitors from a list of states, while North Carolina adds consent records for everyone shown. Australia's age-restricted material codes took effect in stages from December 2025. If you run your own adult website, some of these duties can fall on you directly.
This guide covers the laws themselves and what they change for traffic and promotion. OnlyFans' own creator checks are explained in the OnlyFans age verification guide and the identity verification walkthrough, and platform rules more broadly in the OnlyFans compliance guide. It is general information, not legal advice.
Who has to verify: platforms first, and sometimes you
If your content lives on a creator platform, the platform carries the verification duty and you experience it as friction: a fan who taps your link from the UK or a listed US state meets an age check before seeing anything explicit. The picture changes if you publish adult content on a site you control. Ofcom describes services that publish their own pornographic content, such as studios or pay sites, as Part 5 services with their own age-assurance duty, and says the rules apply to any platform UK users can access, wherever it is based.
US and Australian rules reach small operators too. Texas's law applies to any commercial entity that publishes material on a website more than one-third of which is sexual material harmful to minors, as the Supreme Court's opinion describes it. North Carolina's HB 805 defines an online entity to include an individual or a group of individuals working together. eSafety says age checks are required on adult websites such as online pornography sites. A one-person site can therefore be in scope, which is the main reason to get legal advice before launching one.
Jurisdiction table: age assurance and consent-record laws
| Law | In force | Who must verify or keep records | What changes for creators | Where to read it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Online Safety Act, Part 5 | 17 January 2025, per Ofcom's Part 5 guidance | Providers that publish or display their own pornographic content | A self-run paysite open to UK visitors needs a highly effective age check before any explicit content is visible | Ofcom Part 5 guidance |
| UK Online Safety Act, Part 3 | 25 July 2025 for services that allow pornography, per Ofcom's letter to those services | User-to-user services that allow pornography, which Ofcom says include fan platforms | UK fans pass an age check on the platform; unverified visitors may only reach non-explicit pages | Ofcom letter to Part 3 services |
| Texas HB 1181 | Upheld by the Supreme Court on 27 June 2025 | Commercial websites where more than one-third of the material is sexual material harmful to minors | Texas visitors verify with government ID or transactional data before access | Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton opinion |
| Other US state laws | Varies by state | Platforms serving each state; Fansly's list dated 20 July 2026 names Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas | Fans in listed states verify before viewing; each platform keeps its own list | Fansly U.S. age verification article |
| North Carolina HB 805 | 1 December 2025 for the consent-record article | Online entity operators, which can include individuals, must verify age and written consent for everyone in each pornographic image | Per-upload consent forms, ID for each person shown and removal on request | HB 805 ratified text |
| Australia: codes for hosting, internet carriage and search | 27 December 2025, with search age checks for logged-in users due before 27 June 2026 | Hosting services, internet providers and search engines | Search results with pornography are blurred by default until a logged-in user is confirmed as an adult | eSafety FAQ on access to online porn |
| Australia: codes for websites, social media, messaging, app stores and equipment | 9 March 2026, with app store checks for 18+ apps due before 9 September 2026 | Adult websites, social media services that allow pornography and other higher-risk services | Australians meet age checks on adult sites, and social platforms that allow pornography must confirm users are adults first | eSafety FAQ on the codes |
United Kingdom: what Ofcom expects
Ofcom's Adults Only guidance lists methods it considers capable of being highly effective, including credit card checks, facial age estimation, open banking, photo-ID matching, mobile network operator checks, digital identity services and email-based age estimation. It says self-declaration of age is not capable of being highly effective, and nor are payment methods that do not require the user to be an adult. Ofcom's Part 5 guidance adds that explicit content must not be visible before or during the check, which is why a platform may show UK visitors a reduced page until they verify.
Two points matter for promotion. First, Ofcom's Part 5 guidance says providers should not publish content that directs or encourages UK users to get around age checks, giving links to or information about a VPN as its example, so workaround tips in captions or replies are likely to breach platform rules as well. Second, the same Adults Only page treats glamour content whose primary purpose falls short of sexual arousal as outside its definition of pornographic content. That is a regulatory floor, not permission: mainstream platforms set their own rules for teasers, and those can be stricter.
Enforcement falls on services. Ofcom's letter to services that allow pornography warns of penalties of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue or £18 million, whichever is greater, and of court orders asking payment and internet providers to restrict non-compliant services. For a creator running a site, that is a reason to use an established age-assurance provider and to keep the written records the guidance asks for.
United States after Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton
In Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, decided on 27 June 2025, the Supreme Court held that Texas HB 1181 triggers and survives intermediate scrutiny because it only incidentally burdens adults' protected speech. The opinion describes the law as requiring covered sites to use reasonable age verification, through a commercial system relying on government-issued identification or public or private transactional data, either directly or through a third party. Because the ruling settled the constitutional standard rather than the details of every state's statute, each state law still has to be read on its own terms.
For platform creators the effect shows up as a state list. Fansly's help article, dated 20 July 2026, tells users in its listed states that they will be prompted to verify their age, with verification run by a third-party provider. Other platforms keep their own lists, so check the help centre of every platform you send traffic to rather than assuming one list covers them all.
North Carolina's HB 805 goes further than age. Its consent-record article requires written consent to each act shown and, separately, to distribution of the specific image, plus government ID for every person, and it requires operators to remove an image within 72 hours of a request from a person shown who has not consented or has withdrawn consent. The ratified text also bars users from publishing a pornographic image of someone without their consent and lets an eligible person sue for $10,000 per day per image or actual damages, whichever is greater. Fansly's North Carolina article says it shows a consent form in the upload flow for qualifying content from North Carolina creators, needed for every upload, and the Fansly co-performer consent guide covers how that affects collaborations.
Australia: the age-restricted material codes
eSafety registered industry-written codes in June and September 2025 and says they are mandatory and enforceable. According to its FAQ on the codes, the codes for search engines, internet carriage and hosting took effect from 27 December 2025, and those for websites, messaging, social media, app stores and equipment from 9 March 2026, with some age-check steps staged later. eSafety's March 2026 fact sheet says the codes do not require government ID, that services may choose an appropriate age assurance method, and that breach of a direction to comply can bring civil penalties of up to $49.5 million.
The same fact sheet names adult websites, social media services that allow pornography and app stores for 18+ apps among the services that must check age. For creators, Australian fans should expect checks on adult platforms, and a self-hosted site aimed at Australians needs advice on whether the designated internet services code applies. Separately, eSafety's image-based abuse page notes that many age-restricted social media platforms must stop Australians under 16 holding accounts from 10 December 2025, which changes the audience on the mainstream apps you promote from but does not alter adult content rules.
Promotion checklist for geo-restricted traffic
- Pull your platform analytics and note how much of your traffic comes from the UK, the US states on your platforms' lists and Australia.
- Tell adults in your link copy that an age check may follow the click, so a verification screen does not read as a broken link.
- Never post, pin or reply with VPN advice or other ways around an age check, even when a fan asks for it.
- Keep teasers on mainstream platforms inside that platform's own adult content rules, which can be stricter than the legal definitions.
- Check the regional notices in each platform's help centre at least once a month, and update your link pages when a list changes.
- Collect ID and written consent from every collaborator before shooting, store it securely, and expect per-upload forms where North Carolina law applies.
- Use geoblocking for your own privacy where you need it, following the Fansly geoblocking guide or your platform's equivalent.
- Do not collect fans' identity documents yourself; leave verification to the platform or a regulated provider.
- Before launching a self-hosted adult site, get legal advice on the UK Part 5 duty, US state laws and the Australian codes, and choose an age-assurance provider first.
- If you share a channel or account with someone else, record in your creator partnership agreement who holds the consent records and who answers platform verification requests.
Limitations of this guide
This guide reflects official pages as published in early October 2026 for the UK, Australia, Texas and North Carolina, plus one platform's list of US states. It is not legal advice and is not a complete list: other US states, the European Union and other countries have their own rules, state laws can be challenged in court or amended, and platform lists change without notice. Whether your own site is in scope of any law depends on its content, audience and structure, so speak to a lawyer who works with online platforms before launching one, and contact the relevant regulator, such as Ofcom or eSafety, if you are unsure what a duty requires.