In a recent article, Biometric Update’s Joel R. McConvey manages to be silly and serious simultaneously. The topic? 4Chan’s non-compliance with Ofcom’s age control rules.
The silliness originated with 4Chan, not McConvey.
“In keeping with its generally adversarial stance, 4chan says it won’t follow Ofcom’s rules because “the United Kingdom lost the American Revolutionary War,” and as such UK speech law doesn’t apply to companies based in the U.S.”
Preston Byrne of 4Chan apparently incorporated a picture of a hamster in his response to Ofcom. Byrne explains why on X:
“I told Ofcom in Oct that their letters, which were not properly served, would be shredded for my pet hamster’s enclosure.”
But there are obviously serious issues involved: in a dispute involving multiple nations, which laws govern? In this case, the apparent conflicting laws are the United States’ First Amendment, which 4Chan maintains lets it say whatever it wants regardless of the ages of the people involved, and the United Kingdom’s Ofcom regulations, which Ofcom maintains lets it regulate any website accessible in the UK, including 4Chan.
Of course, there’s a way to handle these demands from competing jurisdictions: block the age-insistent jurisdiction from accessing the website at all. As of November 28, 2025, Pornhub is inaccessible from the following states (unless you use a VPN, wink, wink): Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
So 4Chan, Wikipedia, Meta, or anyone else who objects to UK age assurance regulations could simply block people in the UK from accessing its website. Google blocked Spanish access to Google Noticias (Google News) for years.
But it doesn’t appear that 4Chan is going to do that, instead opting for a “come over here and collect your stupid fines” stance.
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