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Dame Melanie Dawes told a Commons committee Ofcom would have to "accept that we won't be able to recover that money" if foreign courts block enforcement. The source is 4chan's own lawyer, so read it as an advocate's account.
A thread commenter adds the footnote: 4chan lost its suit on sovereign immunity, and the court's remarks were obiter dicta.
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Britain is moving toward an age threshold of 16 for social media, built on the Online Safety Act that already lets Ofcom fine platforms. Australia switched on its own under-16 ban in December 2025, so the UK has a live precedent to copy.
The catch is mechanical: 'highly effective age assurance' means face-scan estimation or photo-ID at sign-up. As one games-industry engineer put it, the IDs don't go to the government, they go to verification vendors like Persona and Yoti, who then confirm to Meta and ByteDance exactly who you are.
