When they decide to take age verification in their latest season, Industry The creators Konrad Kay and Mickey Down did not expect that this issue would become a political football.
“It was in the British political arena, but it wasn’t before and after we started writing or filming it, then it was featured as a BBC front page interview,” said Kay.
Season 4 of HBO’s gripping and funny financial drama, which premieres Sunday, continues IndustryThe extreme increase in the world of investment in technology, sex, age verification, and politics. As the season begins, there’s a battle between the top brass at Tender, a fintech company that just went public, over whether or not to continue processing payments for Siren, an adult platform similar to OnlyFans. While Siren and other gambling and sex companies make a good chunk of the revenue from tenders, some tender managers are alarmed by threats to sweep new age verification laws and anti-pornography rhetoric from the UK’s Labor Party and feel they have more to gain by cleaning up their act.
In fact, the UK’s Online Safety Act, which requires people to verify their age before viewing pornography and other restricted content, came into effect in July 2025, long after Kay and Down came up with the story. Industry‘s latest season. Even so, it had the same effect that Siren felt. Pornhub’s traffic in the UK has fallen by around 80 percent in light of the regulations and is facing similar challenges in the US, where half of the states have enacted age verification laws. In December, members of Congress considered 19 bills aimed at protecting children and youth online, although critics said some of them were unconstitutional.
“It shows how fragile the absolutism of free speech is,” Down said, describing the “very different” views on the matter, from puritanism even in liberal circles to a more radical “shut down” approach from conservatives.
While Industry was a hit on HBO, finally breaking through in Season 3, with its viewership up 60 percent from the Season 2 premiere. Season 4 builds on that momentum more effectively, and feels more informed than ever.
“We had the OnlyFans episode and then we got the fintech episode, then we got the fraud episode,” said Kay. But then, “in the back half of the season, we got a face-lift in approvals in the UK and the US.”
The new season spends a lot of time with small business owner and part-time OnlyFans model Sweetpea Golightly, who keeps her face out of adult content, but has revealed her identity without her consent. A sneak peek at what’s going on with today’s internet marketers, who are often portrayed on television in black and white terms.
“He started Season 3 saying, I am a strong woman. I have an OnlyFans account. I never leave money on the table. In Season 4, we’re looking at what it looks like when that starts to change,” Down said.
In fact, almost all the characters in the Industry it is empowering and exploitative, depending on the circumstances. And while the latest season is mostly good news, the most fun part of the show is watching them unravel those complex, and often uncomfortable, layers.
Last season followed publishing heiress Yasmin, played by Marisa Abela, as she grappled with the Epstein-like disappearance of her father—for which she was undoubtedly responsible—and came to grips with the extent of her abuse. Despite dealing with her animalistic nature since childhood, Yasmin also takes advantage of the other women around her, a pattern that continues in Season 4, as she navigates her new marriage to old-money bro-turned-tech bro, Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington).
