UK government makes strangulation in pornography illegal

[LeftieRightsHoarder]

I’ve just seen this:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/strangulation-in-pornography-to-be-made-illegal

Good news. I know they can’t stop violent porn being filmed, but it makes a point. Also it will be relevant when men arrested for other sexual offences have this on their computers.

It isn’t clear but is possessing /accessing this material also illegal, and it isn’t a case of just producing it.

I know there are some (soon to be sex offenders) here who find it sexually arousing to see women be abused. I am glad we can label them for what they are.
The penalties are not given, but I hope it includes being on the sexual offenders register.

I suspect this will be aimed at the companies which run porn websites. They will have to ensure such films are not viewable from the UK or Offcom will take action so that payment providers stop working with the sites. There are of course lots of ways to circumvent this - it is the internet after all.

Whether it will be illegal to watch this type of thing they haven't said. If it is like other types of porn, the crime will be "making illegal material" which isn't what it sounds like but means creating a copy on your computer by downloading it.

There is no detail on the government website which probably means they are still working all of this out.

People convicted of possessing or making child abuse images are frequently if not always just given suspended sentences so no idea what the plan here is.

Good.

• 'The amendment builds on protections already in place within the Obscene Publications Act 1959, and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 which criminalises the possession of extreme porn, which includes the depiction of life-threatening acts.
• Further details of the amendment will be set out in due course.

The worst thing is that young women are growing up thinking this kind of violence is a normal part of sex. I’m longing for a few high-profile prosecutions to wake people up.

I thought it already was illegal under this law?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_63_of_the_Criminal_Justice_and_Immigration_Act_2008

• "An act threatening a person's life"

Strangulation would count under this definition?

Good. I'm not sure how effective it will be in practice but a) the government are taking it seriously; b) it sends the message that this isn't OK and c) it will hopefully reduce the prevalence of this which un-normalises it.

No wonder girls want to identify out of being female if this is what they're expected to experience.

There is no such thing as safe strangulation; women cannot consent to the long-term harm it can cause, including impaired cognitive functioning and memory. Its widespread portrayal in porn is fuelling dangerous behaviours, particularly among young people.

it's only, what, a couple of months back that we had posters saying oh it's fine, if you do it properly, it's no big deal, etc.

So this is a good move in the right direction. And it's telling young women, and young men that it's wrong and dangerous.

Young women need all the bloody ammo they can get at the moment.

From what I read they will bring in the ban and then after that work out what the ban means and how it will be enforced.

If this is the case then I'm not celebrating as this is just virtue signalling of the highest order. Banning something doesn't make it go away unless you actually do something about it.

Disposable vapes have been banned, but there is no enforcement, you can still go out and buy them today.

In October 2024, IFAS, in collaboration with Bangor University, undertook a pilot survey, aimed at understanding the prevalence of strangulation/choking during sex in the UK. The survey found that over a third of 16-34 year olds reported being strangled/choked at least once during consensual sex. A quarter of 16-34 year olds reported having strangled/choked a partner during consensual sex. IFAS will be conducting a more in-depth survey later on this year to further explore these findings.

Baroness Bertin’s report highlights that there is “no external moderation, monitoring, or auditing of online pornographic content and that mechanisms for reporting and removing illegal content are not fit for purpose”.

Therefore, whilst IFAS welcomes this announcement we will be looking closely at how this is actually implemented online to ensure platforms are compelled to remove this type of content.

https://ifas.org.uk/we-respond-to-the-announcement-by-the-government-to-criminalise-the-depiction-of-strangulation-in-pornography/

Also Police Data on Strangulation and Suffocation Offences
https://ifas.org.uk/police-data-on-strangulation-and-suffocation-offences/

What’s happened here? There was a cross-party amendment which was whipped against? And now the government might do it later via an amendment? Following a previous piece of work taken on by the Tories which was led by(?) Jess Phillips? Very confusing

“𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐨𝐧-𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲

MPs from six parties have come together to protect women and girls.

We must put an end to misogynistic pornography by banning the depiction of non-fatal strangulation in pornography,

@ cj_dinenage and I have re-tabled our amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to extend the legal definition of the extreme pornography to include the depiction of nonfatal strangulation.

Ask your MP to vote for NC121 today and protect women and girls.”
https://x.com/aliciakearns/status/1935251806671483006?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

“Despite the backing of MPs from six parties, the Labour Government tonight whipped its MPs to vote against our amendment to protect women and girls from the normalisation of strangulation in porn and sex.

The reason seems to be they refuse to accept amendments from oppo MPs.”

https://x.com/aliciakearns/status/1935396199793819679?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

“When we were in government, we made non-fatal strangulation a specific offence, and that was a recommendation of Jess Phillips, and we accepted it as it made girls and women safer.

This was the next step in protect protecting them.

We need to end women and girls being told there is such a thing as safe choking, and being non-consensually strangled.”
x.com/aliciakearns/status/1935404959350009976?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

It turns out the proporsed law will only cover England and Wales, but now Northern Ireland is considering it as well. See https://www.irishlegal.com/articles/northern-ireland-in-talks-around-ban-on-pornography-depicting-strangulation

Is there a similar law already in Scotland? If not wonder it they too will consider passing similar legislation.

Hooray!

“Despite the backing of MPs from six parties, the Labour Government tonight whipped its MPs to vote against our amendment to protect women and girls from the normalisation of strangulation in porn and sex.
The reason seems to be they refuse to accept amendments from oppo MPs.”

That seems ridiculous, @ResisterOfTwaddleRex! D'you know any more about this? I would guess they had concerns about the way the amendment's constructed: "Labour supports strangling women because the other lot don't" is hardly a likely position, even if Alicia Kearns wants you to think it is!

Anyway, good news. It may well be a little vague and toothless for now, but at least it's planting a foot in the right direction.