A new UK law banning porn featuring choking and “fauxcest,” or simulated incest, may have unintended consequences for content creators and smut fans all over the world, some experts warn.
As of November 6, amendments to the Crime and Policing Act will outlaw the “possession or publication of pornographic images of strangulation or suffocation”—a law intended to curb violence against women and girls. Yet some experts warn that the legislation is written broadly enough that it could potentially criminalize far more innocuous content, including “breast smothering,” “jeans facesitting,” and even potentially oral sex, ostensibly because people could have their airways impeded during these activities.
“I would encourage both content creators and consumers to underscore the risks of this law,” says Myles Jackman, an obscenity lawyer in the UK. “Because to me, it genuinely seems like one of the greatest acts of suppression of free speech in global history.”
The new amendments were inspired by a lengthy pornography review authored by Baroness Gabby Bertin, a Conservative member of the UK House of Lords. The legislation bans various depictions of sex acts, including “pornographic images of strangulation or suffocation,” as well as content showing performers role-playing as minors under the age of 16.
It also takes aim at “fauxcest,” an extremely popular porn niche that depicts simulated sexual relations between family members who are not related by blood, such as stepsiblings or stepparents. In Bertin’s review recommending the ban on such content, she cites “anecdotal evidence” suggesting that fauxcest “can be used between an abuser and child to permit interfamily child sex abuse,” describing it as a “fig-leaf” of sorts for actual sexual abuse.
Source link
