UK Moves to Regulate Specific Pornography Categories
LONDON – In a series of tightly contested votes, the United Kingdom's upper house of parliament, the House of Lords, has passed amendments aimed at banning specific categories of pornography and enhancing protections against the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. The measures, part of the broader Crime and Policing Bill, target content depicting sexual relationships between step-relatives and so-called "barely legal" pornography where adults portray minors.
The proposal to ban pornographic content featuring sexual acts between step-relatives, often referred to as "step-incest," passed by a razor-thin majority of 144 votes to 143. Proponents of the ban, led by Baroness Bertin, argued that such content normalises relationships that are often illegal and exist within a significant power imbalance. She highlighted that a large percentage of child sexual abuse cases in the UK are perpetrated by step-parents, suggesting the content fuels demand for real-world abuse material.
However, the government expressed reservations, with Justice Minister Baroness Levitt noting the legal complexity. She warned that a broad ban could inadvertently criminalise the depiction of relationships between consenting adults that are lawful in real life, creating a difficult enforcement challenge for police and the courts.
Debate Over 'Barely Legal' Content
A second amendment, which also passed by a narrow margin of 142 to 140, aims to bring pornography featuring adults dressed or acting as children under the same legal restrictions as images of actual children. Campaigners argue this genre, which often uses settings like children's bedrooms and tags like "tiny" or "age gap," normalises the sexualisation of children.
The government again cautioned against the move, suggesting it could divert limited police resources from identifying and protecting real child victims to the complex task of distinguishing between adult actors and actual minors in explicit content.
New Protections Against Image-Based Abuse
Alongside the more controversial bans, the bill includes several significant new measures to combat image-based sexual abuse, an issue that disproportionately affects women and the LGBTQ+ community.
- Screenshotting Ban: A government-backed amendment will make it a criminal offence to screenshot or otherwise copy an intimate image that was shared temporarily (for example, on platforms like Snapchat) without the explicit consent of the subject.
- Deletion Orders: Courts will now have a duty to order convicted offenders to delete any intimate images they have illegally shared or threatened to share. This addresses a key frustration for victims, whose images often remain online even after a successful prosecution.
- 'Hashing' Register: Peers also approved a new rule to establish a formal register of the "digital fingerprints" (hashes) of non-consensually shared images. This system allows tech companies to proactively scan for and block these images from being re-uploaded across their platforms.
What Happens Next?
The Crime and Policing Bill, with these new amendments, will now return to the House of Commons for further debate and approval. The final text must be agreed upon by both houses before it can become law. These developments in the UK are part of a wider European trend of governments seeking to impose stricter regulations on online platforms and protect users from harmful content, a conversation that continues to evolve in the Netherlands and across the EU.
