Britain Bans Fetish Porn
- Categories: International, News
- Date: Feb 3, 2009 14:03 JST
- Tags: BDSM, Censorship, Fetish, Law, Politics, UK
The United Kingdom has succumbed to moral hysteria and banned all possession of what is being called “extreme pornography”, with the law having come into effect on the 26th of January, tacked on to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.
Actually committing many of the acts will remain legal for the time being, although in at least one case possessing photographs of the act actually attracts the same sentence as committing the act itself.
With the proviso that “a reasonable person looking at the image would think that any such person or animal was real”, the following photographic depictions of “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise obscene” sexual acts are now given similar sentences to what one might receive for violent crime:
(a) an act which threatens a person’s life
(b) an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals
(c) an act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse
(d) a person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive)
Clearly, most of these are intended to attack BDSM pornography; the law expressly states that whether the participants are consenting, or the act is clearly staged, is irrelevant. The various qualifications about injury are all interpreted by a judge or jury, which suggests convincing them of the material’s illegality and obscenity will not be challenging.
The bill happily provides examples of what is definitely out: “depictions of hanging, suffocation, or sexual assault involving a threat with a weapon; the insertion of sharp objects into or the mutilation of breasts or genitals.”
Bestiality porn is now completely illegal in the UK, though bizarrely the maximum sentence for actually committing bestiality (which is of course illegal in the UK) is 2 years, the same sentence for possessing photographs of it. Perhaps thinking criminal thoughts is as threatening as the actual acts to the proponents of such legislation?
Another bizarre element of the law is that it provides a defence against conviction for those actually photographed engaged in the acts, if they can prove they “directly participated” (photographers looking on still get jail time).
The maximum sentence is 3 years for bondage porn, 2 for the rest. Those convicted of 2 or more years will find themselves placed on the same sex offender register as rapists and similar.
Aside from the “reality” provisions above, drawn depictions are excluded from the law for now, although it does not take much imagination to see what the next iteration of the law will be targeting. The basis for this law is after all preventing people becoming “depraved”, rather than acting in defence of any “victims”, so it is no leap to extend it even further.
The background to the law is that a madman with a substantial collection of fetish porn strangled to death a women for his perverse gratification. Her vengeful mother then launched a moral crusade against the evils of Internet porn (with non-existent “snuff” porn being trotted out to prove their point), which nobody save SM maniacs bothered to oppose.
With the help of a truck driver cum Labour MP, Martin Salter, evidently keen to burnish his anti-porn feminist credentials, the law was promoted as being targeted against “extreme internet sites promoting violence against women in the name of sexual gratification”.
He has this to say:
“No-one is stopping people doing weird stuff to each other but they would be strongly advised not to put it on the internet.”
“At the end of the day it is all too easy for this stuff to trigger an unbalanced mind.”
“These snuff movies and other stuff are seriously disturbing. Many police officers who have to view it as part of their job have to undergo psychological counselling.”
“It simply plugs a hole in the law because the Obscene Publications Act is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard as far as the internet is concerned. This new law is designed to meet the challenge of the internet.”
As they discovered it was difficult to ban the “stuff” in such bastions of liberty as the USA, they opted instead to criminalise the people viewing the sites.
Since the British people have no real rights other than those agreed upon by a hall full of rowdy politicians and another populated by appointed favourites of the ruling party, the act passed into law without much difficulty.
Predictably, this is of great interest to Wikipedians. You can find the details collated in some detail on Wikipedia.
The UK’s inexorable slide into becoming a second-rate police state continues; successive leftist governments have shown nary a concern for civil liberties in imposing an increasingly intrusive surveillance society on the British Isles, with cameras even reaching into the classroom, and lately have taken to increasingly moralistic pandering and other illiberal policies, perhaps to distract from their inept economic stewardship.
With an electorate whose only abiding concern appears to be house prices, and a set of “fundamental rights” guaranteed by the EU which are incapable of defending even the most basic freedom of expression, the formerly liberal nature of the UK appears to be giving way to pure democracy, a terrifying prospect if ever there were one.
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“At the end of the day it is all too easy for this stuff to trigger an unbalanced mind.”
I'm not into any of this stuff, but I won't consider the things said in this article anything less than bullshit until they've done documented experiments with the extraneous variables listed that PROVE that watching any sort of pornography will make you more likely to commit a crime than any other individual.
Except for the crime of replication for which only the most dumb of people can be found guilty for you won't find much then I guess.
And even the most stupid humans know how to replicate without having to check out porn...
It's laws like this that make me hate this country, yet sadly I have no way to get out of here in the foreseeable future.
I'm just waiting for them to finish with the anti-loli law they're going to bring in in a few years time, that's going to cause me some SERIOUS problems -.-
http://wgrajna.net/uploads/23-03-2009-2843.png
Don't worry about it bro
How about supporting Max Mosley for PM?
Come to the third world, all the illegal is okey here.
Underage, lolicon, BDSM, piracy(dvd, games, music), and more...
Is good to live in the chaos xD
come visit us, we have the best of the ilegal for you xD
yeah unfortunately interpol can bust you no matter where you are. other than that its fine. (i found out higherups in the un however are immune to the law in foreign countries. any crime they commit is overlooked on their part even child molestation. go figure the guys put in charge to protect third world children are the ones allowed to hurt them.)
stop your fibbing degenerate.
Bah, someone beat me to mentioning Max Mosley.
This is nothing to do with the tyranny of the majority, it's simply a way of increasing the likelihood superfluous parts of the population can be arrested. The more means the state has to lock people up, the better.
last I checked Australia already bans some/most porn and they also ban some video games, you can't even import them.
The UK needs to get a clue and the BBFC stop turning tis nose up to media rate it already and get your hand out of your bum...
This is part of the FAQ made available by the Ministry of Justice regarding the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act in question:
"I have heard that the new legislation is aimed at the Bondage, Domination and Sado Masochism (BDSM) community and will criminalise many millions of people. Is this true?
No. The new legislation is not directed at any particular group and will only catch a subset of material which is already illegal to publish or distribute under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 (OPA). BDSM material which is legally available under the OPA and used by the BDSM community should not be caught by the new offence."
Too bad the wording of the law also supports a lot of other interpretations. Also, some secretary of the British Home Office admitted during some radio show that pressure by the church and feminist groups is the reason why the law exists in the first place, and also why it has passed despite the flak it got.
With the insane amount of stupid legislation like this going on all over the globe lately, the world is running out of places where people who still care about their freedom can run to. I can't believe we really go back to the dark ages. How could it turn out like this?
;_;
feminists again?
Where the fuck is this going?
Everything i read lately seems to be influenced by femenists and absoluty nothing against them,it's all against men.
To be more precise, the actual trigger for the campaign which finally resulted in this ban is the case of Jane Longhurst, who was murdered by a man who apparently visited sites catering for necrophilia and asphyxiation fetishists. Her mother then started lobbying against all violent porn, as it obviously is the source of all evil. Naturally, she immediately found support from various feminist and anti-pornography movements. It was their working that the bill passed despite getting predominantly negative feedback in the various public consultations and the fact that it (they even acknowledge this!!!) lacks any scientific basis.
Oops, just remembered that this was already covered in the article...
Yet more examples of bureaucrats legislating morality to pander to the idiot masses who don't realise they are cheering on the shift to totalitarianism.
logic+british=3
If taken loosely also bans Batman, Punisher Max, Squadron Supreme, Watchmen, Ghostrider, Judge Dread, Battle Angel Alita and various other graphic novels. Way to go Brits! You're just one step above China now.
"The formerly liberal nature of the UK appears to be giving way to pure democracy, a terrifying prospect if ever there were one"
Here, here! ... God help us all ... here in the UK at least. lol
The loony left has complete control of the UK and has really screwed that country
The left has to be stopped or this poison will spread all over the world
The USA a bastion of liberty!? Only relatively speaking but don't think for one minute that animal sex pics are legal in Illinois for example. And any picture of a nude under 18 years old will get you up to 20 years in prison. Bastion of liberty my ass...
The thing is, I love porn, and some of this stuff, but I didn't even know it was illegal??
I live in the UK, so I've been breaking the law for however long with out even knowing it!
Not only is it completely unfair, it's scary! I could go to prison for this stuff if I was caught!
Thanks Britain, now I've got to move away!
Every email one of the worst pictures you saved from goatse to the Queen! HA!
This is a fantastically well-written article. Props to Artefact.
So... you cant watch people do illegal sex acts in porn? Where else can you? Everyone will turn to raep. Like every other porn ban. I uh.. need to see if that video is illegal! I uh... need to seize it! heh... im the only one who thinks im funny. I dont have a name so nobody remembers me anyways!
America is even more better than Britan now.
I am now seriously considering those that get their nipple/cagina/penis pierced would be against this.
Only if it was photographed by someone else?
and im pruod to be an american where at least i know i can look at fetish porn god bless the usaaaa!
they still banned loli....that doesnt make sense,shouldave put "no animeted girls were hurt in the drawing of this manga" at the end....dude seriously thats messed up all over the world with the porn bannings (except the REAL underage pornography ban,all other bans are just hate crimes because no1 got hurt from them)
WTF is going on with the world ?what happened to all the free speach ? democracy? protection of minority rights?
those ppl cant help having fetishes and loving that crap! they are a minority and are crushed by the majority of normal ppl (including the fetish hating nazi that came up with that inqisition style ban!)
theres nothing wrong moraly with fetishes(except that its totally "ok...wtf?!")
that ban is madness , what next? were gona burn muslims next? hang gay ppl? ban anything else we dont like in the world???
Screw you guys! I'm going to international waters!!
It might be interesting to wonder if images like the one at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bearly_Decent_Bill_Drea_Bear-1980-82.jpg
would become illegal. It just looks silly to me but perhaps a British judge would find it arousing.
Guys, guys. America isn't going to go through this...America is all for porn. I'm suprised they banned lolicon here, but I guess that is an exception. Without good porn, America would probably collapse. But good porn differs with each person, for I don't really care for bondage...
eheheheh
I don't see how this law is at all enforceable... Unless say, someone in your household catches you and reports you.
Are they going to start installing bugs in their citizens' computers just to catch them watching BDSM? I don't think they can do that under privacy laws, can they?
you can be reported by your family. ive seen it happen before theres a thing out midwest called something like porn and pancakes. its not as fun as it sounds. mostly wives saying their husbands have an addiction to pornography and they send them to some kind of rehab. i could see a wife sending her husband to jail to "help him through his problem". happens to drug addicts all time. if its not socially acceptable its wrong in every way possible.
tl:dr your family could report you.
In the UK (and EU) they already monitor all Internet traffic and ISPs must keep logs for a long period of time.
Oh wow. Ok, thanks for the clarification..
In addition, Germany got a law passed that allows the government to utilize trojans to monitor the computers of suspicious people.
I generally disagree with this from several standpoints (the penalties in particular, plus even though animals aren't my cup of tea either, I wouldn't put that on the same pedestal as the other three offences).
But you must admit, at least it restricts it to "reality", so you can keep your doujins. And at least it's fairly specific. God damn if there were vague wording in it.
Given that the UK and other countries with such laws do not discriminate against 2D and 3D, it seems only to be a matter of time. Especially considering there is much more extreme 2D material available.
A problem that's fairly easy to circumvent, though. The Onion Router's long been established as a means for underground journalists to bypass government filters, and the security-minded to avoid easy detection. They have to prove that you own the material they're charging with, and if even your ISP can't...
There were sick people doing sick (non consensual) stuff waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before internet porn came along.
social engineering at its finest...
Wtf am I going to do with my baby eating porn or the one where the woman gets gang raped on the stairs? Beastality was a decent way to burn time till the real heavy stuff came out. NOOOO
So if I take a picture of a deathly pale girl who gets stuck/tied up accidentally by a jump rope while I pure chocolate on her genitals and breasts and in the mean time a dog watches from a few paces away gets a boner
do I go to jail in UK?
Only if the dog started humping the girl while you were taking the pictures.
You sick, sick fuck.
Yes, if the dog goes to the police and reports your ass. (him having a boner would be irrelevant)
the dog part was supposed to mean beastiality thats y it had a boner, if it wasnt sexually involved kareal wouldnt have mentioned it
But is guro still OK?
"(a) an act which threatens a person’s life
(b) an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals
(c) an act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse"
Of course guro is still legal, isn't it obvious?
Exactly how far are they willing to go to enforce this law, I wonder? Forcing people to use TOR to watch porn is a bit silly.
"truck driver cum Labour MP"
No pun intended there?
Although "plugging holes" and "chocolate fireguard" sound vaguely errotic.
I'm suprised the law doesn't say anything about children, what with similar laws being made elsewhere.
All hail Britannia, er... Airstrip One...
Er, I mean...
no, no, no Not airstrip one.
They aren't handing out low quality porno mags to entertain the masses.
Yet.
I most probably should add 'generic' into that sentence, considering the nature of this article.
rule 34 on plugging holes in their chocolate fireguard. i see this law is becoming intentionally sexy.
Soon the British will sail to the new world to avoid sexual oppression. They will then found the United States of Britania.
Somewhere in Antarctica I presume?
This made me think of Clerks 2.
“These snuff movies and other stuff are seriously disturbing. Many police officers who have to view it as part of their job have to undergo psychological counselling.”
Grow some fucking balls.
What they didn't tell you is that the reason they needed counselling, is because they got hard-ons from the stuff... ;D
Snuff is just an urban legend
really? might want to spend some time on the internet. I've seen a few already. Let's see there is the Ukrainian one(s) and the Arabian one just to name two.
They are just fakes in all likelihood. Have any evidence that they are real? Nobody else does.
WHEN WILL YOU LITTLE SHITS REALIZE THAT CONSENSUAL SEX IN THE MISSIONARY IS THE ONLY CORRECT FORM TO GET OFF?!
Retarded laws burn, don't they Britain, misery loves company.
You sick fuck!!!
Truck driver, ey... in the words of Jeremy Clarkson;
"Because this is a hard job...I'm not just saying this to win favour with lorry drivers, it's a hard job. Change gear, change gear, change gear, check your mirrors, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder, check your mirrors... that's a lot of effort in a day."
In crux:
Gentlemen, it's okay to watch porn. Just keep the werid shit to yourself...
and I really lol how the word "bizzare" is used
Did you understand what you read? The law states that it's not ok to watch "weird" porn under any circumstances.
*sigh* I've already broken this law once tonight.
"With the proviso that “a reasonable person looking at the image would think that any such person or animal was real”,"
A 2D is fine too.
2D isnt really OK, since they never specify what kind is admissible or not. So something like La Blue Girl is also banned,for all intents,along with stuff like Agent Aika etc. The current administration in Britain is notorious for their loose interpretation of almost everything.
I'd better go and hide my German horse porn.
So....black guys can't give anal to chicks now?
that is it! im fucking leaving!
*leaves The UK*
fuck you! *flicks the bird*
3 days later, in another country
"awesome ＼(°∀°）／" *fap fap fap fap*
Well, 2D is still okay, and I prefer these kind of things in 2D.
it wont be long before it hits australia though :(
fucking ay
just let me watch my damn fetish porn, sheesh since when did humanity become so... naive
I broke this law while read about... thank got im not in the UK, or in Europe...or any where near it...
Wooo for canada :D
All Haill BRITTANIA, ALL HAIL LELOUCHE.
YES! YOA HAINESS!
or
イェス！マイ ロード！
ザ・ワルド！
I've read about this law but in an very different forum, one focused on comic books and video games. Many video games (e.g., Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto) and some very mainstream comics (Batman, Wolverine, The Hulk) can fall under this very badly written and overly broad legislation.
And sadly the law will have almost no appreciative effect on stopping the violence that springs from unbalanced minds.
What is it about economic recession that brings the moralistic loons out in force?
You raise a good point, as it's 3DCG which is going to be attacked first...
How do those games and comics relate?
Take a look at the first two provisions:
(a) an act which threatens a person’s life
(b) an act which results, or is likely to result, in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals
Think about what Batman and Wolverine do to get more information (a). Think about what Batman, Wolverine and the Hulk do when they fight...sure it's not directly an assault against someone's sexual organs, but a lot moves they do can harm an opponent's entire body (thrown through a window, thrown off a building, smashed into a wall).
It's not a stretch to see that these two provisions apply to mainstream comic figures. Games are even worse, since some eroge for example has BDSM elements in it. And games like GTA has sex and violence.
i see what ur saying but i dont think itd go down like that, because those things arnt "of a sexual nature" the only "non-sex" things that might be construed as sex would be torture stuff in general whether sexual or not (in the eye of the beholder so to say)
What recent British morality laws are NOT badly written?
We won't even get into British plumbing:)
Agreed!
I'm going to break this law on purpose to take a moral stand against such ridiculous legislation.
The big question is ... whats next?
That's the spirit! But I have even better idea. Imagine the situation in which people are starting to mass violate some law. Some stupid law. Like that one or any other prohibitionist based one. What would happen if let's say, at least 1/3 of the population of some country would start violating this kind of law on purpose? Would they sent everyone to jail? Do they have enough space in jails? But more importantly.. what would be their reaction, and reaction of the remaining part of the population as well as other country's?
In my country the drinking of alcohol in public places is prohibited. So Me and a few of my friends organized a small gig. We gathered a lot of people (Friends of friends and so on) we prepared bottle after vodka and other kinds of alcohol and filled them with water, juice etc.
Then we went through some popular public "landmarks" obviously attracting attention of the city watch guards (a kind of police but dedicated to regulating the city) So..
You can imagine what happened after that :)
Well.. and example. Guard approaches me and my pal. I'm drinking my vodka even as they speak to me. They ask me if I know that drinking alcohol is prohibited in public places, and when I acknowledge this we move to the formalities. I get a fine. But then after like 10 minutes of their time when the papers are complete and the guy asks me for signature I say that I just got to remember that I'm not really drinking alcohol,
but only water.. I give him the bottle to try it if he wants. He actually took time and smelled the bottle. They move on embarrassed and pissed off as their helpless about our little prank. But
then the see someone else from our group. They "check" them. Some others gets checks as well.
The observers from around who are aware of the situation are laughing their asses off. This demonstration was a big success and we are doing them more often now. Pissing off the guards and awaiting for the new law, that prohibits carrying containers with labels representing alcohol brands? What if i design my own label and prepare the bottle at home? With some fictional brand?
So that's it. I know its a longish piece but I hope you guys can learn something and get some ideas for future maybe..
Next time I witness a photoshoot session of BDSM, I'll be sure to fuck something, so I can skip the punishment.
Thanks for the encouragement!
Bwahahahaha!!! I loled so hard at that! Thank you!
I really worry lately about all these legal crusades that wrap themselves in morality but are really just stepping on free expression. It's not even relevant whether I enjoy this kind of "stuff" or not, because eventually they'll get around to censoring the porn I like... and from there it's not long until the government decides what I should and shouldn't like.
Media is being censored all around the world and I really wish I knew what to do about it.
As much as I'm not into ANY of that stuff, I will always defend people's right and the liberties that made this world a better place to live in.
While I agree that putting bizarre stuff where it doesn't belong isn't nice, and there could be some cases of BSDM that leads to people getting hurt or even killed, this law is just too extreme.
It seems that people never knows how to dose the right ammount of laws.. either they are too loose, or they make them too tight. Go figure.
Why is it that when they try to fix something, they will always mix things with moralism and extreme shit like that?
As for what Martin Salter has to say:
“No-one is stopping people doing weird stuff to each other but they would be strongly advised not to put it on the internet.”
Correct me if I'm wrong, but possessing pictures of it isn't putting them on the internet, and it is still illegal. So this arguement is BS.
“At the end of the day it is all too easy for this stuff to trigger an unbalanced mind.”
At the end of the day, words are coming out of your mouth but no real scientific study was made to reach such conclusions, isn't this right?
“These snuff movies and other stuff are seriously disturbing. Many police officers who have to view it as part of their job have to undergo psychological counselling.”
Different people are affected by different things in different ways. Just deal with it.
Kinda ironic how they will say such things but still send people to kill and die on wars.
Not that I'm for snuff movies, and yes, people making real snuff movies should all go to jail... but not because of their sexual preference. They should go to jail because of the crimes they commited during the movie.
“It simply plugs a hole in the law because the Obscene Publications Act is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard as far as the internet is concerned. This new law is designed to meet the challenge of the internet.”
Maybe it has as much use as a chocolate fireguard because society just don't think moralists laws like that are valid at all.
Think about that.
I completely agree with everything you said.
And what gets me the most about all this is that what are you supposed about it as an individual? Either stop and be "unhappy"... or continue and risk going to jail for some demented law? What kind of a choice is that? Oh, and then there is always the option of packing up and moving somewhere where they respect people's liberties and privacy... but EVENTUALLY there will be nowhere you can go (and who's gonna do that? seriously?)... and then you are buggered.
Why can't they just get these damn laws RIGHT?!?
I blame Overfiend...
I fear we may be next in the US with all the "change" in the air.
please don`t remind me... ):
The ACLU would attack the shit out of a law like that in america. Besides, a law like that is more christian fundie sounding with the moral outrage; thus more GOP like. And the GOP is no where near powerful enough to do anything these days.
The ACLU? You have to be kidding! You better check into the shit that the ACLU is defending lately! They haven't done a damn thing about Ashcroft's law sending people to prison for 20 years for having as much as one nude picture of someone under 18 on their computer.
And for your information the Obama administration continues to uphold that law! So much for your theory of devisive politics.