The anti porn campaigner and peer Gabby Bertin asked the government about the implementation schedule of the ban on possession and publication of porn featuring strangulation and suffocation. The Crime and Policing Act 2026 includes a clause that
amends the extreme porn provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. It adds the offence: (67A) Possession or publication of pornographic images of strangulation or suffocation
(1) It is an offence for a person to be in possession of an image if— (a) the image is pornographic, within the meaning of section 63, (b) the image portrays, in an explicit
and realistic way, a person strangling or suffocating another person, and (c) a reasonable person looking at the image would think that the persons were real.
(2) It is an offence for a person
to publish an image of the kind mentioned in subsection (1) . (3) Publishing an image includes giving or making it available to another person by any means.
Gerard Lemos answered for the
government: The Crime and Policing Act 2026 contains a wide range of measures to strengthen the criminal law. The Government is working with law enforcement and other partners and will bring the remaining
provisions into force as quickly as practicable. We are progressing work to bring these offences into force this autumn, balancing speed with operational considerations and wider system impacts. We will clearly communicate to the
public when these measures are commenced.
According to XBiz: Ofcom, which enforces the Online Safety Act, has been awaiting guidance from the government on exactly how the new provision is to be
implemented. It remains unclear what specific criteria might be used for assessing whether an image or video violates the law, whether Ofcom will be the sole investigator/enforcer of the law or if other agencies might be involved, and whether there will
be an official procedure or series of steps for investigations and enforcement actions, as has been the case with enforcement of OSA age assurance rules.
It will be interesting to see the detailed censorship rules. Anything close to
merely squeezing the throat for a short time or gagging in blowjobs would mean that tens of thousands of worldwide porn videos would qualify as illegal and every porn tube site in the world would be illegal. I don't see much chance of Pornhub working
through all its porn videos censoring out offending scenes.
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