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Pornography depicting strangulation should be made illegal along with other kinds of “legal but harmful” sexual material, according to an independent review for the UK government.
The recommendation is one of 32 made by the Conservative peer Gabby Bertin, who was commissioned by the former prime minister Rishi Sunak to scrutinise the industry in 2023.
Lady Bertin also recommended banning the possession, distribution and publication of other degrading, violent or misogynistic pornography, as well as the prohibition of “nudification” apps.
Choking during sex is becoming increasingly normalised, with one survey showing nearly four in 10 women aged 18 to 39 have experienced it.
Bertin said pornography had always been a fact of life, but in recent years its scale and impact had “transformed dramatically” owing to online distribution.
“The evidence is overwhelming that allowing people to view legal but harmful pornography like choking sex, violent and degrading acts, and even content that could encourage child sexual abuse, is having a damaging impact on children and society,” she said. “The law needs to be tightened with more proactive regulation of online platforms.”
Bertin’s review said non-fatal strangulation or “choking” sex had already been criminalised under the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act and should therefore be added to the definition of extreme, illegal pornography.
Responding to the report, government ministers said “graphic” strangulation pornography was already illegal but they would take “urgent action” to address the problem.
However, Bertin said there was no case law to support the government’s argument that strangulation pornography was in effect banned under the 2008 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act.
“I am not confident that its inclusion is clear,” she said, adding that the Obscene Publications Act should be updated to include choking material. This would remove any legal ambiguity over the issue, she said.
The review has been published days after the UK communications watchdog published measures to tackle online misogyny, including tackling explicit deepfakes and “revenge porn”.
Pornography is viewed regularly by more than a quarter of the UK on social media and pornography sites. According to the UK communications watchdog, Ofcom, men are twice as likely as women to visit a pornographic site.
Other recommendations from the review include making pornography that depicts incest illegal, creating an ombudsman for victims of intimate image abuse, and banning people who upload illegal material online from uploading material on to platforms.
The UK technology secretary, Peter Kyle, said on Thursday he would not hesitate to “adapt the law” to prevent people from accessing degrading pornography online.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme before the publication of the review, he said: “I know that this content is harmful to many of the people who currently have free access to it. We have the powers to prevent people getting the access to it, even if the material is provided from elsewhere.
“We just need to find ways of making sure that that is done efficiently and effectively. And if I have to adapt the law in response to any gaps that emerge in these powers then of course I’ll act as swiftly as I can.”
