UK Bans Porn Depicting Strangulation, Incest from November

Beginning November 6, the United Kingdom will prohibit the possession and publication of online pornography that depicts strangulation, incest, or adults role-playing as minors. This move follows a 2025 review into pornography regulation that found choking depictions were prevalent on popular sites and had contributed to normalizing the act, particularly among young people.

Baroness Gabby Bertin, who led the independent review commissioned by the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government, stated that the law change sends a clear message to companies hosting and facilitating pornography, as well as to society at large, that violent and extreme content encouraging real-world harm is unacceptable. The review highlighted an instance where a 14-year-old boy inquired about performing choking during sex.

While non-consensual strangulation is already an offense, its depiction online was not previously illegal. Amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, enacted in April, aim to criminalize such content in England and Wales.

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones emphasized that the legislation is not intended to criminalize harmless sexual preferences but to address how pornography can influence perceptions of healthy relationships, especially for young people. She noted that content normalizing or glorifying violence against women can blur the lines of acceptability in real life, urging individuals to cease sharing or possessing such material, as it will be criminalized after November 6.

Publishing illegal content, including uploading, posting, or making it available online, can result in a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment. Possession, which can include storing images on devices or cloud storage, carries lesser penalties. Possessing images depicting sexual activity with someone pretending to be under 16 could lead to up to three years in prison, while possession of images depicting strangulation, suffocation, or sexual activity between certain relatives could result in up to two years' imprisonment.

The new offenses also cover pornography showing sex between step or foster relations where one person is portrayed as being under 18. Durham University law professor Clare McGlynn, who has previously warned about the normalization of sexual violence through widely available extreme content, welcomed the laws. She described the commencement of these laws as a potential turning point, marking a societal decision to no longer accept the normalization of sexually violent content in pornography. However, McGlynn also raised questions about the speed at which technology platforms and regulators will act to remove and mitigate the spread of violating material, stressing that transforming the online pornographic landscape requires proactive engagement from platforms and regulators, not just individual prosecution.