Online pornography
Government seeks to ban websites depicting 'serious sexual violence'

UK cracks down on violent web porn

Proposed legislation would ban possession of 'extreme pornographic material'

Robert Jaques

The UK government has unveiled plans to ban the possession of "extreme pornographic material" downloaded from the internet.

Home Office Minister Paul Goggins has published a consultation paper inviting views on the proposals, which would make it an offence to possess images depicting scenes of serious sexual violence and "other obscene material". 

Advertisement

A PDF of the consultation document can be downloaded here.

Goggins said that all the categories of material proposed for banning are already illegal in the UK under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, but blamed the "global nature of the internet" for making material published on foreign servers accessible in the UK.

The government hopes that making it an offence to possess violent and abusive pornography "will send a clear message about this material, make it easier to combat and may reduce demand for it".

"This is material which is extremely offensive to the vast majority of people, and it should have no place in our society. The fact that it is available over the internet should in no way legitimise it," said Goggins.

"These forms of violent and abusive pornography go far beyond what we allow to be shown in films or even sold in licensed sex shops in the UK, so they should not be available online either.

"I am inviting views on whether legislation in this area is required, and if so, what the proscribed material and penalties should be."

The consultation invites views on whether there is a need for legislation in this area, the different ways the law could be amended, the categories of material which should be proscribed and the potential penalties for possessing such pornography.

Under the proposals, possessing images electronically would be no different from possessing actual photographs, as with current laws on child pornography.

Metropolitan Police Commander Dave Johnston, a spokesman on sexual violent crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "The internet is being targeted more and more by those who create sites that specialise in sexual violence and other types of extreme perversion.

"The investigation into such matters proves to be very difficult due to the fact that many of the sites are [hosted] abroad and are outside the jurisdiction of UK law enforcement agencies.

"Opportunities for prosecution only exist when links to such sites are found in this country. The creation of new offences to deal with these matters would assist greatly in preventing the spread of such material."

The government stressed that any new law would not be intended to target those who accidentally come into contact with obscene pornography, nor would it target the mainstream entertainment industry which works within current obscenity laws.

Responses are invited to the consultation by 2 December 2005.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

eu flag

V3.co.uk weekly debrief, 6 Nov 09

This week, Europe decides what to do with illegal file sharers

Intel unveils its micro server platform

Small-enclosure systems take aim at hosting market

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

What is the biggest problem your firm faces as a result of the data explosion?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

Piracy, privacy and processing power set to be hot topics for V3.co.uk Summit

Have you got a burning desire to quiz experts from...

iPhone

World's first iPhone virus surfaces

Images of 80s icon Rick Astley spell trouble

Airvana HubBub

Airvana debuts 3G femtocell for offices

HubBub improves indoor network coverage for businesses

shopping key

E-commerce on brink of SaaS revolution

Figleaves founder argues platform-as-a-service vendor will emerge to shake up...

Primary Navigation