Britain is about to ban ‘non-conventional’ porn by stealth, campaigners have warned – plunging us back into the Dark Ages of pre-internet censorship.
Provisions within the Digital Economy bill look set to ban websites which show acts such as female ejaculation, penetration with objects and urination.
Videos showing sex in public, whipping or caning which leaves marks and sex involving menstruation will also be affected.
Basically, we’ll be back to what could be shown on DVDs – but applied to the web, the Guardian warns.
The move comes as the BBFC prepares to block sites which fail to offer age verification systems.
A BBFC spokesman said the censor will also check for ‘pornographic content that we would refuse to classify. In making this assessment, we will apply the standards that we apply to pornography that is distributed offline. If a website fails … then a notification of non-compliance will be sent to the site.’
Speaking to the Guardian, Jodie Ginsberg of Index on Censorship said, ‘It should not be the business of government to regulate what kinds of consensual adult sex can be viewed by adults.’
'Chilling' privacy implications of anti-porn Bill
Digital privacy campaigners Open Rights Group has warned that government attempts to block under-18s from porn sites could have chilling implications for privacy.
The group has warned that efforts to verify people’s age could lead to ‘lists’ of users of porn sites – and be vulnerable to ‘Ashley Madison’ style leaks.
All porn sites will soon have age verification systems to prevent people aged under 18 from accessing adult material under the Digital Economy bill – but the systems used to ‘age block’ sites could pose a privacy risk, the group warned.
Under the new law, every porn site would have to verify the age of its users to prevent children accessing porn by accident.
But digital privacy group Open Rights Campaign has warned that leaving it up to porn companies to implement the law poses large risks.
Jim Killock of Open Rights Group says, ‘If the government wants to have Age Verification in place, it must mandate a system that increases the privacy and safety of end users, since the users will be compelled to use Age Verification tools.
‘Also, any and all Age Verification solutions must not make Britain’s cybersecurity worse overall, e.g. by building databases of the nation’s porn-surfing habits which might later appear on Wikileaks.
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