Govt to outlaw strangulation and suffocation in porn

Last night in the House of Commons, the government said it would ban pornography that depicts strangulation and suffocation, a measure CARE has specifically campaigned for.

During Report Stage of the Crime and Policing Bill, Dame Caroline Dineage spoke to her amendment, NC121, which aimed to extend the definition of extreme pornography to include depictions of non-fatal strangulation.

She said “I am extremely worried that non-fatal strangulation has been found to be rife on porn sites. Evidence has shown that it is directly influencing the sexual behaviour of young men, who are non-consensually strangling young women during consensual sex. Recent polling has suggested that 17% of 16 to 34-year-olds have been strangled without giving consent during consensual sex.”

In response, Minister Diana Johnson said that although there were issues with the drafting of NC121, the government supported the underlying aim. She went on to say:

During the debate at Report Stage of the Crime and Policing Bill the Minister also indicated that the Government would examine how the laws that regulate pornographic content offline could be extended to regulate all online platforms. This is another policy CARE has championed.

Commenting on the government's commitments to outlaw suffocation and strangulation in porn and its comment that it will look into how the laws that regulate porn content offline could be extended to cover all online platforms, CARE's Policy Officer Jessica Mcdowell said:

“Yesterday's announcement that the Government will take action of strangulation and suffocation is good news for women and girls across the UK. The evidence is clear, the rise of strangulation in the real world is a direct consequence of the proliferation of strangulation porn. Young women’s health and wellbeing has been put at risk in the name of profits for the porn industry.”

“Even a few seconds of strangulation can have devastating, lifelong effects, including cardiac arrest, stroke, miscarriage, incontinence, seizures, paralysis, speech disorders, and other forms of long-term brain injury. Children who have viewed pornographic content view strangulation as a normal part of sexual relations, with almost 1/5th of teen girls reporting they have been strangled during sex by teenage boyfriends. There is no safe strangulation and women and girls must be protected.

“We will also work with the Government to ensure that offline and online platforms are subject to the same regulation. It is outrageous that different laws still apply to offline content and online porn providers can host more extreme and violent content than would be permitted offline. It is welcome that the Government have recognised this and pledged to report on how they will tackle this obvious anomaly.”