Online pornography showing ‘choking’ to be made illegal

The government have announced that online pornography that features strangulation, colloquially known as ‘choking’, and suffocation will be made a criminal offence.

The measure will be added as an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which is currently going through Parliament. Both possession and publication of such material will be a “priority offence” under the Online Safety Act, putting it at the same level as child sexual abuse material. Online sites would need to detect and remove such content or face enforcement by Ofcom.

The government have acted in response to Baroness Bertin’s review which was published in February. In that review, the Conservative peer warned that there was a “total absence of government scrutiny” over the pornography industry. CARE was instrumental in enabling this review to take place.

Baroness Bertin’s review found that pornography contributed to the “gravest issues in our society, from domestic violence to toxic masculinity to the mental health crisis among young people.” She argued for a ban on “degrading, violent and misogynistic content” including depictions of strangulation.

February’s review found that depictions of strangulation were “rife” in online pornography. It encourages people to imitate such behaviours with potentially “devastating consequences”.

A report from the BBC in 2019 found that 38% of women aged 18-39 had been strangled during sex. Following Baroness Bertin’s review, the government stated they would take further action after the review found that “graphic strangulation is increasingly appearing in pornography, despite being illegal, and is becoming normalised in real life.”

Announcing these new measures, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: "Viewing and sharing this kind of material online is not only deeply distressing, it is vile and dangerous. Those who post or promote such content are contributing to a culture of violence and abuse that has no place in our society.