Emily Atack backs campaign to ban specific type of porn with powerful message
Emily Atack is supporting a campaign by schoolgirls from Oxfordshire to ban the use of school uniforms in pornography.
The Inbetweeners star, who played schoolgirl Charlotte Hinchcliffe in the Channel 4 series, took to social media to back the students from The Cooper School in Bicester.
On Instagram, the 36-year-old wrote on her Story that she supports the pupils who ‘are calling on the Prime Minister to ban this use of the uniform designed to make us feel safe’.
“I’m with you all the way,” she penned alongside a heart emoji.
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In her 2023 documentary, Emily Atack: Asking For It?, which was about the sexualisation of schoolgirls in uniforms, the actor admitted that she ‘was left feeling completely angered and outraged and sad’.
“These girls were telling me that they feel more vulnerable in their school uniforms because there are men online who can’t control the things they say to them,” she said. It made me sick to my stomach and so angry.”
The new petition to Parliament is being led by a group of teenage girls known as the Little Feminist Bookclub (LFB).
“School uniform use in pornography, which may not be covered by existing legislation, is a clear example of material that sexualises children and young people, something described in The Times as ‘the casual sexualisation of children’. It is explicitly designed to evoke childhood and school-age identities,” the change.org petition reads.
“Whilst the current law prohibits the depiction of someone pretending to be under 16 in pornography (but not those 16-18) to protect all young people and to remove this grey area, we urge you to ban the use of school uniform in porn.”
MP Calum Miller said: “I am full of admiration for the members of the Little Feminist Bookclub at the Cooper School. These fierce campaigners have identified an issue that affects them and does harm to many other girls and women. I was shocked to hear some of them feel anxious to wear uniform because adults make sexual comments towards them. I am proud to support them to achieve their goal of changing the law.”
It follows recent legislation making it a criminal offence to possess or share pornographic content featuring adults pretending to be under 16.
“Whilst we welcome this significant step and applaud the tireless campaigning that made it possible, the students of the Little Feminist Bookclub believe a dangerous loophole still remains,” the petition adds.
“Under these new rules, anyone wearing a school uniform in pornographic content can simply claim to be depicting a 17-year-old. Yet a school uniform is explicitly designed to evoke childhood and school-age identities, contributing directly to the casual sexualisation of children.
“It’s clear that creating a law to ban school uniform in pornography and restrict the promotion of buying school uniform costumes is a necessary step forward into freeing minors from the abuse that they continue to be subjected to under the highly dangerous gap that festers in your shield for them.”
Anish Vij