UK minister reveals worrying consent trend among young boys as new porn ban takes effect
The UK government has rolled out its latest change to the Online Safety Act in a new legislation that will ban scenes depicting strangulation or incest in adult videos.
Last year saw the introduction of the act, which can loosely be defined as a 'porn crackdown', as it made it much harder for people under the age of 18 to legally view pornography.
Pornographic websites were threatened with significant fines if they failed to comply with the changes, and OFCOM have promised to now clamp down on any websites which continue to show videos which include adult stars being choked, or any videos filmed under the illusion of it being between family members or step-siblings.
Today (6 November) marks the official start of that legislation after it was first brought before parliament around this time last year, and minister for tackling violence against women and girls Alex Davies-Jones believes it could prove to be a significant change for the better.
Advert
Speaking exclusively to LADbible, the Welsh MP suggested that the new legislation could prove to be 'huge opportunities' when it comes to tackling some of the biggest societal issues tackling Britain right now, with misogyny against women sadly more prevalent than ever thanks to the depiction of violence in porn as well as online circles such as the manosphere.
She said: "I think this has got huge opportunities to tackle some of those societal issues, whether that be the epidemic of violence against women and girls, or the radicalisation of young boys particularly through dangerous misogyny. "It is really really concerning that we are seeing young men and boys as an age group who are perpetrating these crimes that they are now the biggest cohort, so that peer-on-peer sexual abuse is growing in numbers and the police are really concerned around it.
"They are also the biggest group now that are less likely to believe in consent, which is also really concerning, so anything that we can do to try and tackle the root cause of this."
After 77 per cent of Gen Z people admitted to watching porn through LADbible's very own FFS campaign, it was clear that there needed to be less of a stigma and more education and information around porn, while also ensuring that younger generations aren't influenced into believing that porn is similar to sex in the real world.
Davies-Jones, who spoke to sexual health workers at the University of Birmingham earlier this week about the planned changes to the legislation, added: "I think it's a brilliant campaign and it's something that we should be encouraging more of. The government are keen to take forward our healthy relationship education through the schools programme with the Department for Education. This is on all of us to get right. The more education in this field, the more accurate information out there for young people and anyone trying to navigate this world, is to be welcomed."
From today, anyone who is found to have published content featuring either strangulation or scenes of an incestuous nature could face up to five years in prison, while downloading the pornography or having it in your possession is also now deemed to be illegal.
Since strangulation in porn will also become a 'priority offence' under the Online Safety Act, tech companies and social media sites will also be expected to take proactive steps to remove the content and will be held accountable for failing to act.
Davies-Jones confirmed that she has had extensive conversations with one of the biggest porn websites in the business regarding the changes, in what will mark a historic change in the adult content industry.
She said: "I met with one very large mainstream platform to discuss the new changes and how they've already implemented a number of them on their site to ensure that this content is not available.
"It must be removed and deleted from their archives and also deleted it from their education material that they use to show content creators, for example, what is legal and what is and isn't acceptable.
"If that site is in possession of this material then they will be liable under the law. I have had extensive conversations with platforms about what is to be expected of them and what is their responsibility if they have this it should be deleted and removed by 6 November."
It is hoped that the sanctions will be enough to discourage any websites from showcasing and promoting this sort of content, but the government are also calling for creators to show some responsibility, since 70 of young men in LADbible's FFS campaign admitted that porn was their first exposure to sex.
Davies-Jones concluded: "So many young people now are seeing their first experiences of sex through pornography and through violent, dangerous pornography and that is resulting in real world harms. So many people are expecting that that is what a normal healthy sexual relationship should be, that is what they should like, that is what they should do and it's so dangerous and it is causing real world harm.
"That is why the government have had to act, particularly around the non-fatal strangulation and suffocation pornography because of what we're seeing day to day in our police stations and in our NHS providers where we are having women predominantly coming forward with strangulation and as a result of it being done to them through sex.
"It is so dangerous and I cannot stress enough that there is no safe way to strangle someone."
James Moorhouse
