UK porn crackdown explained as Sydney Sweeney Euphoria-style scenes to be banned

New UK laws aimed at tackling harmful online pornography will criminalise certain types of explicit content, including material where adults pretend to be children.

Content at risk of being banned includes similar to what Sydney Sweeney's character, Cassie Howard, creates in Euphoria season three, which dropped on Monday (13 April).

Cassie, a soon-to-be housewife engaged to Nate (Jacob Elordi), turns to OnlyFans to fund her wedding and features in a series of divisive clips.

Teaser footage shows the actor, 28, appearing to do 'age play' - a kink where an adult adopts the persona of a younger person.

In one clip, she does the 'happy baby' yoga pose by sticking her legs in the air, dressed in a pink sheer top, with a dummy in her mouth and in clothing resembling a nappy.

Material at risk of being banned could include Sydney Sweeney's character doing 'age-play' in Euphoria (HBO)

Such scenes could be banned in the future following the government's amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to combat extreme pornography.

UK government plans porn crackdown

New amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill include:

· Ban harmful pornography: New laws will make it illegal to possess or publish pornography that shows incest or adults pretending to be children.

· Criminal penalties: Anyone who publishes this type of harmful content could face up to five years in prison.

· Protect victims of image abuse: Platforms must remove non-consensual intimate images (such as revenge porn) when ordered to do so.

· Hold tech bosses accountable: Senior tech executives could face fines or imprisonment if their companies fail to remove these images without a valid reason.

· Reduce violence against women and girls: These measures are part of a wider government plan to tackle online abuse and halve violence against women and girls within the next decade.

Sweeney's scene has divided viewers (Presley Ann/Getty Images for HBO)

Publication of pornography depicting adult-child role play could carry a maximum prison sentence of five years, while possession of such material could result in up to three years behind bars.

Baroness Bertin, Lead reviewer of the Independent Pornography Review, said: "I greatly welcome the Government’s plans to fully address harmful pornographic content such as incest, step-incest and the mimicking of child sexual abuse.

"This content that is freely and widely available online is deeply harmful, normalising child sexual abuse and abusive relationships within families."

Bertin added: "My review on pornography is clear that the production and dissemination of this content should be made illegal, which is why I laid amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise this type of content.

"My review is also clear that the people who appear in pornography are at a high risk of exploitation, coercion and violence, which is why the onus should be on pornography platforms to ensure that everyone who appears in pornographic content is over the age of 18 and has given their consent, and that they have the right to withdraw that consent."

LADbible has contacted Sweeney and HBO for comment.