Web pornography could be subject to tighter rules in the UK, putting it on a par with films on DVD under government plans to review regulation of the online adult content industry.
Improving children’s education about the harm caused by pornography will also be among the issues to be tackled by the review. The study will investigate gaps in the regulatory framework, including the different regimes for offline and online material.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is the main regulator of pornography in the UK but it does not have online powers and has told MPs that pornographic content it would refuse to classify is “freely accessible” online.
The BBFC classifies adult content as 18 or R18, with the latter banned from mainstream TV and available in licensed sex shops only. The forthcoming online safety bill does not propose a BBFC-style ratings regime for online pornography but will introduce tough age-checking requirements for sites that show adult material.
“There are currently different regimes that address the publication and distribution of commercial pornographic material offline, such as videos, and online,” said the government in a statement. “The government wants to ensure any pornography legislation and regulation operates consistently for all pornographic content.”
The review will also consider how children are informed about the harms caused by pornography, by looking at what more can be done to provide children with the right information and resources. The government said this would make sure that illegal pornographic content, such as material featuring child sexual abuse or adult exploitation, was dealt with “robustly”.
This year the children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, published research that showed frequent users of pornography were more likely to carry out physically aggressive sex acts.
The review will also look at the role of the pornography industry in trafficking and exploiting adult performers, and how extreme and non-consensual online pornographic content is dealt with.
The government said the review would be separate from the online safety bill, which is expected to become law this year and introduces a number of changes regarding pornography. The changes include a form of age rating for adult material. It requires age-checking measures for pornographic content, a requirement that has been extended to mainstream social media platforms and not just dedicated adult content providers such as Pornhub.
The technology minister, Paul Scully, said the government could not “take our eye off the ball” in terms of regulation due to the accelerating pace of change in the technology sector. Last week, the Internet Watch Foundation, which monitors child sexual abuse material online, said it was starting to see “highly convincing” examples created by artificial intelligence technology.
In February a group of MPs called on the government to change the law to tackle the harms caused by pornographic material, describing the current legal setup for tackling pornography as a “loose patchwork of criminal laws”. The government said the review would look at how effective the criminal justice system and law enforcement agencies were in dealing with illegal pornographic content and whether criminal law needed to be changed to address any concerns.
The review will take a year to complete, will involve numerous government departments and will seek contributions from the Crown Prosecution Service, police and regulators.
Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University, said it provided a real opportunity to focus the law around pornography regulation on issues such as the harm it causes to women and girls.
“This is an ambitious and much-needed review,” she said. “The laws on pornography are a patchwork of confusing, outdated and often contradictory provisions. The last substantive review was over 45 years ago and the world of pornography has since transformed.”
