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New Internet Censorship Rules

26 November 2016

By Lois

A clause is being added to the digital economy bill (designed to prevent under-18s from accessing pornographic material) which will ban UK internet users from accessing websites portraying ‘non-conventional’ sex acts. The measures will be regulated by the BBFC, who currently classify films for cinema and DVD release, and they are expected look for material they would usually refuse to classify under their most explicit rating, R18 . There is not a definitive list of acts which are considered obscene, although it is widely expected that acts including BDSM (where marks are left), female ejaculation and menstruation will be impacted by the ban.

Pro-Freedom of speech groups have protested against the measures, arguing that we should not be able to censor acts which are within the law. Professor Clare McGlynn, an expert on pornography laws at Durham University and co-founder of the Centre for Gender Equal Media, said “If we are regulating things like menstrual blood or urination, that’s detracting from a focus on what I think is really the harmful material, and that would be material around child sexual abuse, but also around sexual violence.”

“It should not be the business of government to regulate what kinds of consensual adult sex can be viewed by adults,” said Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of Index on Censorship.

There has also some backlash from feminist groups, saying aspects of the bill are ‘an attack on female sexuality’, and that the move proscribes female bodily function. The rules on female ejaculation are considered especially unusual, considering no such stance has been taken where males are concerned. There is also a discussion around the consequences of the bill for sexual fetishists and those with marginalised sexualities, and some have complained of feeling unfairly targeted by the move.

The scale and extent of the restrictions only became apparent last month, after the BBFC agreed to take up the post as regulator. A spokeswoman for the BBFC said it would also check whether sites host “pornographic content that we would refuse to classify”. It is also expected that some sites will be blocked entirely, with overseas porn websites having to make certain films unavailable to UK audiences

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