England and Wales will prohibit several categories of online pornography from November 6 under legislation announced by the UK government. The ban covers depictions of strangulation or suffocation, sex between people who are related or pretending to be related, and material in which an adult pretends to be a child under 16.
The change follows cross-party pressure and recommendations from a 2025 review of pornography regulation by Conservative peer Gabby Bertin. It is a policy move aimed at content that ministers and campaigners say can normalize violence or blur boundaries around harmful sexual conduct.
What will become illegal
From November 6, online pornography depicting strangulation or suffocation will be illegal in England and Wales. The prohibition also applies to content showing sex between relatives or people portraying relatives, as well as role-play in which an adult is portrayed as a child under 16.
The announcement draws a legal line around depictions that had not all been treated alike under existing law. Non-fatal strangulation is already a criminal offence in its own right, but showing it online has not been illegal. The new rules extend the restriction to pornographic depictions of strangulation and suffocation.
The government’s stated focus is not a general prohibition on sexual content. Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the measure was not about criminalising harmless sexual preferences, but argued that pornography can influence what people, particularly young people, perceive as a healthy relationship.
Why the government is changing the rules
Bertin’s 2025 review of pornography regulation recommended the measures. According to the review, pornography showing women being choked can have devastating real-world consequences. It also highlighted disturbing role-play involving incest and adults portraying children.
The review found what it described as a total absence of government scrutiny of the pornography industry. Its recommendations were later taken up amid pressure from across political parties, leading ministers to announce legislation earlier in 2026 and now set a date for the offences to take effect.
The policy rationale is therefore tied to both the nature of the material and the possible social effect of its circulation. Davies-Jones said content that normalises or glorifies violence against women is dangerous because it can blur the line between what is portrayed and what is accepted in real life.
Enforcement will be decisive
The legal change creates obligations and potential exposure for companies that host or facilitate the prohibited material, but the practical impact will depend on enforcement. The End Violence Against Women Coalition welcomed the announcement while calling on ministers to ensure the ban is enforced.
That concern is central to an online-content rule. A prohibition can state what is unlawful, but platforms, hosts and other intermediaries must be able to identify and respond to the content in practice. The government’s announcement makes the prohibition clear; implementation will determine how consistently it changes what remains available online.
Bertin said the law, combined with better enforcement and stronger regulation, would send an unequivocal signal to companies that host and facilitate pornography and to wider society that extreme and violent content encouraging real-life harm is unacceptable.
A change in the regulatory approach
The November deadline marks a move from review findings to enforceable offences. It does not alter the existing fact that non-fatal strangulation is itself an offence, but it closes the gap identified by the government around showing such conduct in pornography.
It also treats several forms of role-play and relationship depiction as matters for regulation when they involve incestuous relationships or adults pretending to be children. Taken together, the provisions show a more interventionist approach to material whose effects are disputed in public debate but which the government and campaigners associate with harm.
For consumers and platforms, the immediate practical date is November 6. For policymakers, the more enduring test will be whether the new offences are backed by the scrutiny and enforcement that the 2025 review found lacking.
This article is based on reporting by The Guardian. Read the original article.
Originally published on theguardian.com
