“The evidence is overwhelming that allowing people to view legal but harmful pornography like choking sex, violent and degrading acts, and even content that could encourage child sexual abuse, is having a damaging impact on children and society,” Bertin added.
Other recommendations by the review include: making pornography that depicts incest illegal, creating an ombudsman for victims of intimate image abuse and banning people who upload illegal material online from uploading material on to platforms.
Bertin’s review said non-fatal strangulation or “choking” sex was already criminalised under the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act and should therefore be added to the definition of extreme, illegal pornography.
Pornography depicting strangulation should be made illegal along with other kinds of “legal but harmful” sexual material, according to an independent government review.
The UK tech secretary, Peter Kyle, said on Thursday he would not hesitate to “adapt the law” to prevent people from accessing degrading pornography online.
