As part of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which is expected to be "given the Royal Assent" (approved) on May 8, citizens of the United Kingdom will no longer be allowed to own, even for purely personal use, images which the government has deemed to be "too extreme" for them to possess.
Besides images of bestiality and necrophilia, which Americans can possess based on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1969 decision in Stanley v. Georgia, the newly criminalized porn includes depictions of acts which "threaten or appear to threaten a person's life" and which "result in or appear to result in serious injury to a person's anus, breasts or genitals."
The new law, which has been working its way through Parliament for nearly four years, was instigated by the murder of Jane Longhurst, a teacher in the resort village of Brighton. When her killer, Graham Coutts, was tried, evidence was introduced that Coutts had frequented such Websites as Club Dead (ruemorgue.com), which features images of violence, and RapeAction.com, "where all the extreme RAPE action is," according to a banner on the site. This led Longhurst's mother Liz to campaign for a ban on the possession of sexually violent images.
However, while video producers continue to be bound by the 1959 Obscene Publications Act, the new law shifts criminal responsibility to consumers of the violent images - and according to groups which oppose the law, the new prohibition risks criminalizing thousands of people who use images of, for instance, bondage/domination or sadomasochism as part of their consensual sexual relationships.
Lord Hunt, who is shepherding the bill through the House of Lords, denied that the measure has been given less than full consideration even though he admits that it is being rushed through to meet a deadline. His overall response has been one of "Trust us," claiming that only those images that are "grossly offensive and disgusting" will be targeted.
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