On 26 January, a new law will go in force in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to make it a criminal offence to possess so-called "extreme" porn. But what is "extreme" porn?
According to the UK government, porn must possess all three of the following characteristics to be considered "extreme" and so to incur criminal sanction:
- That the image is pornographic;
- That the image is grossly offensive, disgusting, or otherwise of an obscene character, and
- That the image portrays in an explicit and realistic way, one of the following extreme acts:
- An act which threatens a person"s life;
- An act which results in or is likely to result in serious injury to a person"s anus, breast or genitals;
- An act involving sexual interference with a human corpse,
- A person performing an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal (whether dead or alive), and a reasonable person looking at the image would think that the people and animals portrayed were real."
The law includes many exemptions, including "extreme" images used in classified/rated films and art. Also, if people have a "good reason" for possessing such images--or if they unwittingly have them on their machines and have not looked at them, then they will not be charged if caught. Likewise, people who "accidentally" stumble upon such images on the internet or who receive them unsolicited via email will not be prosecuted.
People who participate in the making and distribution of such "extreme" images, however, can expect no such mercy.
The law was devised in response to the brutal murder of Brighton teacher Jane Longhurst whose convicted killer Graham Coutts had been a frequent visitor to the websites "Club Dead" and "Rape Action".