A type of so-called “barely legal” pornography would be banned online under legislation to be proposed this autumn by a new independent UK taskforce.
The group of politicians and campaigners, led by Conservative peer Baroness Bertin, is looking at ways to make it illegal for sites to host any content that could encourage child sexual abuse.
It comes amid concerns following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary about porn star Bonnie Blue, real name Tia Billinger, who has talked about having sex with “barely legal 18-year-olds”.
Scenes depicting adults dressed as children or a set made to look like a child’s bedroom would be among the content the Independent Pornography Taskforce, set up last month, proposes be subject to a ban, it is understood.
Baroness Bertin told the PA news agency: “We would seek to bring parity with what is legal offline and what is legal online.
“Whatever is illegal offline should be illegal online – that is not a freedom of expression issue, that is just plain common sense.”
The group is looking at ways in which the law could be changed, such as through amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, as first reported by the Guardian.
The Online Safety Act, enforced by Ofcom, requires online platforms to protect UK viewers from illegal material, such as child sexual abuse and extreme pornography.
However, other types of content that are banned offline – for example, in cinemas or on DVDs – by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) do not face the same type of auditing online.
It comes after the broadcast of Channel 4’s 1,000 Men And Me: The Bonnie Blue Story about the performer who, after claiming to have had sex with 1,057 men in 12 hours, thanked “all the barely legal, barely breathing and the husbands”.
A Channel 4 spokesperson said: “1,000 Men And Me: The Bonnie Blue Story is an observational documentary that follows Tia Billinger (Bonnie Blue) as she gains worldwide attention and earns millions of pounds from her content. The film looks at Tia’s divisive style of her social media and hears from colleagues and collaborators in order to understand her polarising business model. The director Victoria Silver puts many challenges to Tia throughout the documentary, and the film clearly lays bare the tactics and strategies Tia uses, with the audience left to form their own opinions.”
They added: “Careful consideration has been given to the content and the way in which it is included, and the final programme is compliant with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. The explicit content in the documentary is editorially justified and provides essential context; making pornographic content is Bonnie’s job, and this film is about her work and the response to it. Crucially, the content is presented in a non-gratuitous and in part partially blurred manner, and viewers are alerted to the sexual content with appropriate warnings to ensure they understood from the outset the nature of the programme.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Violence against women and girls is a national emergency, and this government is committed to halving it within a decade.
“Tackling extreme pornography is a vital part of that mission, particularly where it risks encouraging violence and abuse, and we have recently pledged to ban depictions of choking. Baroness Bertin’s review is a vital resource and we are considering how we respond.”
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