BuzzFeed News spoke to British adult performers about the controversial new government legislation. WARNING: Some slightly NSFW language.
This week a series of new censorship laws aimed at UK-based pornography came into effect.
The Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 provided an amendment to the 2003 Communications Act, making Video on Demand (VoD) porn produced and sold in the UK subject to the same British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) regulations as DVDs.
From now on VoD pornography must now adhere strictly to an R18 classification, meaning the following acts are effectively banned:
Aggressive whipping
Caning
Facesitting
Female ejaculation
Fisting
Penetration by any object “associated with violence”
Physical or verbal abuse (regardless of whether consensual)
Spanking
Strangulation
Urolagnia (watersports)
Lexi Lowe / Via brazzers.com
BuzzFeed News spoke to UK adult performers and an anti-censorship campaigner to get their thoughts on the controversial new porn laws.
Lexi Lowe has worked on most of the UK babe channels, including Playboy TV Chat, and runs Euro Elite PR.
Lexi Lowe
Lexi Lowe: I find it all a bit odd, there is no other way to describe it. As far as I can see there is no logical reason for the changes, other than "some people" find certain sex acts not normal and therefore have collectively decided it is wrong and British people shouldn't be corrupted by depictions of such acts.
I find it so bizarre that the changes only apply to VoD porn – in other words, porn that you have to pay to access – yet free tube sites where arguably the majority of minors will go to view adult content are left to continue as normal. The argument that the new laws are in aid of child protection hold no weight.
Itziar Bilbao Urrutia: The laws are a clumsy, but effective, form of state censorship of the internet. Porn is just an excuse. Dictatorially restricting people's access to free information on the internet wouldn't be popular among voters, but using the old "think of the children" argument masks it as something that it's not.
It's not about porn, but about preventing people from freely accessing knowledge on the internet. They are doing what China does but with a different veneer.
Paul Taylor: I think telling people what they can and can't do is shocking, and to come out and say "If you make your money from any of these areas you now can't by law" is very big-headed.
Who are [the government] to say if someone can enjoy something or not? Who have they consulted to make these laws? Have they just made them based on something they know nothing about like everything else they do?
Professional dominatrix Itziar Bilbao Urrutia, aka Ms Tytania, runs the Urban Chick Supremacy Cell website, and earlier this year won a battle with the Authority for Television on Demand quango, which works alongside Ofcom to regulate on-demand services.
Itziar Bilbao Urrutia