From 6 November, possession or publication of porn showing strangulation, incest, or adults role-playing as under 16 will be illegal in England and Wales.
From 6 November, the UK will criminalize possessing or publishing porn that depicts strangulation, incest, or adults role-playing as someone under 16. The rules are part of amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, designed to curb material that could normalize violence or harm young people.
What it means for you: platforms may tighten how they host and remove content, and keeping questionable material could expose you to legal trouble. If you have such content, consider deleting it before 6 November.
What happens next: regulators and platforms will issue guidance and enforcement, with service policies likely updating in the run-up to the deadline.
In a move that touches many people’s daily digital life, the UK is tightening rules around what can be shown or kept online. Starting on 6 November, it will be illegal to possess or publish porn that shows strangulation or suffocation, depicts sexual activity between relatives, or features adults role-playing as someone under 16. The changes were made as amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, with the aim of stopping material authorities say normalizes dangerous behavior among young people.
Why this matters to readers: it changes what you can legally share or store in cloud backups or on a device, and it places more responsibility on platforms to police content hosted on their services. The government says the goal is to send a clear message that extreme and violent content that could influence real‑world harm isn’t acceptable online or offline.
From 6 November, it becomes criminal to publish or possess the content described above. The offences carry penalties that can reach up to five years in prison for publication. Possession of such images stored on a phone, computer, or cloud could lead to up to three years in prison for material involving pretending to be under 16, and up to two years for content depicting strangulation or incest.
Officials stress this is about how the law is applied to online platforms and the broader online environment, not about criminalising ordinary sexual preferences. The changes aim to prevent material that could normalize violence against women or harm young people from spreading or being kept in private archives.
Supporters, including Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones, describe the move as a necessary step to protect young people and to curb content that might influence real‑life harm. A law professor who has commented on the review warned that content which “normalises sexually violent content” could distort what people think is acceptable in relationships. Critics, however, worry about how platforms will enforce the rules quickly and effectively, and they wonder how the new offences will be applied to everyday people who may keep questionable material in backups or archives.
For most readers, this won’t change what you can access on major sites or apps overnight. It does mean platforms hosting adult content will face higher expectations to police uploads and block links. If you’ve ever kept explicit material that could fall under these new offences, you’ll want to review what you have stored and consider deleting it before 6 November.
The government says the goal is to reshape the online porn space and ensure safer social norms. Regulators and platforms will likely issue guidance and enforcement notices in the weeks ahead, so users should stay aware of any service policy updates or takedown requests tied to this change.
Possessing or publishing porn that shows strangulation, incest, or adults pretending to be under 16 is criminalized. Penalties vary by offence, up to five years for publication.
Authorities will rely on the new offences within the Crime and Policing Bill, and platforms hosting or distributing material may face obligations to remove or block content quickly.
Officials say the aim is to curb material that normalizes violence or harms young people; enforcement will determine how broadly the rules are applied.
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