Anger as UK bans some forms of porn

A number of sex acts have been banned from being included in pornography produced in the UK.

The Independent reports that under the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014, both online and offline porn will be regulated by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC).

As from the 1st of December, the regulations ban the following list of sex acts from being shown in UK-made porn:

Spanking; Caning; Aggressive whipping; Penetration by any object “associated with violence”; Physical or verbal abuse (regardless of if consensual); Urolagnia (known as “water sports”); Role-playing as non-adults; Physical restraint; Humiliation; Female ejaculation; Strangulation; Facesitting and; Fisting.

The newspaper points out that the regulations are arbitrary, don’t distinguish between consensual and non-consensual activity and appear to target female sexuality. According to the BBFC, the last three acts in the list are described as potentially “life-endangering”.

While the regulations don’t stop people from watching any of these acts in foreign-made porn, they do bar UK producers from shooting these kinds of scenes.

According to the organisation Sex and Censorship, the guidelines are open to “vast interpretation and mis-interpretation by both producers and BBFC examiners.”

The group’s Jerry Barnett told Vice UK: “They’re simply a set of moral judgements designed by people who have struggled endlessly to stop the British people from watching pornography.”

A petition, describing the regulations as “sexist, archaic and damaging”, has been a launched calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to repeal the regulations.