Ministers face calls to tighten rules for online pornography platforms – hitting them with huge fines and jail terms if they fail to verify everyone who features in videos is a consenting adult
Ministers must tackle the “Wild West” of online pornography which allows trafficked and exploited women to be abused on camera, campaigners warn ahead of a Commons showdown.
MPs will be presented with a call for sites to be hit with huge fines and jail terms if they share explicit videos without verifying everyone featured is over 18 and consenting. If the law is passed, platforms would face penalties of up to £18million, or 10% of their revenue.
An amendment to the Government’s landmark Crime and Policing Bill also calls for people who appear in videos to have a legal right to withdraw their consent. This would force sites to take footage down within 24 hours.
It comes after the House of Lords backed an amendment by Baroness Gabrielle Bertin demanding tougher safeguards. Horrified peers heard that child abuse, sexual violence and trafficking victims are repeatedly found on mainstream pornography sites.
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Naomi Miles, founder of the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) told The Mirror many users are unaware of the underlying abuse in the videos they watch.
She said: “People watching it have no idea, they’re just using it for sexual arousal and sexual gratification. They’re not considering the humanity of the person involved and what’s being done to them.
“Is it real, does it hurt, what were the circumstances. It’s all just entertainment to them. It’s very difficult to tell just by looking at a piece of footage if it’s real or if it’s being acted by consenting adults. A lot of the themes in pornography centre around mocked up situations of violence and coercion, it can camouflage what’s happening.
“And without those verification mechanisms there is absolutely no certainty that the person that you are watching in a porn film wanted to be there, is happy to have their footage up for the world to see.
“And the devastating effect it has on those who were raped or abused or trafficked into the industry, it’s very difficult to overstate how damaging it is on an ongoing basis. It’s very hard for them to heal and move on with their lives knowing that the footage might resurface at any point. I’ve spoken to people that say it’s like a living nightmare.
The Government said it is already against the law to share child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate images. But Ms Miles said existing safeguards must be strengthened.
She said lack of regulation meant that user generated videos were uploaded to sites with very few checks. Ms Miles said this made it easy for abusive and illegal content to be uploaded.
She continued: “Because there’s no regulation at the moment, it’s extremely difficult to know what percentage of films were made featuring exploited women. And the other thing is that a lot of people will actually enter the industry of their own volition, or they will agree to be in a porn film, and they won’t recognise the various pressures and coercive factors involved in that decision.
“So it’s only a while later, sometimes years later, that they could see it was abuse that drove them into the industry or that coercive partner, so, that’s another factor as well. A lot of people who did create that material consensually don’t want it up online decades later, where it sort of follows them for the rest of their life.”
Labour MP Jess Asato, vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation, called on MPs to back the amendment. She told The Mirror tough new laws should also outlaw depictions of step-incest, where scenarios of older adults having sex with their stepchildren feature.
She said: “No right-thinking member of the public will understand why step-incest content or pornography which clearly portrays performers as children is allowed to be uploaded online. It’s time for the Government to regulate this disgusting content and ensure all performers are age-verified to prevent child sexual abuse material from being shared on porn platforms.”
Baroness Bertin said: “Making age and consent checks a mandatory safeguard for those featured in online pornography is the lowest possible ask of the pornography industry. It is the rock bottom of regulation. The Government must ensure that they are putting the safety of women and children – girls and boys – first and foremost. Anything less is a failure.”
A source said the Goverment shares Baroness Bertin’s concerns and is working with her and other MPs and peers. A government spokesperson said: “We remain determined to tackle dangerous and degrading pornography as part of our mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
“UK law is clear – child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate images are illegal. Under the Under the Online Safety Act’s illegal content duties, services must prevent this vile content from appearing and take it down when they become aware.
“All pornography sites are mandated under the Act to use effective age‑assurance to stop children accessing harmful content, and Ofcom has our full backing to pursue any site that fails to comply with this.”