The Home Office said on Wednesday that it will "make it an offence to own images featuring scenes of extreme sexual violence," according to Reuters:
The new law would outlaw any material that featured violence that was, or appeared to be, life-threatening or likely to result in serious and disabling injury.This type of material was already illegal in the United Kingdom, but websites were ignoring the law and the government was doing nothing about it:
Although it is already illegal to distribute or publish such images under the Obscene Publications Act, the material has become increasingly available via the Internet.Presumably, the government will now enforce the law. We'll see."The vast majority of people find these forms of violent and extreme pornography deeply abhorrent," Coaker said.
"Such material has no place in our society but the advent of the Internet has meant that this material is more easily available and means existing controls are being by-passed -- we must move to tackle this."
From Karnick on Culture.
Is there a journalist exception to this law? That is, could a journalist show the British images of the Rwandan massacres, like I had to watch in college?
ReplyDeleteNo exemption was mentioned, but the law refers to sexually oriented violent images, so it would not apply in such a case.
ReplyDeleteAha. Thanks. I was little unclear on whether it was specifically sexual brutality or brutality in general.
ReplyDeleteI guess the next question would be, do they have a journalist/academic exception like we do here in the States?
From the Guardian Unlimited, 8/30/06, "Clauses will exempt documentary films, news and works of art, largely by defining material as primarily pornographic in purpose."
ReplyDeleteAlthough the distribution of violent porn has been illegal, its possession hasn't.
Ah, that's what I love about the modern age. What used to be considered mere perversion is now a skill.
ReplyDelete