10/17/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/19jnJuPNPw/?mibextid=wwXIfr
From Nov. 6, it will be a crime in England and Wales to possess or publish p**nographic images that realistically show strangulation or suffocation, s*x between people who appear to be related, or s*xual activity in which someone is, or is pretending to be, under 16. The in**st offense also covers step and foster relationships when one person is, or pretends to be, under 18. It applies only to images of people who look real.
The offenses are part of the Crime and Policing Act, which became law in April. They follow a 2025 review by Conservative peer Gabby Bertin, who said strangulation in p**n had become "totally normalized." In a 2024 study by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, more than a third of 16- to 34-year-olds said they had been strangled or choked at least once during consensual s*x. Non-fatal strangulation became a separate crime in 2022, but most depictions of it in p**n stayed legal.
Possession can bring up to two years in prison, or three in the under-16 category, and publishing up to five. There is a defense for anyone who was sent an image without asking for it and did not keep it for an unreasonable time. Under the Online Safety Act, platforms that fail to act against illegal content face fines of up to 10% of their global revenue.
"Content that normalizes, or even glorifies, violence against women is dangerous," said justice minister Alex Davies-Jones, adding that the law "isn't about criminalizing harmless s*xual preferences." Some critics call the ban censorship and object to prison terms for viewing and sharing staged scenes.
Sources: GOV.UK, ITV News, The Guardian, LBC, Deseret News
