Latest news with #GabbyBertin
The Independent
06-03-2025
- The Independent
Fifth of adults who watch porn say content they view has become more extreme
Almost a fifth of UK adults who admit to watching pornography say the type of sexual content they view has become more aggressive or extreme over time, according to research. A charity has warned that people who do so can end up watching illegal content including child abuse, having become desensitised to legal adult pornography. Of the 40% of adults surveyed who admitted to watching pornography, more than a quarter (27%) said their consumption has become more frequent, while 19% said the type of things they watch has become more aggressive or extreme. The polling, commissioned by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, comes a week after a review into pornography concluded that free and easily accessible online content 'has become increasingly violent, degrading and misogynistic'. The Government vowed to clamp down on pornography which shows women being choked after the review – by Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin – found such content can have 'devastating' real-world consequences. Non-fatal strangulation is already an offence in its own right, but it is not illegal to show it online. Dr Alexandra Bailey, head of psychology at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and associate professor at the University of Roehampton, said people who develop a tolerance for certain types of porn can end up going in search of more hardcore content which could be illegal. She said: 'It may sound a bit extreme to suggest that escalating pornography habits can lead people to offending online and viewing child sexual abuse material, but sadly it's true and something helpline advisers at Stop It Now see every single day. 'We see people who go from watching legal pornography to watching more and more extreme content online. 'In these instances, the individual builds a tolerance to the content they're watching, becoming desensitised to legal adult pornography, which leads them to seek out more extreme material to achieve the same level of gratification – in some circumstances this includes illegal child sexual abuse material. 'It's important that people can recognise when a relationship with pornography develops into something more problematic.' The charity is encouraging anyone who is worried about their own behaviour or that of someone they know to seek help. Dr Bailey said: 'Watching illegal content online has life-changing consequences for you and your family, who are secondary victims. 'These consequences include criminal conviction, becoming a registered sex offender, family and career breakdown, housing implications, and even media exposure. 'It causes serious harm to real children.' Assistant Chief Constable Alastair Simpson, from the National Police Chiefs' Council, said: 'Online child abuse sadly continues to grow in prevalence and severity, enabled by new technology that makes accessing child abuse material increasingly easier. 'The work of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation is fundamental in intercepting those who do or could pose a risk to children, and I would encourage anyone who is worried about their online behaviour to get help now, don't let it escalate. 'Protecting children from harm is a responsibility we all share, and whilst policing works every day to target the most harmful criminals intent on abusing children online, we must see greater action from technology companies to regulate and control access to the content on their platforms.' – Polling was carried out for the Lucy Faithfull Foundation among 2,520 adults in the UK by Verian in January.
The Guardian
03-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Porn isn't just a reflection of our desires – it shapes them, putting women and girls at risk
If you've seen porn in recent years, you'll know it's grim out there these days. Incest and strangulation are rife, as is coercion, racism, and also sexual violence. It's front and centre on mainstream porn sites and many social media platforms, pushed by recommendation algorithms on a drive to maximise engagement and profit. It's a world away from the days when 'hardcore' porn meant an erect penis. But we might be on the brink of change. Last week the long-awaited independent porn review led by the Conservative peer Gabby Bertin was published, marking the biggest review of pornography regulation in more than 40 years. Its findings amount to a clear indictment of what counts as porn today and the inaction of successive governments to do anything to fix it. It was a Labour government which first brought in the extreme porn law in 2009, recognising the need for a step-change in how we regulate pornography. It's now time for the next great step forward, and it's one that will be integral to the success of the government's mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. The public appetite for regulation has shifted. For a while, many believed that a hands-off approach to regulation would strengthen our sexual freedoms and protect our right to privacy. In reality, it's done the opposite. Most pornography today suppresses our sexual freedom. What we watch is driven largely not by user choice and preference but profit-driven AI recommendation algorithms that have learned we are drawn to material that invokes disgust, shock and rage. Our privacy rights have been trampled by multinational porn conglomerates who have had free range to mine some of our most intimate data to feed these algorithms. One study of over 22,000 porn sites found that 93% of them were sending user data to at least one third party, often without users knowing. We have started to recognise the impact of this across much of our other online activity. In 2020, a review into bias in algorithmic decision-making commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, found that racist and sexist attitudes are not just reproduced but produced by recommendation algorithms. And the information commissioner has now launched an investigation into how social media platforms are using data generated by children's online activity to serve them content. This is partly how we've got to a place where so much online porn promotes and perpetuates harmful, violent, misogynistic and racist tropes. The porn platforms themselves are implicated in producing these preferences, pushing men and increasingly women further than we would otherwise go. While Lady Bertin's report doesn't delve deep enough into algorithmic decision-making on porn sites and its impact on our freedom and privacy, it does provide a blueprint for what needs to change. Its most important recommendation is the establishment of parity between what is regulated offline and what is regulated online. It also suggests that platforms are mandated to adopt specific safety-by-design measures, via the development of a safe pornography code in the Online Safety Act, or a new publications offence. Alongside this, it recommends that pornography depicting incest or strangulation should be made illegal under the extreme pornography act, and that the Home Office is the natural home for pornography policy, creating a clear route for oversight and accountability and ending the 'pass the buck' approach to regulation that has dominated debate so far. The report also contains a passing mention of support for device-level age verification, if the measures to restrict children's access to porn sites in the Online Safety Act prove ineffective. Far from a simple difference, this shift significantly alters who is responsible for keeping kids safe; from the platforms that profit from their access, on to parents and carers who would have to keep them away from any verified devices. It isn't a better option, and it definitely isn't a safer system; unsurprisingly, the porn platforms prefer it, because it would do less harm to their traffic. On publication of the report, the government announced they will respond to each recommendation in due course. The review marks the kind of opportunity we would say comes once in a lifetime. Except it has come before. As prime minister in 2013, David Cameron announced that, when it comes to porn, 'what you can't get in a shop, you shouldn't be able to get online'. Twelve years later, Lady Bertin's first recommendation is the same: that pornographic content that is illegal to distribute in physical formats should also be treated as illegal content on online platforms. It's taken us over a decade to end up in the same place. It's not that we don't know what needs to be done. We just need this government to finally step up and actually do it. Clare McGlynn also contributed to this article Fiona Vera-Gray is a professor of sexual violence at London Metropolitan University and co-director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit Clare McGlynn is a professor of law at Durham University and expert on the legal regulation of pornography
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on pornography: the Obscene Publications Act needs an update
It is news to nobody that the internet has enabled an unprecedented explosion of pornographic material. There is widespread awareness, too, that much of this is far more violent than used to be the norm in adult sexual publishing and entertainment – with more extreme content understood to drive engagement, as it does across the internet. The UK's Online Safety Act should block children from accessing disturbing and unsuitable content. It is shameful that age-verification legislation took so long. The independent report on pornography delivered to ministers this week ought to be the next step in a national effort to deal with the proliferation of online sexual violence. As Peter Kyle, the science secretary, said on Thursday, it is an authoritative piece of work. When he meets its author, Gabby Bertin, next week, he should commit to act on her recommendations. Draft guidance from Ofcom, regarding material currently defined as legal but harmful, is under consultation. But Lady Bertin is right to demand that ministers go further. While clear-sighted about the disproportionate harms to women, she notes, too, the dangers to boys and men, and highlights the prospect that problematic pornography use could be classed as an addiction. The initial response from ministers suggests that making strangulation pornography illegal will, rightly given the associated risks, be prioritised. This is one of several areas in which the gap between the rules governing online and offline content is both wrong and illogical. Material that is illegal to distribute in physical form (in films or DVDs) ought to be prohibited online as well. It is shocking that payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard have, until now, been the closest thing there is to a regulator of the vast online pornography industry. The goal is not blanket censorship, but preventing harmful content from being produced, promoted and easily accessed, especially by minors. Ministers' reiteration of pledges to ban deepfake nude images and strengthen the law on intimate image abuse is also welcome. So is the acknowledgment that police tracking and recording of online sexual offences need to be improved, partly to increase understanding and evidence of links with 'real life' violence. Even with the Online Safety Act in place, the current laws dating back to the Obscene Publications Act are inadequate and poorly enforced. Statutory codes as well as legislation could be used to close loopholes. The government's commitment to halve violence against women and girls must point to a more robust overall approach. Measures to protect performers should include a new right to withdraw consent – meaning that pornographic content would be taken down. The existence of pornography categories including incest, step-incest and 'teens', points to dark aspects of sexuality that many people would rather ignore – and partly explains the extraordinary laxness with which the industry is treated. The safety by design measures in the Online Safety Act must be used to compel businesses to stop promoting material that is harmful but not illegal. Regulation of the sex industry is an international issue as well as a domestic one. But Lady Bertin directs her challenge to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, in particular. For too long, she argues, pornography policy has been dispersed across government, leaving no one fully in charge. The review makes a powerful case that Ms Cooper should take it on. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Independent
27-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Pornography showing women being choked should be banned, Government told
The Government will clamp down on pornography which shows women being choked after a review found the content can have 'devastating' real-world consequences. Videos showing the practice are rife on pornography sites and have helped established it as a sexual norm, a review of the industry led by Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin said. Non-fatal strangulation is already an offence in its own right, but it is not illegal to show it online. Downing Street suggested it would 'act swiftly' to address gaps in the law around choking pornography, but stopped short of saying it would be banned. Writing in the report, which was commissioned under Rishi Sunak's government, Baroness Bertin said there had been a 'total absence of government scrutiny' of the pornography industry. The Tory peer referred to worrying anecdotal evidence from teachers about students asking how to choke girls during sex. People acting out choking in their sex lives 'may face devastating consequences', she said in the review. ' Evidence shows that even a small amount of pressure to the neck can harm the brain, and there is no safe way to strangle a person,' she added. 'I do not think Government should take the risk of allowing this content to be legal, given what we know about how much pornography exposure can influence sexual behaviour,' she said. Responding to the concerns in a written statement, technology minister Feryal Clark said the Government would take 'urgent action to ensure pornography platforms, law enforcement and prosecutors are taking all necessary steps to tackle this increasingly prevalent harm'. Baroness Bertin's review also recommended that videos considered too harmful for certification in the offline world should not be available online, ending the 'disparity' between the two. Welcoming the report's recommendations, Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: 'For too long, the porn industry has been free to profit from sexual violence against women and children, shaping collective behaviours and expectations about sex in a deeply harmful way. 'We know these companies are profiting enormously from sexual violence, and until they are forced to clean up their act, they won't. 'We know that tech company algorithms are serving harmful content to boys and young men when they aren't necessarily seeking it, because extreme content drives engagement and therefore revenue. '(The Government) cannot continue to ignore the immense harms arising from the current state of the porn industry which puts business over women and girls' safety.' A Government spokesperson said: 'To deliver our mission to halve violence against women and girls, we must interrogate the link between violent pornography online and dangerous behaviours offline which this important review highlights. 'We have already announced we will ban the creation of intimate deepfakes without consent and, from next month, under the Online Safety Act, platforms will have to proactively tackle illegal content including extreme pornography and sexual abuse material. 'But further action is needed to address the review's shocking finding that graphic strangulation is increasingly appearing in pornography, despite being illegal, and is becoming normalised in real life. 'We will urgently ensure that platforms, law enforcement and prosecutors take all necessary steps to tackle this disturbing harm.'
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ban misogynistic online porn, review proposes
Degrading, violent and misogynistic pornography should be banned, a review of the industry has recommended. The review, commissioned by the previous government and headed by the Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin, urges ministers to give regulator Ofcom sweeping powers to police porn sites deemed to contain "harmful" material. It proposes outlawing "degrading, violent and misogynistic content", including making it illegal to possess or publish pornography showing women being choked during sex. Non-fatal strangulation is already an offence if someone does not consent but its depiction online is not illegal and the review finds it is "rife on mainstream platforms". All porn sites must 'robustly' verify UK user ages by July The 'incredible' number of UK adults watching porn The review proposes that porn videos considered too harmful for any certificate in the offline world should be banned online. Baroness Bertin argues that online pornography contributes to some of the "gravest issues in our society, from domestic violence to toxic masculinity to the mental health crisis among young people". She told the BBC: "I'm not saying that people shouldn't watch porn. I'm not saying porn shouldn't exist. I'm not a prude." However, her 32 recommendations on what government should do about the "high-harm sector" of legal online pornography are likely to initiate a debate about how far the state should police people's sex lives. Baroness Bertin said online porn was not "properly scrutinised and regulated" in the same way as offline content. "It strikes me as incredible that to buy a DVD, which sounds so sort of retro, the BBFC [British Board of Film Classification] has to put a stamp on it, has to check that certain standards have been met. That there's no sense you are encouraging child sexual abuse. No harmful, degrading, humiliating practices which is not through consensual roleplay," she told the BBC. "You just have to go on the homepages of some of these mainstream sites and you will see of all that degrading content – particularly violent towards women – and it's all there for everyone to see." Her report suggests pornography websites depicting the non-fatal choking of women during sex has normalised such behaviour in the real world, with violent and degrading material rife on mainstream platforms amid a "total absence of government scrutiny". The review cites research suggesting that over a quarter of the nation regularly accesses online porn with a third of all men watching material at least once a week. It concludes that increasingly disturbing content is "rewiring" the way young people think about gender, sex and their role in society. The Department for Science Innovation and Technology said it would look at the links the review highlighted. "We have already announced we will ban the creation of intimate deepfakes without consent and from next month under the Online Safety Act platforms will have to proactively tackle illegal content including extreme pornography and sexual abuse material," the spokesperson said. "But further action is needed to address the review's shocking finding that graphic strangulation is increasingly appearing in pornography, despite being illegal, and is becoming normalised in real life. "We will urgently ensure that platforms, law enforcement and prosecutors take all necessary steps to tackle this disturbing harm." Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme ahead of publication, said he would act to adapt the law if needed. "I know that this content is harmful to many of the people who currently have free access to it. "We have the powers to prevent people getting the access to it, even if the material is provided from elsewhere. "We just need to find ways of making sure that that is done efficiently and effectively." Baroness Bertin argues that her proposals for sweeping new controls in currently legal pornography online would prevent real-world violence against women and girls. The review relates how a 14-year-old boy asked a teacher how to choke girls during sex and suggests online porn has created "such a confusing world for our sons". "They are, quite rightly, encouraged and taught to reject sexist attitudes, while a subterranean online world of pornography is simultaneously showing them that anything goes," Baroness Bertin writes. Ministers are urged to fund programmes for boys and young men which encourage positive masculinity and counter misogynistic culture. The report quotes BBC research suggesting up to 38% of British women had experienced being strangled during intercourse, but notes that nearly half of those women wanted to be choked. "This is important in demonstrating freedom of sexual expression and its nuance," the review says. Nevertheless, the report concludes that society has decided that "enough is enough" of harmful online pornography and its impact on young people. Measures to increase regulation of pornography, including to prevent children accessing explicit content, are already part of the Online Safety Act, which became law in October 2023. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
