There's no way around it: The pandemic changed everything. While lockdowns and safety restrictions are necessary for public health, they are not conducive to busy sex lives; despite a huge increase in sex toy sales. If you're single, or don't share a household or support bubble with a sexual partner, getting intimate with someone in real life is always a serious negotiation. Despite the challenges, people aren't giving up on orgasms entirely. "Is it legal to watch porn?" is one of the most searched questions in the UK, research has found.
Sexual pleasure can be a great stress reliever, and if you like watching porn while being intimate with yourself or your partner, you're not alone. According to The Recovery Village, 25% of search engine requests are related to adult or pornographic searches. Pornhub became the seventh most visited website on the internet in 2020, and sex toy boutique Self & More reported a 783% increase in sales during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
Watching porn is a pretty private thing, but is it legal? It may seem like a silly question, but over the past decade, adult content has been at the top of the government's agenda as policies have been introduced to restrict viewing of pornography.
Is it legal to watch porn?
In short, the answer is yes, it is legal to watch porn in the UK. However, there are of course some conditions that must be adhered to. Content depicting abuse or rape and any content involving persons under 18 years of age is illegal. Content filmed or posted without the person's consent (often called revenge porn) is also illegal. There are other laws against extreme pornography, including bestiality, necrophilia, threats to people's lives, and more.
What is a porn block?
Searching "Is it legal to watch porn" may seem a bit ridiculous, given how easy it is to find porn online in the UK. However, over the past five years, the UK government has taken steps to introduce policies to change the way people view pornography. Adult content was accessed online through what came to be known as the "porn block."
Plans to block pornography date back to the 2015 election, when David Cameron promised to change the way adult content is viewed online. The porn ban, first proposed in Parliament in April 2017 as part of Section 14(1) of the Digital Economy Act, would not make adult content illegal but would introduce stricter measures to ensure that 18-year-olds People below cannot access it.
According to the BBC, it has been suggested that users may be asked to upload a scan of their passport or driving license. It has also been reported that some newsagents may be selling "porn passes" - cards given to people to access pornographic sites after they prove they are over 18.
According to the BBC, under a proposed new ruling, adult content websites that operate as businesses and make money would be blocked by internet service providers and fined up to the maximum amount if they do not introduce "robust" age verification procedures. Fine of £250,000.
Speaking about the policy, Childnet CEO Will Gardner said in a statement that he hoped "the introduction of age verification will help protect children and make it harder for young people to be accidentally exposed to online pornography and avoid bringing young people into online pornography. “We use the same protections offline to protect children from age-restricted goods or services. "
Why aren't porn bans taking effect?
The proposed porn block encountered a number of legal and logistical difficulties. Almost immediately, some activist groups expressed privacy concerns. Opponents worry about where people's personal data will be stored and how it will be protected. Jim Killock of Open Rights told The Independent that "due to the sensitivity of age verification data, a higher standard of protection is required than the baseline provided by data protection legislation." On top of that, campaigners argue that comprehensive age verification Validation will have a disproportionately negative impact on online sex workers and sex bloggers.
In October 2019, the government announced it was abandoning the porn ban. The Guardian reported that the government spent £2.2 million developing and studying the policy before ending it.
After abandoning the porn ban, then culture secretary Nicky Morgan said in the Guardian: “The government’s commitment to protecting children online is unwavering. Adult content is too easily available online and more action is needed. Take multiple steps to protect children from harm.”
This does not mean that the government has completely abandoned its focus on explicit content online. In December 2020, Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden and Home Secretary Priti Patel outlined new rules for technology and social media companies.
The "White Paper on Internet Harms" proposes the legal duty of care owed by platforms to young people. They said tech companies including Twitter and Instagram needed to do more to protect children from harmful content such as "grooming, bullying and pornography". This new legislation means that platforms may face fines or legal sanctions if they do not take their duty of care seriously.
