BBFC tries to expand its surveillance role to online pornography | pornography

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has held discussions with the government about expanding its role in monitoring online pornography.

At the opening meeting of the Independent pornography Review Taskforce – The politicians, the police and charity organizations brought together to discuss how harmful content can regulate on the Internet – said the President of the BBFC, Natasha Kaplinsky, said the organization hoped to take on the task.

“There have been laws for many years to protect the public from violent and abusive pornographic content offline, but the online law did not keep up,” said Kaplinsky.

She said the BBFC had classified offline pornographic content for 40 years and now wanted to extend its task and take on a legal role online.

“We are ready to better protect the audience online by taking on the formal role of online pornography,” she said.

The conservative peer Gabby Bertin recommended that the BBFC should check websites at the beginning of this year when it published a review for harmful pornography, which was commissioned by the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

She has set up a task force of 17 people to examine how you can contribute parity to regulate online and offline pornography, which reflects the fact that the vast majority has long been viewed online, where it is subject to relatively low regulation.

“We cannot mean the taboo on this topic that the industry is unregulated,” said Lady Bertin and started the first session.

She added that better monitoring of online pornography was of crucial importance, since it is viewed every month by an estimated 13.8 million adults in Great Britain, emphasized that the work of the task force was “not a moral crusade”.

“If you have such a large number of people who look at this type of content, you have to make sure that it is regulated,” she said.

“For the tobacco industry, the beverage industry or the gaming industry, it would be unthinkable not to end the right exam for the pornography industry.”

The The online security law blamed the COM supervisory authority For the guarantee of social media and pornography -websites have websites in effective age reviews.

OFCOM also monitors whether websites that distribute user -generated pornography, protect British spectators from illegal material that affects sexual abuse and extreme content of children (e.g. rape, bestiality and necrophilia).

However, other forms of harmful pornography that are regulated offline are not subject to similar restrictions online.

Investigations by the BBFC showed that in the past three months one of three adult users was exposed to a violent or abusive content online, since material with physical violence, did not appear as a consensual activities and adult role-playing games as children.

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This material would not be classified as legal to see in cinemas or to be sold by the organization in physical formats (videos or DVDs). However, it does not achieve the threshold of illegal content online, so it is not part of OFCOM’s jurisdiction.

It is a criminal offense according to the video recording law to distribute a pornographic video work that was not classified by the BBFC.

“This content is violent, it is humiliating, abusive, it is misogymer,” said Bertin. “We know what a disadvantageous effect it has on society. It really begins to play how young people have sex, see themselves and see each other.”

The Labor MP Jess Asato, one of the Taskforce members, repeated the need for stronger regulation and praised the government last week for its commitment to the criminalization of pornographic content with strangulation.

“Young women feel under pressure to play the screenplays that their male partners learn from pornography and are put under pressure on painful and dangerous sex files,” she said.

“Of particular importance for me is content that seems to show sexual activities with children and use adult actors who use props such as lollipops and teddy bears. This normalizes the sexual abuse of children.”

David Austin, the managing director of the BBFC, said that his organization had “very constructive” discussions with the government about the opportunity to take on a longer role, but do not give any details about how it would confront the enormous task of monitoring harmful pornographic content online.

A government spokesman said that the latest decision to prohibit pornography with strangulation files In response to Bertin’s assessmentWith adding: “Violence against women and girls is a national emergency, which is why our government is setting up within a decade. The fight against extreme pornography is an essential part of this mission.”