Porn protest: UK laws banning erotic acts should be annulled, Lib Dem MP says
Backbench MP Julian Huppert says that the new rules are 'very odd'
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Your support makes all the difference.As people gather at a face-sitting protest over the new UK porn rules at Old Palace Yard in Westminster, a backbench MP has attacked the ban of a long list of erotic acts in porn claimed to be 'harmful', by ministers.
Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem MP for Cambridge, tabled a Commons motion calling for the new rules to be annulled.
He said that the new rules mean that "all video on-demand services that originate from the UK can’t show various acts, such as spanking".
"It seems to be to be very odd to say that this – assuming it is consensual – is acceptable for somebody to do in their own home, for them to photograph it, film it, but not to look at it online if it comes from the UK," he said.
Today a mass face-sitting protest is due to take place in London. Around 500 people are to simulate sex at Old Palace Yard in Westminster, as MPs debate the recent changes to UK pornography regulations and the effective banning of certain sex acts that the government deems morally damaging.
The new law mean spanking, caning, aggressive whipping, penetration by any object "associated with violence", physical or verbal abuse (regardless of whether consent is given or not), urolagnia (known as "water sports"), role-playing as non-adults, physical restraint, humiliation, female ejaculation, strangulation, facesitting, and fisting are now banned from web porn sold in the UK.
Brought in by the Audiovisual Media Services regulation 2014 , the ban states that any online paid-for porn such as Video on Demand (VoD) must adhere to the same rules set out for DVD production.
A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said: "The legislation provides the same level of protection to the online world that exists on the high street in relation to the sale of physical DVDs.
"In a converging media world these provisions must be coherent and the BBFC classification regime is a tried and tested system of what content is regarded as harmful for minors."
Mr Huppert tabled an Early Day Motion in order to ensure that the topic is debated in the House of Commons.
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