UK to ban pornography depicting strangulation and incest from November

The UK government has announced that pornography depicting strangulation, incest and people pretending to be children will be banned from 6 November. The rules apply to online content and follow cross-party pressure that led ministers to announce new legislation earlier this year.

Online content showing strangulation or suffocation, sex between relatives or people pretending to be related, or someone pretending to be under 16 will become illegal.

Review recommendations

The ban draws on recommendations from a review of pornography regulation by Gabby Bertin, a Conservative peer in the House of Lords. Her report, published in 2025, found that pornography showing women being choked can have "devastating" real-world consequences. It also highlighted "disturbing" role-play, including incest and adults portraying children, and said there had been a "total absence of government scrutiny" of the industry.

Non-fatal strangulation is already a criminal offence in the UK, but showing it online was not previously illegal.

Reactions

Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the aim was not to criminalise harmless sexual preferences, but that pornography can shape views of healthy relationships, especially among young people. He said normalising or glorifying violence against women is dangerous.

Bertin called the change very good news and said that, together with better enforcement and stronger regulation, it would send a clear signal to companies and wider society.

The campaign group End Violence Against Women Coalition welcomed the ban. Its interim director, Janaya Walker, urged the government to ensure effective enforcement and to update the Online Safety Act so that online platforms are required to remove such content.