The types of extreme pornography that will be banned from November

The government has announced that pornography depicting strangulation or suffocation, incest, or adults pretending to be children under 16 will be illegal from 6 November. The change follows cross-party pressure over concerns that extreme porn can normalise violence and affect ideas about healthy relationships, particularly among young people.

The ban will make possessing or publishing this material a criminal offence; non-fatal strangulation is already illegal, but showing it online is not. A 2024 study found more than a third of adults aged 16 to 34 had been strangled or choked during consensual sex, while a survey last year found 43 per cent of sexually active 16- and 17-year-olds had experienced it. The measures were recommended in Baroness Gabby Bertin’s 2025 review of pornography regulation.