Porn laws – is it legal, is it right?

The rights and wrongs of watching porn. Which porn is legal and which isn’t.

This piece is about porn, the law and right and wrong. Firstly I’ll start with some relevant laws about watching porn in the UK. Then we’ll look at some different situations where you can decide whether something is legal and whether it is ‘right’.

What porn is legal?

WHAT PORN IS LEGAL

In the UK it is legal to look at porn so long as it does not feature: under 18s, sex with animals, torture, scenes of rape or sexual assault or violent scenes which are life threatening or likely to cause serious harm (the last two were tested in court in August 2012 ).

Porn that is made, and made available, in the US has to be certified that all persons were over 18 at the time it was made (known as 2257 information).

Porn can be shown on UK TV after 9pm so long as it does not show erect penises or close ups of genitals.

The legal age is 18 to buy porn magazines or videos: most porn websites try to prevent under 18s from accessing them, either through charging with a credit card or by a disclaimer on the front page.

Young people under 18 who film or take sexual pictures of each other can be charged with child porn offences, even if they both agreed to it. See my piece about sexting here

If someone makes a sex tape or photographs then they have copyright over the tape, so they can probably do whatever they want with it (share on the internet for instance), unless anyone in the video or image was not aware they were involved. So someone featuring in a sex tape that was made by someone else can use the legal process to have images taken off the internet, however this can be very difficult.

It can also illegal to watch porn with someone under 18 (even they are both under 18 and both wanted to watch it), this is intended to prevent abuse of children and young people.

Is it right to watch porn?

IS PORN RIGHT

So that is the law, however just because something is legal doesn’t necessarily make it right. Also you might think that some things which are not legal are ok. Give your brain muscle a work out over these situations. Your call, I’m not going to tell you what to think!

A 36 year old family friend invites a 16 year old to sit down and watch porn.

A 19 year old shows his friends a naked picture of his 18 year old partner.

A 14 year old watching free porn on the internet.

A 17 year old takes a picture of her breasts and sends to her 18 year old boyfriend.

A 15 year old showing a porn image to a classmate suggesting they do what’s in the picture.

Downloading a porn clip that someone else has uploaded illegally.

Looking at pictures of someone who stopped sexy modelling after saying she was exploited by people in the industry.

© Justin Hancock, 2015

 

34 thoughts on “Porn laws – is it legal, is it right?

  1. Say if one of my ex Partners the girl that I was last with gave me consent to make and publish a p*** video but I haven’t talked to to her in a while ever since we broke up is it is illegal to send that video to a site

  2. Say if one of my ex Partners the girl that I was last with gave me consent to make and publish a p*** video but I haven’t talked to to her in a while ever since we broke up is it is illegal to send that video to a site

    1. You’d need to get her explicit consent again ie you would have to ask and she would need to say “yes, cool. Let me know if you need anything from me to make this happen” (or something like that). Oh and you’d both need to be over 18 both now and when the video or picture was made.

      1. So hey I got 2 questions,
        1-I don’t get why they show women’s chest in TV shows and stuff but you can’t post or find any on instagram or on any social media, ofc only on porn sites. So why is this?
        2-are you like a doctor as well so I mean can I ask you stuff about sex and all bc I got a few questions to ask, it just a bit weird but ye so are you or not?

        1. Hi

          Good question. I’m not sure that I really know the answer to your first question. I think that the issue is that when you sex naked bodies depicted in sexual ways on TV they are meant to be for an adult audience. So they’d be put on TV on (eg) after 9pm or they have a rating on them at the beginning with an age guidance. Because people from 13 – 18 can go on social media / have an account, it’s to prevent them from seeing this kind of content. Of course a lot of content providers have ways of getting around this to an extent. All I know is that whenever I try to do sex education on these platforms, even just the mention of the word sex can get my content taken down.

          I am not a doctor. But I might be able to answer some of your questions. Have a search around the website first because I may well have already answered it. You can send me a message via this page but I can’t guarantee an answer. Sadly it’s just me here and I’m only funded to work for a couple of hours a week on this at the moment (despite this being one of the best sex ed websites online, go figure).

  3. Is it child porn if I were to say take a picture with sexual intent as a 16 year old but never post it on any social media, but then post it on a social site when Im an adult?

    1. Technically speaking, it’s an illegal image when it was taken, and having it in your possession. And yes that would also be illegal if you share it on a social site (even if it’s you in the image or anyone else in the image gives their permission).

  4. Hi i have a question, so im 15 years old and i was watching hentai( a form of anime pornography) that my friend sent me, he was 13 and he said he enjoyed watching it so I sent some back at him and now his mom said she is sending it to the authorities and im very scared can i get arrested for it?

    1. Hmmmm, I’m not sure to be honest with you. I can understand why his mum might be upset that a boy, who is two years older than her son, is sending her porn. So she is probably just reacting out of shock and anger at trying to protect her kid. However if your friend tells his mum that actually he had already sent some stuff to you and was already into it then she might calm down. I don’t know what the Police are like where you are but they could question you or your friend about this. It’s not illegal to watch porn if you are under 18, but it is sometimes illegal to send porn to under 18s, even if you are under 18 yourself. Hopefully the authorities would be chill about it but obviously do get some legal advice if you get questioned.

  5. Hi there, I have a question, I was looking at porn images of a porn actress in her twenties and who clearly looked like a fully grown adult.

    Most of the images were run of the mill porn except for one in which she was dressed in a onesie had a dummy in her mouth and the text description of the picture said “[actress’s name] baby”.

    Is this illegal, the actress is clearly over 18 but is calling herself a baby and dressing in babylike clothes ?

    1. Great question. This isn’t an illegal image or video I don’t think. It sounds like you have found an ‘age play’ video. This is a kink, or a fantasy, that a lot of people have which is about adults pretending to be older or younger than they are. From your description it sounds like she’s dressed in a babylike way but also not really looking like a baby. It’s a role playing thing and a lot of people like it but also lot of people might be really confused or upset or harmed by it. One of the problems with porn tube websites is that they serve you the images whether or not you go looking for them. This means that you see something that you weren’t looking for and might be concerned, upset, or harmed by it. The websites should do better in my opinion.

  6. Hi

    I have a question

    If your looking at porn such as
    XNNX XVIDS PORNHUB PORNTUBE REDTUBE Etc..

    What if the girls are young like late teens but don’t look it?
    and look younger than 18 are we supposed to just trust that their legally aloud to make porn vids?
    and can Google flag your account and report it even though you were under the impression that they have to be verified and over 18

    Or do the mainstream porn sites have a consent form legally binding declaration which they have agreed to and put a video of them selves on a site to make $$$ canyon still get in trouble if you have watched it or downloaded it??

    1. Good Q. I think I’ve pretty much answered this above, but basically the first thing to know is that for viewers, you should be over 18 but you won’t get in trouble for looking at porn. It’s the people hosting the porn and if any adult has made you look at porn. As for the people who look like late teens: again, good question. If the porn is made by a porn company based in America, then they have to confirm that everyone in the scene is over 18. However, anyone can upload a video (which is why there is so much stolen content on porn tube sites). In order to upload a video to a porn tube site you have to declare that everyone in it is over 18. Porn tube companies should be checking this and making everyone prove that everyone is over 18, but that doesn’t guarantee that everyone is over 18. So I guess, you can be more secure in the knowledge that porn from porn companies make sure everyone is over 18. Sometimes the porn tube channels have ‘verified’ videos where they have verified that the people in the video are over 18.

    1. It depends what country you’re in, but in the UK that is illegal. With sexual offences they are only usually interested in prosecutions where there is clearly some harm going on. If it’s in the context of a consensual relationship then prosecutions are less likely.

  7. So… let’s say a 17yo couple consentually filmed a sex tape, and they decide to have it laying around for a couple of years. If police were somehow directed into checking the device for anything suspicious and thus finding said tape. Would there be a problem?

    1. The law (in the UK) is clear that a sex tape with 17 year olds is illegal porn. However if it was made consensually and not shared non-consensually, then they are probably not going to prosecute. The real harm with this is when someone shares the images without the consent of everyone in the video. Does that make sense?

      1. I’m 13 and I watch porn.
        I don’t send it to anyone and I don’t think I watch it on illegal websites. I don’t film porn or anything…
        I just watch it.
        Will the police get involved??
        Is it illegal?

        1. It’s not illegal for you to watch it, but it would be if you got someone else into watching it. Even in those cases the police would only get involved if there was other evidence of abuse, or violence, or coercion (making someone do things), or non-consent.

    1. No. Not unless you’re forcing another under 18 year old watch it with you without their consent.

  8. So in UK there’s sex with flacid cocks on after 9? How does that work, does the chick like limp dicks.

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  11. Something regarding the actual law (as opposed to the questions of morality) really bothers me. It bothers me because it is potentially an extremely destructive law, and that is the one that states that people under the age of 18 who take naked pictures of eachother can be prosecuted for child porn offences (the worst offences you could possibly have on your record, bar maybe multiple murder?)

    I am however fully aware of the probability that this particular law exists to protect, for example, a 13 year old girl from recieving naked pictures from some 17 year old guy who doesn’t know right from wrong, but still it seems a bit backward, and the reasons should be obvious to most, but i’ll explain anyway.

    The following is a fictitious scenario that i’ll make up as i go along…

    So, we have a 17 year old guy, who sends a naked pic of himself to his 16 year old girlfriend…….they’ve only been going out a week or so and she decides she doesn’t fancy him and just for the hell of it shows the pic to her friends to laugh at……. one of her friends decides to tell her parents, the parent turns out to be a cold blooded asshole and tells the cops…… the cops are forced to press charges, and the 17 year old guy gets sent to court, and found guilty on child porn offences…….he get’s labelled officially a child sex offender and WHAM – the best part of his life and peace of mind are destroyed pretty much forever even though the girl was only a year younger, and had herself consented to recieving the pic at the time it was sent.

    So, maybe that law needs to be a bit less black and white and a bit more revised so it can deal with real cases similar to the scenario I’ve given a bit more fairly and reasonably. Thanks for reading.

    1. Yup I think I agree with you Tommy. In practice I think that the Police wouldn’t be that interested in prosecuting that young man. They are more interested in prosecuting people who share images without the consent of someone in them.

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  14. I’m not clear about this: “violent scenes which are life threatening or likely to cause serious harm”.
    1. Does this apply only to ‘porn’? Can I watch a war film in which people’s lives are threatened with guns, say? If it only applies to ‘porn’ then what is the definition of ‘porn’?
    2. Does this apply to films in which actors act apparently life-threatening scenes, but no-one was actually threatened in the making of the film? Or does it apply only to material in which people’s lives were actually threatened?

    1. Hi Ron

      Most people aren’t clear about this: including judges and politicians.

      It’s a recent law which was introduced by the last government section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008

      You make very good points which I understand but can’t provide a definite answer to. For much more about this check out http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/wp/?page_id=7

      Thanks for your comment

      Justin (Bish)

  15. “Watching a glamour model’s sex tape on the internet that her ex-boyfriend sold to a porn website: she has tried to have it taken down but can’t.”

    I boycott any websites, and they are so often mainstream media sites, that publish stolen images. Case in point: Johansson’s stolen pictures which even some supposedly sex positive, women friendly sites, chose to publish.

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