Choking porn to be illegal from 6 November

Online pornography depicting strangulation or incestuous relationships will be banned in England and Wales from early November, the government has announced.

From 6 November, it will be illegal to possess or publish pornography which shows strangulation or suffocation, depicts sexual activity between people who are related, or shows adults role-playing as children under 16.

Ministers say the change is aimed at material that normalises violence against women and is shaping the expectations of young people, many of whom encounter pornography long before they reach adulthood.

‘Not a moment too soon’

The new rules follow an independent review of pornography regulation published in 2025, which found that depictions of choking were “rife” on popular sites and had helped to normalise the act among young people.

The review was led by the Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin and commissioned under Rishi Sunak’s government. It cited the account of a 14-year-old boy asking a teacher how to choke girls during sex, and warned that people imitating such behaviour “may face devastating consequences”.

Lady Bertin said the news came “not a moment too soon”. She said the change in law would “send the unequivocal signal” to companies that host pornography, and to wider society, that “extreme and violent content that encourages real-life harm is not acceptable”.

What the law will do

Non-fatal strangulation is already a criminal offence when someone has not consented. Until now, however, its depiction online has not been illegal. Amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, which became law in April, were designed to close that gap.

The new offences carry a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment for publication, which the government says includes uploading, posting or otherwise making content available online.

Possession — which can include keeping an image on a phone, a computer or in cloud storage — is also covered. Someone found with images of sexual activity involving a person pretending to be under 16 could face up to three years in prison. Possession of images showing strangulation, suffocation or penetrative sexual activity between certain relatives could bring up to two years.

Material depicting sex between step or foster relations, where one person is pretending to be under 18, will also fall within the new offences.

‘Delete it’

The justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the measure was not about “criminalising harmless sexual preferences”. But she argued that “porn can shape what people think a healthy relationship looks like, especially young people”, and that content which “normalises, or even glorifies” violence against women can “blur the line with what is acceptable in real life”.

Her message to the public was blunt. “If you’ve got this material, delete it. If you’re sharing it, stop,” she said. “It’s not as harmless as you may think, and after 6 November, it is criminal.”

Can it be enforced?

Clare McGlynn, a law professor at Durham University who has long warned that extreme content normalises sexual violence, called the change “a potential turning point” and “a line in the sand”.

But she said the real test would be whether technology platforms and the regulator acted swiftly to remove violating material. “While these are criminal offences, this is not about prosecuting individuals, but transforming the online pornographic landscape, and that requires the platforms and regulator to act,” she said.

That challenge is considerable. Much of the content is hosted overseas, and large sites carry vast libraries uploaded by users. Ofcom, which already enforces age checks on pornography services under the Online Safety Act, will be under pressure to show that the new criminal law translates into material disappearing from British screens.

Scotland and the wider debate

The new offences apply in England and Wales; criminal law is devolved in Scotland, where campaigners have urged ministers at Holyrood to examine whether similar measures are needed. Scottish law already criminalises possession of certain extreme pornographic images, but the specific new categories have not been adopted north of the border.

Supporters of the reform argue that it reflects a growing body of evidence from teachers, doctors and domestic abuse services that choking has moved from the margins into the mainstream of young people’s sexual lives. Critics of previous attempts to regulate pornography have raised concerns about free expression and privacy. Ministers insist the new law is narrowly drawn — and from 6 November it will be put to the test.