The Legislation
The full text of the relevant part of the Act is available here together with Explanatory Notes
The Government's official advice can be found here
What's at stake
The central issue is not whether violent and abusive behaviour is
defensible. It is not, as everyone agrees. Rather, the issue is whether this
law will criminalise non-abusive activities engaged in by consenting
adults.
The question that immediately follows is this: if the activities or material
in question are not abusive, should they be outlawed because some (even most)
people find them distasteful ?
It is worth remembering that a majority once took
that view on homosexuality.
Shooting the Messenger
The internet is a convenient scapegoat for society's ills.
The UK government is to legislate how best to imprison potentially many people for viewing content on the internet.
How should governments regulate the details of our personal lives and control individual expression ?
Stop the Government's
Censorship
The Home Office has begun a process to make it illegal to possess extreme adult images.
These plans could lead to people being imprisoned for viewing images on the internet.
This is a step too far from a government determined to regulate every aspect of our lives and quash individual expression.