The Next Steps
Key extracts taken from Part Two: The Government's response to the Consultation and Proposals for Next Steps.
( "We" refers to the Home Office )
Material would need to be:
(a) pornographic
(b) explicit
(c) real or appears to be real act
It would cover:
(i) serious violence
(ii) intercourse or oral sex with an animal
(iii) sexual interference with a human corpse
By actual scenes or depictions which appear to be real acts, we intend to catch
material which either is genuinely violent or conveys a realistic impression of
fear, violence and harm.
By serious violence we mean appears to be life threatening or likely to result in
serious, disabling injury.
We would consider giving non-statutory guidance on the type of injury which we consider would fall within this
category.
We.... intend to ensure that there are adequate defences to cover
those who need to have contact with the material in the course of their legitimate
work, those who stumble across the material accidentally or are sent it
unsolicited. These are likely to mirror the defences provided for the possession
of indecent photographs of children in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 S160 (2).
If
the defendant can prove he had a legitimate reason for having the image;
or he
had not seen it and did not know or suspect it to be illegal;
or it was sent to him
unsolicited and he did not keep it for an unreasonable time.
We consider that it should also be a defence to have an unaltered version of a
work classified by a designated organisation. Such designation would be by
Order and we envisage designation of the BBFC.
This defence would not
exempt the organisation from the OPA, but would mean that someone
possessing the material as classified would have certainty that they would not
risk breaching the criminal law.
On penalties, as set out in the consultation, we propose a maximum penalty of
three years' imprisonment for possession of material depicting serious violence
and a lesser maximum penalty for possession of material in the other categories
to reflect the seriousness of the offences shown or depicted in the material.
It would also be the intention to raise the maximum penalty for offences of
publication, distribution and possession for gain committed under the 1959 and
1964 Obscene Publications Acts to five years' imprisonment.
The Government intends to bring forward legislation, as soon as the
Parliamentary timetable allows.
The source document is available online here
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-extreme-porn-3008051/Gvt-response-extreme-porn.pdf
A backlash summary of the original proposals
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 ?
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