From 6 November 2026 the UK will outlaw online pornography that depicts strangulation or suffocation, sex between people who are related or pretending to be related, and adults portraying or pretending to be children under 16. The change implements recommendations from a 2025 review led by Conservative peer Gabby Bertin and follows cross-party pressure and earlier government moves to tighten regulation. Non-fatal strangulation is already a criminal offence when committed in real life, but hosting or distributing such depictions online will now be explicitly illegal.
The review concluded that portrayals of choking, incestuous role-play and adults playing children risk normalising violence and can have damaging real-world consequences, particularly for young people, and criticised a prior lack of government scrutiny of the pornography industry. Ministers framed the law as targeting content that glamorises violence against women rather than consensual private preferences. Campaigners including the End Violence Against Women Coalition welcomed the ban but warned enforcement must be effective and urged updates to the Online Safety Act to compel platforms to remove banned material and hold companies accountable.
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