The UK stands on the brink of a landmark shift in online pornography regulation, as a proposed consent verification law gains momentum. The crime and policing bill, amended in the House of Lords, would require platforms to confirm that all participants in pornographic content have given their consent. This follows years of documented abuses, including underage and trafficked subjects on sites like Pornhub, and the horrific case of Gisèle Pelicot, whose rape was livestreamed on the chat site Coco.
Conservative peer Gabby Bertin's independent pornography review recommended the consent verification measure, alongside stronger age checks and identity verification for performers. The UK's Online Safety Act already introduced age verification for user-generated content, but gaps remain for professionally produced material. Labour MPs Diana Johnson and Jess Asato have championed the consent clause, which now has a realistic chance of becoming law after cross-party support.
Ministers have already agreed to outlaw strangulation imagery and incest scenes, and to close the regulatory gap between offline and online content. The British Board of Film Classification bans harmful material in DVDs, but no equivalent rules exist online. The government also commits to tackling online misogyny through education, as recommended by Bertin's review.
Campaigners argue that a single decision made under pressure can haunt performers for years. The new law would grant a right to withdraw consent, addressing the distress caused by continued publication of footage. With child sexual abuse rates soaring and violent imagery normalised, the measure aims to end the impunity that has long characterised the online porn industry.
