In 2014 the UK government amended the 2003 Communications Act to ban certain things from being portrayed in UK-produced porn. Their reason? To protect children even though child porn was already illegal and none of the acts specifically involve children.

What was banned?

• Spanking
• Caning
• Aggressive whipping
• Penetration by any object “associated with violence”
• Physical or verbal abuse (regardless of  if consensual)
• Urolagnia (known as “water sports”)
• Role-playing as non-adults
• Physical restraint
• Humiliation
• Female ejaculation
• Strangulation
• Facesitting
• Fisting

It doesn’t matter if it’s consensual. It doesn’t matter that it appears to discriminate against women, gays, and those with fetishes. Why not just make guidelines that say “Missionary position only. Try not to look as though you enjoy it.”?

You can still watch these things being done, as long as the porn was produced somewhere other than in the UK so I’m not sure who it’s really protecting. Your average person under 18-years-old will have a much easier time finding porn on the internet (or so I’ve heard) than he/she will getting into an adult-only theater (theatre).

Why did I pick the image I did to headline the post? Because it was in the BBFC Guidelines booklet, right above the section for the R18 rating. I saw that and thought, “Why yes, that’s exactly how I picture a XXX adult theater audience would look.”