Britons could face up to three years in prison simply for possessing certain pornographic images saved on their phones, computers or cloud storage, as new pornography laws come into force today.
The legislation, which takes effect on 6 November in England and Wales, criminalises the possession and publication of pornographic material depicting strangulation or suffocation, certain forms of simulated incest and sexual activity involving people who appear to be under 16.
However, the law does not automatically criminalise every fictional sexual scenario or image involving these activities. The legislation requires the material to be pornographic and to depict the prohibited activity explicitly and realistically, with a reasonable person believing the people shown are real. Whether a particular image meets those conditions will ultimately be a matter for the courts.
The law does not only target people who make or share explicit material. Anyone who keeps prohibited images in their personal collection can also be prosecuted.
Under the Crime and Policing Act 2026, possessing these images carries up to two years in prison. That rises to three years if the material shows sexual activity involving someone who appears to be under 16. Publishing such material carries up to five years.
Your Private Digital Collection Could Become a Legal Problem
Possessing and publishing are treated very differently under the law, and the law punishes them very differently.
Government guidance states that possession can include images stored on a mobile phone, computer, personal account, cloud storage or other digital files.
Meanwhile, publication covers making prohibited images available to another person, including by uploading, posting, sending, sharing or distributing them.
The Government has also warned that possession is a continuing act. Anyone who already held material covered by the new offences was instructed to permanently delete it or otherwise get rid of it before 6 November.
Not everyone caught holding a prohibited image will be convicted. There are defences. You may not be guilty if you did not know, and had no reason to suspect, that the image was prohibited. The same applies if you had a legitimate reason for having it.
Experts Warn the Crackdown Could Go Too Far
Lawyer Myles Jackman told WIRED: 'It would be up to a court to decide this on a case-by-case basis, but given that it would appear that face-sitting by a vagina owner is now arguably suffocation, the insertion of a penis could equally be considered suffocation because it blocks the airways.'
In other words, he argued, 'the UK could have just banned blow jobs' in online pornography.
The law also targets 'fauxcest', a genre involving performers pretending to be relatives, although the legislation specifies particular relationships and circumstances rather than banning every form of role-play.
Onlyfans Creators Are Already Removing Videos
The crackdown is also causing headaches for adult content creators, some of whom are reviewing their libraries and deleting material that could potentially breach the new rules.
Alexandra Snow, an adult content creator and educator, told WIRED that the broad wording could create problems for performers producing fetish-related material.
The Government, however, insists the measures are designed to prevent harm rather than police people's private sexual preferences.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told that the legislation targets content which normalises violence against women, encourages unlawful behaviour and can cause real-world harm.
