mediawatch-uk Response on Extreme Pornography

On Thursday 8 May 2008 the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill completed its passage through Parliament and received Royal Assent.  The following news story appeared on BBC News online:

Mother's Porn Law Campaign Ends
A mother whose daughter was murdered by a man addicted to violent internet porn has completed her fight to have such images banned.  Jane Longhurst, 31, was strangled by Graham Coutts, 39, from Hove, Sussex. He was jailed for at least 26 years.  Her mother Liz, from Berkshire, backed by Reading West MP Martin Salter, campaigned for three years to ban violent online porn. 

The ban is part of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.  Possession of sexually violent images will now be punishable by up to three years in jail.  The bill had its final reading on Thursday where it received Royal Assent.  Under the new rules, criminal responsibility shifts from the producer - who is responsible under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act (OPA) - to the consumer. 

Campaigners fear the new law risks criminalising thousands of people who use violent pornographic images as part of consensual sexual relationships.  Mrs Longhurst, of Reading, said she was aware that libertarians saw her as "a horrible killjoy". 

"Sometimes the freedoms of like-minded, decent people have to be curtailed because of a few others.  I know some would argue women choose to do this. But I believe a lot of women who have been trafficked are forced to be on these sites."
BBC News online 8/5/2008
Read more... 

Speaking today, mediawatch-uk director, John Beyer, said:

"We are delighted that Mrs Longhurst has at last succeeded in her noble campaign, in memory of her murdered daughter Jane, to criminalise the possession of extreme pornography.  We hope that this will be a first step on the road to restoring decency and respect in our society.  We remain of the opinion that the scope of the new legislation is too narrow and we will continue to press for further strengthening of the Obscene Publications Act."

ON MONDAY 8 OCTOBER 2007 THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE & IMMIGRATION BILL WAS GIVEN A SECOND READING IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Read the Second Reading Debate    The Committee's progress

Please contact your MP saying we would like to see the extent of this Bill broadened to include a much wider range of pornographic imagery, including ‘R18' classified films. Click here to email your MP.

The Government intends to make a new criminal offence of possessing extreme pornographic material and Clause 64 of the Bill sets out the details.  The following is the response to the Home Office Consultation on Extreme Pornography made by mediawatch-uk.

Related Links

NEW EVIDENCE OF HARM
The Ministry of Justice has published a new report of the evidence of harm relating to exposure to extreme pornographic material.
Click here to view the New Ministry of Justice report
MoJ News release 28/9/2007

TOWARDS A DECENT SOCIETY - A RESPONSE TO THE HOME OFFICE CONSULTATION ON EXTREME PORNOGRAPHY

Introduction

mediawatch-uk welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Home Office consultation on the possession of extreme pornographic material.  We regard consideration of this important matter as long overdue by the Government.  It seems to us to complement well the Prime Minister's ‘Respect Agenda'. 

That this has taken the brutal murder of Jane Longhurst to prompt action is a matter of concern and dismay. However, we believe that this consultation presents a timely opportunity for the Government to intervene in and resist the relentless pressure of the pornography industry to overthrow the last remaining vestiges of legal constraint on their activities.

mediawatch-uk submits that all pornography is harmful and offensive because it undermines and destroys human dignity and respect for the human form and encourages a distorted attitude to human sexuality.  Intimate sexual activity is essentially a private matter touching on profound emotional and personal feelings of love and affection.  Such activities are not a ‘spectator sport' to be gawped at in a most disrespectful manner giving rise to animal instincts and unhealthy responses from the viewer.

We believe that pornography, because of its casual, immoral and responsibility-free approach to sexuality, contributes significantly to the social problems of sexual dysfunction, the continually rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, the increasing rate of marital breakdown and the annually rising sexual crime rate.

Links to mediawatch Related Articles:

Time to strengthen the law against Pornography
Paying to be Peeping Toms

The following Reports appeared in national newspapers:

‘Swinging' Pensioners Need Sex Education
Pensioners have been urged to practice safe sex after figures showed that the number of sexual diseases diagnosed among the over-50s has soared in the last five years.  People aged 80 are checking into clinics to have sexually transmitted diseases treated, according to Health Protection Scotland. 

The rise is blamed on the popularity of ‘swinging' and foreign holidays.  Health workers called for pensioners to be given the same sex education as teenagers after statistic indicated that cases of chlamydia among the over-50s had doubled between 2000 and 2005 and cases of genital herpes had tripled.
The Times 19/7/2006

Sex-Health Cash Vanishes in NHS
Sexual health services are being starved of cash because of financial problems in the NHS, Government advisers warn today.  According to the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV, part of the £300million set aside for sex health is being used by authorities to pay off debts. 

The revelation comes amid soaring levels of sexually transmitted infections in Britain and campaign groups warn these will continue to rise, along with unwanted pregnancies.  It is a serious setback for ministers who have claimed tacking STIs is a priority.
Daily Mail 2/8/2006

We would like to make the following observations on the questions as set out in the consultation:

Question 1: DO YOU THINK THAT THE CHALLENGE POSED BY THE INTERNET IN THIS AREA REQUIRES THE LAW TO BE STRENGTHENED?

mediawatch-uk has asserted for many years that the Obscene Publications Act 1959 has failed to fulfil the intention of Parliament to "strengthen the law concerning pornography."  Even a most casual assessment of the volume and nature of the pornography in 1959 with the volume and nature available now conclusively proves the point.

In 1972 the then Master of the Rolls, the late Lord Denning, concluded that so far as prosecutions are concerned the law has "misfired". 

The subjective nature of the test of obscenity, that which tends "to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely to read, hear or see the matter contained or embodied in it", has meant that ever more extreme material coming before the courts has failed to secure convictions because juries, influenced by so-called expert witnesses, have had difficulty in determining whether the defendant has been depraved and corrupted rather than whether the material before them, according to their judgement, is obscene.

Failed convictions in such cases have meant that constraints on pornographic material that was previously criminally obscene were steadily removed.

Another factor that is seldom referred to now is the damaging effects on criminal prosecutions that occurred in the 1970s. These historical events have contributed directly to the situation now being faced.  For example, in 1976 five Scotland Yard detectives were convicted after being found guilty of systematically accepting thousands of pounds in bribes from pornographers in order to avoid arrest and/or forfeiture of their wares.(The Times 23/12/1976)

Because we recognise the corrosive and corrupting effects of pornography we have actively supported attempts in Parliament to strengthen the Obscene Publication Act through Private Members' Bills.  For different reasons these attempts have failed to overcome the obstacles inherent in the private bill procedures. 

In January 1980 the late Earl of Halsbury initiated a debate in the House of Lords (Vol. 404 No. 66) on the proposals made in the Williams Report on Obscenity and Film Censorship.  He proposed that a schedule of defined sexual perversions, which if photographed, published and distributed would constitute a criminal offence.  That this approach could never be "exhaustive" was the basis on which it was rejected. 

The Earl of Halsbury retorted that it was better to catch 90 per cent of what you wanted to catch than nothing at all!  Catching little or nothing has been the result of enacting defective legislation introduced under the ten-minute-rule by the late Roy Jenkins.

Permissive Revolution - Corrupting Public Morals

We also supported wholeheartedly Private Bills introduced by Winston Churchill MP, Gerald Howarth MP and Robert Spink MP in their noble attempts to remedy the defects the Obscene Publications Act.  We also supported Private Bills introduced by Graham Bright MP to regulate video recordings, Tim Sainsbury MP to control indecent displays and Cyril Townsend MP to outlaw child pornography and subsequent amendments to criminalize possession of such imagery. 

All of these Bills had their origin in campaigns mounted and sustained by this organisation.  The fact that these measures were necessary at all is because of what is described as the "flexibility" of the Obscene Publications Act.  Accordingly, we take issue with the assumption in the foreword of the consultation that there is, or should be, categories of "mainstream pornography" that, apparently is of no concern to the Government.

The Home Office now proposes "free-standing" legislation to make new offences of possession of violent and abusive pornography on the Internet, as it does, by a schedule or list of images that will be illegal.  We note with some satisfaction the adoption of precisely the approach advocated by the Earl of Halsbury!  We are in no doubt that such a scheme would work very well because no subjective judgement is required.

We believe, however, that the scope of the material that is the focus of the new offences is far too narrow and should be broadened to include a much wider range of extreme pornographic imagery.  The scope should certainly be extended to include that which the British Board of Film Classification has unilaterally decided is suitable to be classified at ‘R18'.

Material now classified for sale in licensed sex establishments includes portrayals of aroused genitalia, masturbation, oral-genital contact, licking and sucking, penetration by finger, penis, tongue, vibrator or dildo, non-harmful fetish material, group sexual activity, ejaculation and semen.  (BBFC Classification Guidelines)  We understand that more than 4000 titles have been classified ‘R18'.

Information on BBFC film classification

Innocence vs Corruption submission to the Home Office on Regulation of ‘R18' Videos

In our opinion all ‘R18' and R18 standard imagery should be unacceptable in any decent society and should certainly come within the purview of the new legislation being proposed in this consultation.  We believe it a grave error to exclude it because the vast majority of good living people in Britain would be very concerned and dismayed that such material, whether "consumed" or not, should be outside the terms of the present consultation.

The easy availability of such material from an ever increasing number of sex establishments and, until recently by mail order, is a clear indication of how far the Obscene Publication Act 1959 has failed to fulfil the intentions of Parliament. 

We are aware that pornography, depicting strangulation, fetish, fisting, urination and other perversions, is being advertised in catalogues, originating in Amsterdam, that are being distributed throughout the United Kingdom to people who respond to advertisements in popular Sunday tabloid newspapers. 

We are thankful that the courts have now declared that ‘R18' classified material can only be marketed legally ‘over-the-counter' in licensed sex establishments and that at least one company, Pabo, has recently been fined £10,500 for continuing to supply ‘R18' material by mail order.

It is also relevant to mention here that the Office of Communication, in its Broadcasting Code, has maintained the broadcasting prohibition on ‘R18' and R18 standard material.  For the Government to include ‘R18' material in the new offences envisaged would show a degree of ‘joined-up' thinking.

From Ofcom's Broadcasting Code:

1.24  Premium subscription services and pay per view/night services may broadcast ‘adult-sex' material between 2200 and 0530 provided that in addition to other protections mentioned above:

• there is a mandatory PIN protected encryption system, or other equivalent protection, that seeks satisfactorily to restrict access solely to those authorised to view; and

• there are measures in place that ensure that the subscriber is an adult.

1.25  BBFC R18-rated films or their equivalent must not be broadcast.

The Ofcom Broadcasting Code

We note with considerable concern that the BBFC has significantly shifted the boundary of material they regard as acceptable for an ‘18' certificate by classifying the film ‘9 Songs', a most sexually explicit production, with such a certificate.  Such a classification makes the film eligible for showing on "main stream" television channels.  Indeed, the film was shown all day on Sky Box Office on 2 November 2005. 

We took this up with the Office of Communication who concluded that the showing did not "appear to have caused much disquiet" and did not breach the Programme Code.  The role of the BBFC in unilaterally shifting boundaries of acceptability should itself be the subject of a review leading to a new body, independent of the film industry, being established.

The following appeared in The Independent:

Censor Passes Film with Real Sex Scenes
The most sexually explicit film in the history of mainstream British cinema has been passed without any cuts for an adult audience, the censors announced yesterday.  The Michael Winterbottom film 9 Songs, which features sex scenes including felatio, ejaculation and cunnilingus, some in close up, did not contravene any of the current guidelines, the British Board of Film Classification ruled. 

The BBFC said that sex occurred in the context of the development of the relationship between two people and did not raise issues of harm or sexual violence.  The board has concluded in this case that adults should be free to choose whether or not to see the film.
The Independent 19/10/2004

Other reports said that posters for 9 Songs must make it clear that the film contains frequent, strong, real sex.  John Beyer, director of mediawatch-uk said:

"This is hardcore pornography being normalised and allowed into high street cinemas without any parliamentary or public discussion or change in the law.  My understanding of BBFC Classification Guidelines is that this sort of imagery should be given an R18 classification and marketed only in licensed sex establishments.  Given an 18 certificate also means that it could be shown on mainstream television within months."

We recall that we wrote to The Home Secretary about the classification of this film on 8 February 2005.  We concluded: "I note that your Minister, Fiona Mactaggart, said yesterday that "the State has a right to put some boundaries on free speech" and we would urge that new boundaries be established around hard-core pornography.  I hope you will agree."  In the circumstances of this consultation it is extremely regrettable that no reply or acknowledgement was received.

Letter to Rt Hon Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary on 8 February 2005

Dear Mr Clarke,

Last October the British Board of Film Classification passed, without cuts, Michael Winterbottom's film '9 Songs' giving it an '18' certificate.  Press reports at the time described this film as the most sexually explicit film in the history of mainstream British cinema.  The Independent said the film "features real sex scenes in close up".  Having seen the 35-minute sequence in question I can verify that this description is accurate.

The BBFC claims that the film does not contravene its Classification Guidelines and says that the sex occurred in the context of the development of a relationship between two people and did not raise issues of harm or sexual violence.  The Board said that when the public had been consulted about sex on screen most had said it should be a matter of choice. 

The Board's guidelines allow the more explicit images of sexual activity at '18' if they can be exceptionally justified by context.  The BBFC's Classification Guidelines, issued in 2000, do permit "explicit images" but these must be "exceptionally justified by context".  However, it states, "images of real sex are confined to the 'R18' category".

mediawatch-uk has sought legal advice about this film and we have been told that a criminal prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 would be very unlikely to succeed even if such action were to be permitted by the Crown Prosecution Service - which is also very unlikely.

However, there could be grounds for a Judicial Review of the BBFC's decision to grant an '18' certificate to this film considering that their own guidelines specifically state that such graphic sexual imagery should be permitted only at ‘R18'.

I believe that the film ‘9 Songs' is hardcore pornography and as such should not be permitted for pubic exhibition into High Street cinemas.  There has been no change in the law, no Parliamentary debate and no public discussion and the BBFC has acted unilaterally to change the parameters of what it thinks is suitable at ‘18'.  With such a certificate this film is eligible for mainstream television.  We believe that ‘9 Songs' does set a new precedent and we can be sure that pornographers will quickly seek to reclassify their hardcore material in the light of this decision.

I understand that the Home Office portfolio includes criminal obscenity and overseeing the working of the Obscene Publications Act 1959.  It is puzzling, therefore, that Home Office officials have been reported as saying that the film "is not a matter for the Home Office".

We have said for some time that British Board of Film Classification, as presently constituted, should be disbanded and replaced with a body that acts in the public interest rather than in the interest of the film industry.  Their decisions continue to have wide repercussions affecting standards not only at the Cinema but on terrestrial television too where around 3,000 films are shown each year.

We believe that the film industry is continuing to undermine a range of social policies that your department is at pains to overcome and yet the BBFC can apparently act unilaterally without any comment or intervention from your department.

May I respectfully suggest that you seek an urgent viewing of this film so that you are acquainted with the material now thought suitable by the BBFC for showing at High Street cinemas.  I hope you will agree with me that ‘9 Songs' is not appropriate and that you will make you views known to the BBFC without delay.  I note that your Minister, Fiona Mactaggart, said yesterday that "the State has a right to put some boundaries on free speech" and we would urge that new boundaries be established around hard-core pornography.  I hope you will agree.

John Beyer
Director, mediawatch-uk
Letter dated 8th February 2005

It is a very brave or a very naive assumption that the proposals envisaged in this consultation "would not" affect the "main stream entertainment industry".  Channel 4 has already transmitted sado-masochistic material, for example, in the programme ‘Fetishes' and material of an ‘R18' nature in ‘Cathouse 2: Back in the Saddle' as well as ‘Pornography: The Musical', ‘Porn a Family Business' and much else besides.

(click here for mediawatch article Beware TV's Red Light Districts)

These sleazy programmes promoting the sex industry would certainly not have been considered "main stream" even ten years ago and yet they are shown now with impunity despite a radical overhaul of UK communications regulation.  The Communications Act 2003 and the establishment of the Office of Communications were responses to the convergence of communications technology and already streaming television and radio transmission is possible via the Internet to personal computers and to the latest generation of mobile telephones. 

We note that major international telecommunications companies and broadcasters have recently announced big investments in this technology enabling "mobile viewing" and mobile access to the Internet. The following articles appeared in national newspapers:

Vodaphone Launched Mobile Pay-TV
Vodaphone customers will be able to receive 19 different pay-television channels on their mobile phones from today, after a deal with BSkyB, the broadcaster.  The mobile phone operator is selling two packages of channels, each priced at £5 a month, which include channels such as MTV, CNN and Living TV. 

No service is yet available from the BBC, ITV or Channel 4, but up to ten more channels are expected before Christmas.  Vodaphone believes that the service will help the mobile operator finally to deliver on the promise of third-generation technology, after paying £6 billion for a licence to operate the fast internet technology in 2000.
The Times 1/11/2005

Disney Courts Controversy With Move into UK Mobile Market
The Walt Disney Company has started to recruit executives for the possible launch of a mobile phone company next year.  Head hunters acting for Disney have approached potential managers working for existing mobile network operators.  The move apes and initiative under development in America where Disney is working with Sprint, a leading mobile company.  Disney would be risking controversy by entering the mobile market in Britain because its service could be seen as appealing to children.
Sunday Times 30/10/2005

BSkyB Agrees to Buy Easynet
BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster has agreed to buy Easynet for £211million enabling access to 232 exchanges to reach almost one third of the UK residential population.  For another £100 million it is calculated that the satellite broadcaster will be able to extend that reach to 60 per cent and longer-term it is likely to aim for 90 per cent.
The Times 22/10/2005

David Rowan, writing in The Times Magazine 5/11/2005, suggested that the new video iPod is the ultimate medium for delivering pornography and erotica.  According to one expert prediction, "Porn is just going to be huge".  Mr Rowan noted that "there are no indications yet as to how this content will be kept away from children or vulnerable adults."  In our view it is a grave omission that this aspect of technological progress has not first been thought through.

We recognise that the weakness in the criminal law makes it difficult to prosecute those responsible for publishing obscene material and believe the task would be much easier if the law was strengthened with a definition capable of being understood and enforced in the courts. 

The existing "deprave and corrupt" test has in practice proved to be too "flexible" and incapable of fulfilling Parliament's intention and should be replaced or complemented with a defining schedule that can be easily amended as new needs arise.  Well-defined law enables the prosecution and conviction of those who possess indecent images of children and we are pleased that the Protection of Children Act is being used as a model for the new legislation. 

mediawatch-uk welcomes the recent announcement that the Government is to set up a Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre next year.  Targeting those people who earn money from trading in images of child abuse is plainly a necessary development complementing the existing offences of possession and we believe that the same approach should be adopted for violent and abusive pornographic images. 

Once the new law is enacted we urge the Government to extend the remit and resources of the new Centre to include targeting those who earn money from marketing images as set out in paragraph 39 in this consultation.

(Click here for mediawatch article 'New Treaty needed on Internet content')
(Click here for mediawatch-uk Autumn 2005 newsbrief)
Click here for 'Make Internet Pornography an Election issue')

Question 2: IN THE ABSENCE OF CONCLUSIVE RESEARCH RESULTS AS TO ITS POSSIBLE NEGATIVE EFFECTS, DO YOU THINK THAT THERE IS SOME PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIAL WHICH IS SO DEGRADING, VIOLENT OR ABERRANT THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED?

mediawatch-uk simply does not accept the premise that there is no conclusive evidence of possible negative affects, or harm, as we would put it, associated with consuming pornography.  Any debate about the harmful effects of pornography, its widespread availability and circulation has been stifled very effectively by the powerful sex industry by appealing to their "freedom of expression" which, they say, is "threatened" by advocates of "censorship".

This industry has always been in serious moral denial about any harmful effects pretending that pornography is "just harmless fun", that it acts as a "safety valve" rather than an incitement for those inclined to commit sexual offences and that they merely respond to the "public demand" for pornography, which, in reality, they have created by exploiting weak law and a disinclination to strengthen it.

Denmark is invoked as a model because it is said that removing constraints on pornography led directly to a marked reduction in sexual offences.  The truth, invariably obscured, is that eleven categories of sexual crime were repealed at the same time.  And without law there cannot be crime!  However, serious sexual offences, rape and attempted rape increased.

(Click here for Mary Whitehouse's book 'Some Myths About Denmark')

Now the pornography industry is engaged in a similar exercise pointing to Japan where it is said that this country too experienced a reduction is sexual crime as a result of a relaxation in "censorship laws".  We are aware of a study conducted at the University of Hawaii purporting to demonstrate this conclusion.  However, it must be borne in mind that this study is based on statistics available 10 years ago in 1995. 

From official statistics obtained from the Japanese Embassy in London we can confirm that:

• from 1980 to 1995 cases of rape known to the police fell from 2,610 to 1,500.
  

• But from 1998 to 2000 cases increased from 1,873 to 2,260. 
  

• Moreover, indecency offences almost doubled in twenty years from 5,054 in 1980 to 9,523 in 2000. 
  

• The Japan Times, 13/6/2004, reported that there had been a surge of sexual offences.

• Eric Prideaux, a staff reporter, said that police haven't been able to keep up, and arrest rates have slumped in cases of rape and sexual assault. 
  

• Makiko Sasagawa, a social worker and clinical researcher who conducts seminars at the National Police Academy, has no doubt that actual incidents have increased and she also believes that the surge in sex-crime figures reflects increased willingness to place trust in police by reporting what has happened to them confident that their cases will end up in court.
  

(click here to read Eric Prideaux's article in The Japan Times)
(click here to read The Hawaii study)

(click here for the testimony of Dr Mary Anne Layden, The Science Behind Pornography Addiction, given at the Science, Technology and space Hearing in November 2004.)

(See also Internet Porn: Worse than Crack)


mediawatch-uk disagrees with the long-standing attitude of Home Office that there is insufficient evidence of harm associated with the consumption of pornography.  How many more people have to die at the hands of those addicted to pornography?  We know that:

• Frederick and Rosemary West used pornography in the commissioning of their unspeakable crimes. 
  

• So did Anthony Hardy, the so-called ‘Campden Ripper',
  

• so did Peter Sutcliffe, the so-called ‘Yorkshire Ripper',
  

• so did Roy Whiting, the murderer of Sarah Payne and
  

• so did Graham Coutts the killer of Jane Longhurst. 
  

"Negative effects" of pornography should not be limited to whether or not there is a rise or fall in sexual offences.  Pornography affects a whole range of human behaviour and attitudes.  For example a meta-analysis of existing scientific data, produced in March 2002 by Dr Claudio Violata, a professor at the University of Calgary found, in common with others, that children are being exposed to explicitly sexual materials through mass media.  "The rise in sexual crime, sexual dysfunction and family breakdown may be linked to the increased availability and use of pornography."

According to the study, "the rape myth is very widespread in habitual male users of pornography".  Dr Violata concluded that pornography is harmful.  "Our study involved more than 12,000 participants and very rigorous analyses.  I can think of no beneficial effects of pornography whatsoever.  As a society we need to move towards eradicating it".

For more information on the association of pornography and sexual offences we recommend visiting obscenity crimes a website published by Morality In Media, based in New York, who share our concern about pornography and the damaging effect on society.  Substantive evidence has been obtained from the New York Police Department of the association of pornography with sexual offences.

(click here fpr American evidence of a link between pornography and violent sexual crime

Britain the "Porn Capital of Europe"
A new survey by Screen Digest has found that Britain, despite being criticised as having the "strictest censorship laws" in the world, now has 27 licensed TV channels dedicated to showing pornography.  The research concludes that pornography has been the fastest growing genre in television last year.

A new book by Pamela Paul entitled, ‘Pornified', says that the position in Britain represents only a tiny part of a £31.5 billion global industry.  With so much material around pornographic imagery has naturally slipped into the mainstream.  A recent British survey of 1000 girls aged 15-19 found that 63% aspired to be glamour models and 25% preferred the idea of lap dancing.  For many the erotic lifestyle is not seedy but has become inspirational. 

Reviews suggest that Pamela Paul's book is "ground breaking" showing how the unimaginably explicit images on the Internet is a phenomenon that is wreaking huge changes in culture.  The book is an absolutely necessary contribution to the national dialogue.

‘Pornified' is published by Times Books/Henry Holt (ISBN 0805077456)

In July 2004 mediawatch-uk received a report from the Family Life Network in Uganda stating that pornography is spreading like wildfire and finding its way across the population.  No group has been spared from its deliberate infiltration with devastating effects.  Counsellors have come face to face with family breakdown and young people whose career prospects have been destroyed as a result of addiction to pornography. 

Young people are especially vulnerable and more and more parents are seeking counselling for their children.  The report's author, Stephen Langa, said: "Since this is a relatively new thing here in Uganda, we fear for our people, because our country does not have the necessary resources and expertise to effectively deal with the deadly effects of pornography."

Question 3: DO YOU AGREE WITH THE LIST OF MATERIAL SET OUT IN PARAGRAPH 39?

mediawatch-uk supports absolutely the aspiration to make new offences of possession of the violent and abusive pornographic imagery listed in paragraph 39 of the consultation but this should be extended to include images of any sexual activity between humans and animals.  However, if the Government is serious about "protecting" anyone from pornographic material there is no alternative but to include ‘R18' material in the new offences now being proposed as it relates specifically to the Internet. 

We note the reference to the London School of Economics report published in July 2005.   This found that millions of youngsters using the Internet are routinely exposed to pornography.  More than half have viewed explicit material on the web while a quarter of the age group have been sent pornographic e-mails.  The findings are the results of a two-year study of 1,500 nine to nineteen-year-olds.

• Half of all children are logging on to porn sites

• Overall, 57 per cent of youngsters had seen Internet porn.

• Millions of youngsters using the Internet are routinely exposed to pornography - and their parents have no idea, research has revealed.

• More than half have viewed explicit material on the Web while a quarter have been sent pornographic e-mails. 
  

• At least 50 per cent have used an Internet chatroom and almost as many have given personal information to someone they met online - even though it may make them vulnerable to potential paedophiles.
  

• Overall, 57 per cent of youngsters had seen Internet porn. 
  

• More than a fifth of nine to 11-year-olds had been exposed to it but only 16 per cent of parents realised their child, of any age, had seen such material.

(For more information and the London School of Economics Report)

(Protecting Children from Online Pornography by Elizabeth Kaufman)

The following letter from a very concerned parent was received by mediawatch-uk on 12 August 2006:

"I would like to share this story, although no doubt you are aware of the problem of image substitution.

"Ever since my son was unwittingly exposed to pornography of the most extreme kind on the internet about a year ago at the age of 9, I have been extremely vigilant about supervising him when using the computer. The incident in question caused him great distress and the obscene images he saw upset him to the extent that he could not sleep at nights.

I blamed myself for allowing him to use the computer alone for 20 minutes, unaware that behind my back he was not, as he maintained.  writing stories on Microsoft Word but looking up a website a friend had told him about which contained pictures of what he thought would be "naked ladies."  Needless to say, he saw far more than  naked ladies: amongst other things he saw graphic images, of unnatural sexual practices involving the inflicting of pain, geriatric sex, homosexual sex etc.

I had to go through each image with him verbally, trying to help him to come to terms with them. A year later he tells me he can still see them and they make him feel sick. He has not since then tried to look at any such material and I get the impression that he does not want to either.

"A few days ago he was working on his music project for school and was looking up images of Jimi Hendrix. He suddenly called me over - I normally now stay close by when he is on the computer - and very upset, he showed me that when he enlarged an image of Jimi Henrix, a pornographic picture took its place. When you enlarged this apparently innocent image of Jimi holding his guitar, you saw a close up of two men having anal sex.

"I spoke about it to my husband who is a computer programmer, and he told me that he has come across this sort of image substitution before and that there is nothing that can be done about it.

"This means that there is absolutely no way we can protect our children from viewing hard core pornography, apart from banning internet use altogether.

"I might add that my son has also seen pornography on the internet at his primary school where teachers were horrified one day to come into the class room and find a pornographic image displayed on the white board. The child who put it there was never discovered.

"At secondary school the problem is far greater. A few months into her first year, my daughter came home distressed and asked me "do people have sex with animals?" She had seen images of bestiality (man and donkey) which some girls had been looking at in the computer room. I did not appreciate having to sit down and explain bestiality to my daughter  then aged 11.

I  subsequently  wrote a letter to the head teacher complaining about their internet security and filtering system  The reply I got from the school showed that they really did not care that this could happen, and all they did was reiterate that filtering should remove such images and question my daughter's honesty.

"Since then she has often been exposed to pornographic images at school which other pupils have downloaded and I realise that there is no point complaining.

"Now that I can see that even innocent images can hide pornographic ones, I realise that with the best filtering in the world, children cannot be protected even in their own homes."
Letter to mediawatch-uk dated 12th August 2006

It is not surprising, therefore, that a picture of soaring promiscuity among school children emerged at the Royal College of Nursing annual conference this year.  Increasing numbers of children are indulging in sex and taking part in orgies in an alarming new trend called "daisy-chaining". 

90 per cent of school nurses now spend their time dealing with sexual health services.  It is plain that some young people are emulating precisely the behaviour and activities being demonstrated in the pornography that "might be called main stream" or commonplace.

The following articles appeared in the national newspapers:

A Generation of Pupils ‘Pressured into Having Ssex'
A disturbing picture of soaring promiscuity and sexual diseases among school children emerged yesterday.  Experts at the Royal College of Nursing told how increasing numbers of teenagers are indulging in sex.  They are even taking part in orgies in an alarming new trend called ‘daisy chaining'.  And children as young at 14 are being diagnosed with HIV. 

Peer pressure, TV soaps, magazines and lack of family support were all blamed for increasing promiscuity among young people. The scale of the problem was revealed at the RCN's annual conference in Harrogate.  School nurses said they were now far more likely to be taking pupils to sexual health clinics or giving out contraception. 

Research released by the college yesterday showed that 90 per cent of school nurses now spend their time dealing with sexual health issues.  Kathy French, a sexual health adviser at the RCN said: ‘They are now mirroring the adult world, where in soaps and magazines everyone is having sex.'
Daily Mail 28/4/2005

Under-Age Sexual Activity

• A quarter of girls first have intercourse before the age of 16;
  
• The number of 13 to 15-year-olds becoming pregnant rose by 2.5 per cent to 8,076 between 2002 and 2003;
  
• the number of abortions among under-14s rose by 6 per cent in 2004 to 157;
  
• new cases of the sexually transmitted infection Chlamydia increased by 8 per sent in 2004 to reach 103,932. 
  
• Ten per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds may be carriers;
  
• overall cases of all types of STIs have doubled among teenagers in ten years,
  
• with new cases among those under 20 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland up from 669,291 in 1991 to 1,332,910 in 2001.

The Times 19/10/2005

Teenagers are Ignoring ‘Safe Sex' Warnings
Sexually transmitted infections reached a record level of almost 700,000 last year, alarming figures showed yesterday.  At the same time, multi-million-pound health campaigns warning of the dangers of disease are being ignored as the young get ‘message fatigue', doctors say.  Instead they are indulging in increasingly promiscuous behaviour, fuelling the rise in infections. 

This worrying analysis is by the Health Protection Agency.  Professor Peter Borriello, director of the agency's centre for infections, said: ‘It might be that people see STIs as a bit trivial.  Untreated infections can have serious consequences.  The indications are that there is a more relaxed attitude to casual sex compared to ten years ago and that people don't take protecting themselves seriously.'  The report shows almost 700,000 new diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections were made in 2004 - up more than 60 per cent on 1995.
Daily Mail 25/11/2005

(Click here for more information on Pornography and Sexual disease - HPA news)

It has been known for some considerable time that a wealth of pornographic material is very easily available on the Internet and shameful and scandalous that it has taken the murder of a talented special needs teacher, now nearly two years ago, to bring forward merely a consultation paper rather than draft primary legislation. 

Had the Government been as "determined" as it says it is in the consultation's Foreword, decisive action ought to have been taken long ago.  By limiting the purview of this Consultation it is difficult not to conclude that the Government is simply doing the minimum possible in order to appear to be doing something rather than nothing to deal with a matter of real and mounting public concern.  Intending to reduce the demand for such material is a worthy aspiration but something spectacular must be done to reduce the supply, which creates the demand for extreme pornography.

We are aware that most illegal material is hosted in America and Eastern Europe and so it is relevant to ask here exactly what the Government is doing at the international level to establish a new treaty on unacceptable Internet content?  And what part the British Government is playing within the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance?  Moreover, it is also relevant to ask what is the Government's response to the European Union's proposals on Cultural Diversity that would introduce a system of regulation for Internet content?

For news release and more information visit unesco

We are also aware of a mounting campaign, notably from top-level management in the broadcasting industry, to thwart any attempts to constrain by any means any Internet content no matter how "aberrant", offensive or harmful it may be or how much it might incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder.  Bearing in mind the huge investment now being made in Broadband Television we urge the Government to disregard these self-interested interventions.

Question 4: DO YOU BELIEVE THERE IS ANY JUSTIFICATION FOR BEING IN POSSESSION OF SUCH MATERIAL?

We cannot envisage any circumstances in a civilised or decent society where possession of violent and abusive pornography can be justified.  We would point out, however, that at least one category of the imagery listed in the consultation paper, to our knowledge, has recently appeared on mainstream television!  The latest Messiah drama shown on BBC1 over the August Bank Holiday weekend repeatedly included imagery of naked women's bodies hung up on meat hooks.  This is something we took up with the Office of Communications who decided that such gruesome scenes were within the context of the "well established" series and did not breach the Broadcasting Code.

Of the four options proposed to deal with extreme pornography on the Internet we believe that the best is Option Three: a free-standing offence for possession of the limited categories described above with the proviso that the Government give serious consideration to including a wider range of pornographic material.  If this is not considered appropriate at the moment then urgent and effective reform of the Obscene Publications Act is essential in the near future.

From experience we are not convinced that the prosecution of violent and abusive imagery should be pursued under the Obscene Publications Act because it is too "flexible".  The truth is that with the subjective definition in this Act what the courts may regard as "extreme" today could become "main stream" tomorrow.  This has been the case since 1959 as the boundary of illegality has been moved further and further back with practically every case that has come before the Courts.  Indeed, following a judgement by Mr Justice Hooper in May 2000 the BBFC Classification Guidelines for ‘R18' material were relaxed simply to avoid further litigation from pornographers.

Creating "a new offence of simply possession of extreme pornographic material and which contains actual scenes of realistic depictions of serious violence, bestiality or necrophilia" is long overdue.

Question 5: WHICH OPTION DO YOU PREFER?

Without effectively strengthening the Obscene Publications Act 1959 we believe that Option Three is the right way to deal with extreme pornography on the Internet in the short term.  In the longer term, however, we can see no alternative to overhauling the 1959 Act or adding a schedule of illegal imagery to the present test.  The danger of doing nothing in this regard, it seems to us, is that technology will outstrip the legislation rendering it pointless and useless. 

The noble aim of discouraging interest in this material which "may encourage or reinforce interest in violent and aberrant sexual activity" will only be achieved with effective law, severe criminal sanctions, rigorous policing - which should be properly resourced (and Operation Ore expanded) - and, above all, a radical change of political and public attitude in the same way as there has been with regard to climate change and the poisoning the physical environment.

Question 6: WHY DO YOU THINK THIS OPTION IS BEST?

We believe that Option Three is the best because it states precisely, with descriptions, the pornographic imagery that is to be the subject of the new offences.  We believe, and have said so on many previous occasions, that this approach should be adopted for revision of the Obscene Publications Act.  We refer again to the late Earl of Halsbury's intervention in the House of Lords debate in January 1980.

Question 7: WHICH PENALTY OPTION DO THINK IS PREFERABLE?

From the penalty options suggested in the consultation paper (page 14) we believe that the penalty appropriate for these new offences should at least correspond with existing penalties under section 2 of the Obscene Publications Act.  We believe they should be a minimum of three years imprisonment with heavy fines and confiscation of assets and destruction of the guilty person's pornographic articles, the video and DVD copying equipment and computer equipment as well as entered on the sexual offenders register. 

There should be higher tariffs for those who upload images, those who host the images and those who enable access to them via the telecommunications networks.  As a subsidiary measure we believe that all Internet Service Providers should be required to draw up and publish statements of disclosure, as proposed by Margaret Moran MP in a ten-minute-rule Bill recently.

National newspapers reported:

Police Crackdown Snares 900 Paedophiles
More than 900 paedophiles have been trapped in a massive crackdown on internet child porn by a new hi-tech Scotland Yard unit.  Most of those caught in Operation Pilsey were first-time offenders and were jailed for between six and 18 months, though 10 per cent of cases involved actual child abuse. 

Police now regularly monitor chat-rooms and paedophiles are increasingly being arrested in internet cafes where they thought they could operate with impunity.  Police say: "We take the fight to the bad guys.  If it's communication on the internet, we can handle it."
Sunday Express 16/10/2005

Blocking On-Line Child Pornography
This week, Parliament rose for the summer recess. When it returns in the early Autumn, it will consider a 10-Minute Rule Bill that was tabled this week by Labour MP Margaret Moran. The title is the Control of Internet Access (Child Pornography) Bill.  So far, all we know is: "That leave will be given to bring in a Bill to require internet service providers and other commercial organisations providing access to the internet to declare whether or not they have taken steps to prevent access to web sites containing indecent images of children; and for connected purposes." 

It is clear that this Bill is inspired by the success of BT's Cleanfeed operation. This is a process whereby BT blocks access by its Internet customers to any sites determined by the Internet Watch Foundation - which I chair - to host child abuse images which it is illegal for UK citizens to view. This initiative has received support from Government and recognition at the Internet Service Providers' Association annual award ceremony, but it has been controversial in some quarters of the industry.
Roger Darlington Ofcom Consumer Panel member for England 22/7/2005

Other Newspaper Stories

115,000 Try to Access Child Porn Sites Daily
BT is blocking more than 23,000 attempts a day to view child pornography on the Internet it emerged yesterday.  Since installing technology that prevents its 2.8 million Web subscribers from accessing blacklisted websites, the company has seen shocking evidence of the demand for obscene images of children.  Since BT controls only a fifth of the UK Internet market, the true number of ‘hits' is likely to be far higher at around 115,000 a day as perverts use other Internet service providers to view the sites.  A BT spokesman said it was in discussions with its rivals about making the filter more widely available on a non-profit basis.
Daily Mail 21/7/2004

Internet Porn Needs Worldwide Policing
Britain's most techno friendly MP has called for tough new Internet legislation to catch child pornographers.  Derek Wyatt, member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, wants a world-wide force set up to police the Internet's fraud and pornography.  Mr Wyatt is chairman of the all-party internet group.  He said: "We need to have a governing body for the Internet with a memorandum of understanding for each government to accept.  At the moment all the organisations we have are run by interested parties." 

He said governments that signed up to the agreement would then be honour bound to extradite suspected child pornographers.  Much of the pornography starts in America, but is then distributed via sites based in China and Japan.  Mr Wyatt said the authorities could ultimately hold internet providers to account if they allowed unacceptable material to appear.
Kent on Sunday 26/9/2004

Conclusions

mediawatch-uk accepts that the Government has a rather belated desire to protect those who participate in the creation of sexual material as well as to protect society from exposure to such material.  We do not agree with the limited scope of the new offences envisaged and wish it to be extended to include material currently classified ‘R18'. 

The relaxation of constraints by the BBFC has taken place with little public or parliamentary debate and has resulted in a unilateral redefining of what is acceptable in this category.  We find it extraordinary that the material that would be subject of the new offence envisaged is currently accessible at all and this says something powerful about the degraded and decadent nature of societies that permit the publication of such damaging imagery. 

We wish the Government every success with this endeavour.

Additional Reports and Information

Who Control's the Internet?
Bush administration to keep control of internet's central computers.
The Bush Administration has decided to retain control over the principal computers which control internet traffic in a move likely to prompt global opposition, it was claimed yesterday.  The US had pledged to turn control of the 13 computers known as root servers - which inform web browsers and email programs how to direct internet traffic - over to a private, international body. 

But on Thursday the US reversed its position, announcing that it will maintain control of the computers because of growing security threats and the increased reliance on the internet for global communications.
The Guardian 2/7/2005

Internet Society
World Wide Web Consortium
ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Ofcom's Consumer Panel

EU Regulating the Internet?
by Dan Sabbagh
This week the EU admitted that it wanted to start regulating internet content, or more accurately, television flowing over the world wide web.  Of course, the European Commission did not put it like that, and instead referred to updating its existing broadcast regulations to include "all audio visual content services" including television downloads - small today but big tomorrow. 

Traditionally, broadcast regulation is pretty strict, with rules governing harm and offence, as well as accuracy and impartiality and all sorts of other things.  The EU does now want to make TV downloads subject to these precisely, but its rules set a minimum standard for member states.  The Commission is particularly interested in protection of minors and a right to reply.
The Times 15/7/2005

Parents experiencing problems may find the following websites helpful:

Children and the Internet

National Children's Home

The Home Office

National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children

Internet Watch Foundation

Children and the Internet

Other helpful sites are: kidsmart and: o2

London School of Economics Report

On 15 November 2005 the Home Office published a very helpful guide on Good Practice for search providers and advice on how the public can search safely. The document covers:

• what an internet search actually is, why users sees the results they do and how search is generally made available on the internet;
• advice for parents and carers on safe searching;
• guidance for service providers and what they can do to make searching on the internet as safe as possible for children.
  

Additional Information

US Defends its Control Over New Domains in Global Deal
The US won its battle to remain in charge of the Internet yesterday in an eleventh-hour deal that averted a clash with other nations.  Negotiators at the UN Internet summit worked throughout the night to broker the agreement that takes tentative steps towards international co-operation in overseeing the world wide web.  While the US will remain in charge of the Internet's technical, administrative and addressing system, an international forum will be set up to tackle issues such as spam e-mails, cyber crimes and wider Internet topics.
The Times 17/11/2005

Morality in Media news

More than 3 in 4 adults support U.S. Justice Department's crackdown on illegal obscenity

More than three out of four (77%) adult Americans support the Justice Department's effort to enforce federal obscenity laws, according to results of a survey conducted by Harris Interactive for Morality in Media November 4 to 7. Fewer than one in five (19%) of U.S. adults oppose new enforcement efforts. The question asked and overall breakdown of responses are as follows:

"The Supreme Court has held that obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment and that obscenity laws can be enforced against commercial distributors of hardcore pornography. During the past decade, hardcore pornographic videotapes and DVDs, films on pay TV channels, and Internet websites have proliferated.

Soon, cell phones that combine voice with pictures will make it even easier to access hardcore pornography. Recently, the Justice Department established a task force to prosecute obscenity crimes, and the FBI recruited additional agents to investigate these crimes. Do you support or oppose this new effort to enforce federal obscenity laws?"

• 77% Total Support;
• 19% Total Oppose;
• 62% Strongly support;
• 14% Somewhat support;
• 8% Somewhat oppose;
• 11% Strongly Oppose;
• 4% Not sure/No opinion;
• --% Refused (volunteered)
  

The results come from Harris Interactive's National QuorumTM, a bi-weekly omnibus survey conducted among adults living in the contiguous United States. The survey was conducted among 1,005 adults 18 years of age or older and is representative of the U.S. population. The survey has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

There was strong support across all demographic groups examined for increase enforcement, with at least 59% in each of the 102 groups examined.

Robert W. Peters, President of Morality in Media, commented:

"Those who defend hardcore pornography, whether in court or in the court of public opinion, point to the proliferation of this vile material as ‘proof' either that everyone is viewing it or that people no longer deem hardcore pornography unacceptable. The porn defenders overlook at least three factors. 

"First, much if not most hardcore pornography is consumed by a relatively small percentage of males who are addicted to it. Second, just because a person experiments with hardcore pornography does not mean he or she has become a devotee of it, especially when pornographers promote their products relentlessly and by deceptive means. Third, just because a person views some hardcore pornography does not mean he or she finds all of it acceptable or thinks more of it would be a good thing. 

"Defenders of hardcore pornography also say that the Justice Department's efforts to curb the sale of obscene materials is a waste of resources. They overlook the reality that the floodtide of hardcore pornography pouring into our communities and homes is adversely impacting society in various ways, including:

• Contributing to teen promiscuity
• Contributing to the break-up of marriages
• Contributing to sex crimes against adults and children
• Contributing to on-the-job sexual harassment
• Contributing to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS
• Contributing to the coffers of organized crime
• Contributing to a tarnished "anything immoral goes" national image.
  

"They also overlook the fact that when obscenity laws are effectively enforced, the resulting fines and forfeitures will offset most if not all of the cost of enforcement.

"Headquartered in New York City, MORALITY IN MEDIA works through constitutional means to curb traffic in illegal obscenity. MIM operates the obscenitycrimes website, where citizens can report possible violations of federal Internet obscenity laws, and the National Obscenity Law Center, a resource for prosecutors, law enforcement agencies and legislators.
Morality in Media news release NEW YORK 15/11/2005

BBFC Publishes Response to Home Office Consultation
Whilst sharing the Home Office's view that the easy availability of extreme pornography which features a lack of consent, serious violence, or both, is a cause of real concern, the BBFC has raised a number of questions about how the proposed legislation would work in practice.  The BBFC would like to see works classified by the BBFC specifically excluded from prosecution under the proposed legislation.
BBFC news release 22/11/2005

Acceptable use Policies on the Net

mediawatch-uk is grateful to Roger Darlington for the following important article posted on 5/12/2005

"In the debates about regulating use of the Internet, there is little mention of the fact that every company hosting Internet content or providing access to Internet content has a contractual relationship with the individual or organisation concerned and these Terms and Conditions (T&C) invariably include an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). It is often a struggle to find the precise terms of a company's AUP policy. For instance, I challenge you to find BT's AUP policy on their web site (you can try the search facility but it will not help). When you've tried and failed, click here.

"Now the terms of these AUP policies can make for fascinating reading. For instance, the one covering the use of web space hosted by BT states:

"You must not use your web space to cause annoyance, inconvenience, offence or needless anxiety". AOL's terms of use include the injunction: "You may not submit or transmit through AOL.COM any material, or otherwise engage in any conduct that is unlawful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libellous, deceptive, fraudulent, invasive of another's privacy, tortuous, or contains explicit or graphic descriptions, or accounts of, sexual acts ... victimizes, harasses, degrades, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability".

"So, why do I (Roger Darlington) raise this issue? Because I can't help feeling that American hosting companies in particular could do much more - if they wished - to curtail the availability in the USA and therefore worldwide of child abuse images, extreme adult pornography and race hate material by having and enforcing these sort of AUP policies which would obviate the need to become embroiled in constitutional debates about First Amendment rights. Am I right?

For more news and information

mediawatch-uk Autumn 2006 Newsbrief

mediawatch-uk Spring 2006 Newsbrief

Other Related News in 2006

Law to Ban Extreme Porn Viewing
Viewing vile images of rape and sexual torture will become a criminal offence.  Possession of so-called "violent and extreme pornography" will carry up to three years imprisonment. 

It follows a long campaign by the mother of Brighton schoolteacher Jane Longhurst, who was killed in 2003.  The man convicted of her murder has won an appeal against his conviction and is now facing a possible retrial.  Violent internet porn was implicated at his original trial. 

Liz Longhurst said: "My daughter Sue and myself are very pleased that after 30 months of intensive campaigning we have persuaded the Government to take action against these horrific internet sites which can have such a corrupting influence and glorify extreme sexual violence."

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said: "The vast majority of people find these forms of violent and extreme pornography deeply abhorrent.  This sort of material is not just offensive, it contains images of sexual acts and sexual violence that are already illegal to publish or distribute in the UK.  Such material has no place in our society, but the advent of the internet has meant that this material is more easily available and means existing controls are being by-passed.  We must move to tackle this." 

He said the Government will bring in new laws as soon as possible to ban possession of porn depicting "scenes of extreme sexual violence" and other obscene material such as bestiality and necrophilia. The move will cover porn both online and offline.
Daily Express Online 30/8/2006

New treaty needed on Internet content

Time to strengthen the law against pornography

Some Myths about Denmark

Lords Say Murder Verdict on Sex Killer Was Unsafe
A musician jailed for 30 years for strangling a school teacher to fulfil a sexual fantasy has won a House of Lords appeal against his murder conviction.  Five law lords ruled that the jury in Graham Coutts's trial in 2004 should have offered the option of a manslaughter verdict - even though the defence and prosecution both agreed with the judge's decision not to offer an alternative.  This failure, although fully understandable in the circumstances, was a material irregularity. 

The case will now return to the Court of Appeal, which is expected to quash the conviction and order a retrial. At the original trial, Lewes Crown Court was told that Coutts had a bizarre and macabre sexual fascination with asphyxiated or dead women and regularly trawled the internet in search of websites depiction such violent images.

Police also found that Coutts had done internet searches on the words ‘strangled women', ‘dead women', ‘rape' and ‘murder' the day before Miss Longhurst vanished in March 2003.  The prosecution said that there was no evidence that Miss Longhurst and Coutts had been lovers.
The Times 20/7/2006

mediawatch-uk News Release 30/8/2006
The Government's proposals, announced today, to deal with extreme pornography do not go far enough according to John Beyer, Director of mediawatch-uk. 

"Despite acknowledging that many respondents felt the proposals should go further, with tighter restrictions imposed on all pornography the Home Office has shied away from this and decided not to strengthen the weak and ineffective Obscene Publications Act but to bring forward measures to deal only with serious violence, sex with animals and corpses", he said.  "It is a great disappointment that hard-core pornographic material, classified R18 by the British Board of Film Classification, has not been considered". 

Mr Beyer continued, "These proposals will have no impact at all on the deluge of pornography that is accessible on television, on the Internet and on video and DVD.  People are sick and tired of being confronted with pornography and its false values and would welcome a general clean up.  The Government's very limited measures are simply not designed to achieve what the vast majority of people want and this huge exploitative industry will be left pretty much intact by New Labour".

Blair Petitioned on Pornography