London tightens controls on violent pornography and the use of intimate images

LondonThe British government announced on Tuesday a legal reform to strengthen the protection of women and victims of the non-consensual distribution of intimate images. The changes, included in the proposed Crime and Policing Bill, will extend the statute of limitations for reporting such acts—currently set at six months—to three years and will penalize the possession and publication on websites of pornography depicting strangulation or suffocation. According to the government, the reform is a key component of its Plan for Change to "halve violence against women and girls." The Secretary of State for Victims and Violence against Women and Girls, Alex Davies-Jones, warned that "misogynistic hate online has devastating consequences" and asserted that "this government will not stand idly by while women are raped online and victimized by violent pornography."

The measure also responds to the recommendations of the Independent Report on Pornography, which found that strangulation has become normalized as a sexual practice, especially among young people, without awareness of its risks. In response, the Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, Liz Kendall, stressed that sharing this material "is vile and dangerous" and that those responsible "contribute to a culture of violence that has no place in our society."

Once the reforms have come into effect, digital platforms will have to act proactively to prevent this content from circulating, through automated detection tools or stricter policies. "There is no safe way to strangle," warned Bernie Ryan, director of the Institute for the Prevention of Strangulation, who welcomed the measures.

Consumption falls due to age controls

The government's announcement coincides almost exactly with the release of figures on porn consumption in the UK, showing a notable decrease in traffic to pornographic websites since the online safety law came into effect, which requires verification of legal age to access. Pornhub claims that the number of British visitors has fallen by 77% since July, while Google data indicates that searches on the site have been cut almost in half.

But according to Ofcom, the UK's media regulator, visits to pornographic websites in the UK have fallen by about a third in three months, a sign that the law "is achieving its objective of preventing minors from easily encountering porn," according to sources at the agency. However, some users employ VPNs to circumvent age verification controls: downloads of these apps have exceeded 10.7 million in 2025, and since the system came into effect, some providers have seen increases of up to 1,800% in downloads of their software or applications. The challenge of regulating a global space like the internet will remain central to the British political debate on digital security and individual rights.