This week marks a turning point in the UK's approach to violent pornography. The government has announced that it will publication or ownership Pornographic images of strangulation or suffocation, often called “choking”, are illegal. This bold move could change the porn that appears on porn sites and social media.
Choking in porn was once a niche phenomenon. Really, research An investigation into pornography content 20 years ago found virtually no such cases. And yet independent examination of pornography released this year, it was found to be widely distributed on the most popular porn sites. This summer the children's commissar published a report It found that 58% of young people had seen strangulation in pornography, although only 6% had searched for it. Like famous porn producer Erica Lust puts itChoking has become the “alpha and omega” of “any porn scene.”
This is important because the more porn we watch, the more strangulations we see—and the more likely we are to strangle someone during sexual activity. This is not speculation – classes of male students please show this link. Porn is modern sex education: in recent survey According to LadBible, 70% of young people said porn was their first introduction to sex.
We see this play out in the lives of young people. Reports show that between one third and half young people were strangled or strangled during sex. And this is a gendered practice: mostly men are strangled, but women and representatives of sexual minorities are strangled.
Pornography, of course, is not the only influencing factor. Popular culture reinforces and reproduces these messages of being normal and harmless through supposedly humorous memes and hashtags such as #chokemedaddy; as well as popular songs such as Jack Harlow's Love me calling the choking “vanilla”. There is also a much darker underbelly that the manosphere normalizes and encourages, characterizing it as ultra-masculine.
All of this matters because of the serious risks and harms associated with strangulation. We have long known that suffocation can cause loss of consciousness, sore throat, dizziness, red eyes, incontinence and even stroke. But the negative impact on brain function in young women is also now becoming known.
Medical research with MRI scan And blood tests finds that frequent sexual strangulation impairs brain function, which can affect information processing and attention span. This is a concern at any time, but especially in young people whose brains are still developing.
And it is very important to emphasize that these risks are not unique to actions performed without consent. Consent does not protect you from brain damage. These studies shouldn't be dismissed as “sex-negative” or “moral panic” (unless you're concerned about brain damage in young women).
What's even more concerning is that these are hidden harms that are difficult to detect and largely unknown. Young women are largely unaware of the serious risks of strangulation, meaning they cannot freely consent to it. Many men also choke without realizing the real risk to their partners – and to themselves if things go horribly wrong. General assumption is that it is a safe practice. This is why we also need to raise public awareness about the dangers of sexual strangulation because #Breathless the campaign took place in Australia.
All of this explains why action to reduce the prevalence and normalize sexual strangulation is urgent. The government's proposed new law means that, according to Internet Safety Act of 2023porn platforms and social networks like X will have to actively detect and remove this content.
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This is a bold step and is welcome. But passing a law is only the first step: it must be implemented and enforced. So all eyes will now be on regulator Ofcom. Will he prioritize this issue and force platforms to act? Unfortunately, the omens are not very good. Rape porn is already illegal, but it is still common on mainstream porn platforms and X.
This new law is a watershed moment. He acknowledges that mainstream porn has real consequences and that strangulation is inherently harmful. This is the beginning of a fight against mainstream pornography, which shapes our lives in profoundly destructive ways.
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Claire McGlynn is Professor of Law at Durham University and author of Unmasked: The Rise of Extreme Pornography and How We Fight Back (to be published in 2026).
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