The law is defined broadly to allow the criminal justice system to capture a wide variety of acts that represent child pornography. The Protection of Children Act 1978 (and its subsequent amendments) makes it illegal to take, permit to be taken, make, distribute, show, have in one’s possession, publish or cause to be published any indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child (defined as someone under the age of 18 years old). The law against child pornography in the UK is, rightly, very strict and, helpfully, relatively straightforward. The core categories are child pornography and ‘extreme pornography’. That said, the law does provide some clear-cut categories of pornographic material that is illegal in the UK. the courts) in order to determine its legality. Rather, complaints about any particular material tend to have to be reviewed by regulators or judicial bodies (i.e. As such, there is a rarely a black and white answer to whether something is illegal. The regulation of pornography in the UK falls under a variety or laws, regulations, judicial processes, and even voluntary schemes. Is porn illegal in the UK?įiguring out what porn is illegal in the UK is not always a straightforward task.

The purpose of this guide from our expert criminal defence solicitors is to give you an overview of some of the main laws relating to one such potentially harmful material: pornography. The protections form part of a wider government effort to censor certain harmful information and materials on the Internet and elsewhere, such as copyright violations, libellous communications, depiction of animal abuse, terroristic propaganda and literature, and other extreme text, images, videos, and audio files. The UK government has put extensive protections in place to ensure that the general public – particularly those under the age of 18 years old – are not adversely affected by pornography.

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