Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

The Government has published the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. It's a bit of a rag bag but has some key proposals in it. Not least the much anticipated proposals on violent pornography. The Pink Paper also points to debates surrounding proposals for anew offence of inciting hatred against gay, lesbian and bisexual people: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-5691.html

Section 64 of the Bill deals with 'extreme pornographic images'. Section 64(2) rather helpfully (not!) defines an 'extreme porn' image as:

(2) An “extreme pornographic image” is an image which is both—
(a) pornographic, and
(b) an extreme image.

I was really struck by S64(6) which states:

(6) An “extreme image” is an image of any of the following—
(a) an act which threatens or appears to threaten a person’s life,
(b) an act which results in or appears to result (or be likely to result) in serious injury to a person’s anus, breasts or genitals,
(c) an act which involves or appears to involve sexual interference with a human corpse,
(d) a person performing or appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal, where (in each case) any such act, person or animal depicted in the image is or
appears to be real.

On this basis, surely bareback porn (i.e. sex without a condom) would fall within this category as threatening or appearing to threaten a person's life? By including 'appear to threaten' we also have the crazy situation whereby a documentary showing S&M scenes would not fall within these provisions (as it was not solely or principally produced to create sexual arousal) but the same image in a video tape labelled as pornography would fall within these provisions- even though it was fake, even though it was the expression of fantasy and even if consensual.

Read the Bill and monitor it as it passes through Parliament at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills/200607/criminal_justice_and_immigration.htm

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