The UK government announced on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, that pornography depicting strangulation and incest will be banned starting Nov. 6. The new regulations will make it illegal to possess or publish content showing strangulation, suffocation, sexual activity between relatives or those pretending to be related, and adults roleplaying as children under 16. The government stated the laws were moved forward following cross-party pressure regarding the impact of such material on women and girls.
The policy follows recommendations from a 2025 review of pornography regulation conducted by Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin. The review found that pornography showing women being choked could lead to real-world consequences and noted that such depictions had become normalized. While non-fatal strangulation was already a standalone criminal offense in the UK, the act of showing it in online pornography was not previously prohibited.
Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones stated that the government aims to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. Davies-Jones clarified that the law is intended to address content that normalizes violence rather than criminalizing harmless sexual preferences. The minister advised individuals currently in possession of this material to delete it and for those sharing it to stop, noting that doing so will become a criminal act once the law takes effect.
Beginning Nov. 6, 2026, individuals found in possession of the specified content could face criminal charges. The government has not reported the specific penalties, such as fine amounts or jail time, for these new offenses. For the general public, the most immediate change will be the removal of specific categories of content from legal adult websites accessible within the UK. The ban also targets "role-play" content, meaning material that depicts simulated incest or adults portraying minors will fall under the same criminal restrictions as actual depictions of those acts.
The new rules follow Baroness Bertin’s report which described the pornography industry as previously lacking government scrutiny. The effectiveness of the ban will depend on enforcement and the compliance of hosting companies. Following the announcement on Oct. 16, the government expects individuals to remove banned content from their devices before the law officially goes into effect on Nov. 6, 2026. No further legislative votes were mentioned as necessary for these measures to be implemented.