Possession and publication of such material will be a criminal offence, under amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill.

Online pornography showing strangulation or suffocation is to be made illegal, as part of government plans to tackle violence against women and girls.

It follows a review which found depictions of choking were “rife” on mainstream porn sites and had helped normalise the act among young people.

Both the possession and publication of such material will be a criminal offence, under amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill currently going through Parliament.

  • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.netEnglish
    32·
    15 hours ago

    This is in direct response to some recent studies that claimed that chocking is the second most common cause of stroke in women under 40. Other studied found that there is no safe amount of oxygen deprivation, any chocking leads to brain damage. Other risks of choking are difficulty swallowing, incontinence, seizures, memory problems, depression, anxiety and miscarriage.

    What happened is that porn normalized chocking. It used to be limited to the “hard core” types of porn but now it’s mainstream and kids that grew up watching it think it’s just normal part of sex. Most women asked about it say that they don’t enjoy it but do it “for their partner’s pleasure”.

    So yeah, the government treats it as a public health issue and bans it.

    I’m not a scientists, I didn’t review all those studies and frankly I don’t care one way of the other. Just wanted to give people some context.

    You can read more about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jul/07/no-safe-way-risks-of-choking-during-sex

    • cley_faye@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      porn normalized chocking

      I’m not sold on the “porn normalized XYZ”, or non porn either. There’s plenty of content of all kinds showing all kind of things that would be deemed dangerous, wrong, lethal, immoral, cruel, etc. but somehow, it’s only porn and kinks we’re talking about. If the prevalence of something in easily accessible media was a thing, I’d have a thing or two to tell about cops choking/gasing/beating up people laying on the ground.

      I’m more concerned by the amount of people that consider fictional content to be guidelines for how they actually live their life. It seems that there’s enough of them to warrant censoring weird shit, but as long as this side of the issue is not addressed, this will not stop.

      When I was younger (yes… classic one) a lot of people were worried that younger generation could not distinguish fiction from reality. And we didn’t even have realistic fiction, too. Now that we do, it seems that too many people consider “normalisation” through any media the natural course of things. Kinda like video game making people violent… only when it is convenient.

    • indomara@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      10 hours ago

      An article about this was posted 6 months ago and I looked into it: https://lemmy.world/comment/16311493

      I wrote:

      This article is feeling kind of clickbaitish, as the sources are … odd.

      However, restricting blood flow to the brain can also have serious health implications.

      While not all pressure on the neck will be fatal, research shows even relatively low pressure can cause death by strangulation.

      The first source is a medical journal describing the physiology of the arteries in the neck, and does not seem to include anything about restricting blood flow (never mind temporarily) having serious health consequences.

      The second source is a book from 1991 about autoerotic asphyxiation with the quote:

      autoerotic asphyxia denotes death resulting from failure of a release mechanism of the device, apparatus or prop designed to attain cerebral hypoxia for heightened arousal.

      Which is … not the same as doing this with someone, and doesn’t address the risks of a partner who releases pressure immediately after a loss of consciousness.

      The issues around consent are troubling indeed, consent should always be paramount.

      I also found it amusing that the beginning of the article said

      Although rare, strangulation is the leading cause of death in consensual BDSM play.

      Which links to a study that found a total of 16 cases that included strangulation between 1982 and 2020. Rare indeed.

      My husband and I dabble in breath play, so I was curious and read a few studies myself. It seems that every case study I could find included atypical circumstances. Things like accidental hanging, or asphyxiation due to bags etc being over the head.

      This paper includes a 50 year review of cases for anyone interested. https://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOFORSJ/TOFORSJ-1-1.pdf

      It is also worth noting that loss of consciousness due to cutting off blood flow to the brain (cerebral hypoxia) is not dissimilar to the hypoxia experienced by pilots, who even train with repeated exposure to hypoxia in hyperbaric chambers.

      I would be curious to know if there were any studies of the long term effects of this on pilots. (My dive into the rabbit hole is done for the day, lol.)

    • CluckN@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      11 hours ago

      First they came for the Chokers , And I did not speak out Because I like to breath

      Then they came for the Foot fanatics , And I did not speak out Because I was not into feet

      Then they came for the thigh highs , And I did not speak out Because I was not into socks

      Then they came for the Brazilian cake farts , And there was no one left To speak out for me

      • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        4 hours ago

        Like, I get it, but this but unironically. The UK has already put a bathroom ban out for trans folks. How long before they ban trans porn because it’s considered harmful? How long before they start to label other trans things as adult and ban those too?