UK Porn Law Documentary

In the wake of the AVMS regulations 2014, 11 porn performers and spanking enthusiasts talk to Pandora Blake about the implications of the new laws, and why porn censorship is an issue that affects all of us.

I made this documentary about the UK porn laws about a year ago, using interviews that were shot as part of my sponsored caning fundraiser to raise money for Backlash, the non-profit organisation dedicated to fighting for sexual freedom in the UK. In case you weren’t following at the time, this protest project was intended to help fund Backlash to provide legal support to producers affected by the AVMS regulations, which had recently criminalised the depiction of a whole slew of consensual fetish activities in online porn, including spanking and caning that leaves marks. Myself and nine other spanking enthusiasts volunteered to take one hard cane stroke per £10 raised, to a maximum of 50 strokes per person. We made a colossal £3836 in total, which was donated in its entirety to Backlash.

Each of the ten sponsored canings was filmed and released under Creative Commons – you can view them for free here. We shot an interview with each participant before the caning itself, giving them the opportunity to talk about porn criminalisation, censorship, and why they cared about the UK legislation enough to put their bottoms on the line to help fight it. It amused me no end that when ATVOD were investigating this site, they had to sit through these interviews and listen to lots of well-articulated criticism about themselves before getting to watch the free caning scenes that they were so incensed about.

In the autumn, after Dreams of Spanking had been forced offline by ATVOD’s ruling against us, I created this documentary from the ten interviews connected with the sponsored caning fundraiser. Its publication was delayed for various reasons, but now I’ve finally been able to put it online. In the meantime, one aspect of this documentary is now out of date: In January 2016 ATVOD, the unelected quango contracted to enforce the new regulations, was folded by the UK Government. However, the porn laws that were introduced in December 2014 remain unchanged, and their impact is just as bad as ever. The only difference is that the laws are now enforced by government media regulator Ofcom, rather than ATVOD. 

The points made about censorship and freedom of speech are just as true now as they were a year ago, and I fear will remain so for a while to come.