Extreme Pornography News

Millian Liberalism and Extreme Pornography

By Nick Cowen. Article first published online: 4 DEC 2015

Abstract

How sexuality should be regulated in a liberal political community is an important, controversial theoretical and empirical question--as shown by the recent criminalization of possession of some adult pornography in the United Kingdom. Supporters of criminalization argue that Mill, often considered a staunch opponent of censorship, would support prohibition due to his feminist commitments. I argue that this account underestimates the strengths of the Millian account of private conduct and free expression, and the consistency of Millian anticensorship with feminist values. A Millian contextual defense of liberty, however, suggests several other policy approaches to addressing the harms of pornography.

See paper from onlinelibrary.wiley.com

A Bradford court has sentenced a victim of the Dangerous Pictures Act to a 12 month community order. The man was prosecuted for possessing 3 jokey animal porn pics on his phone.

The illegal pictures were of a woman engaged in sexual activity with a horse and a semi-naked woman photographed with a dog. The Bradford man said he had thought the images were of some amusement.

He was sentenced to a 12 month community order, with 100 hours unpaid work, and a 15 day activity requirement with the probation service. His phone was also ordered to be destroyed.

The UN has called on Japan to prosecute manga cartoons of sexualized images of children. Speaking at Japan National Press Club, Dutch lawyer Maud De Boer-Buquicchio, a UN rapporteur on child prostitution and pornography, has praised the recently-introduced law against real child pornography, but also criticised Japan for permitting cartoon imagery. She said:

When it comes to particular, extreme child pornographic content, manga should be banned.

The call from the UN envoy has been met with anger from manga artists, publishers and free-speech advocates, who claim that the ban would give the government unlimited power to restrict art.

Dan Kanemitsu, a manga translator, urged not to confuse fiction with reality, saying that manga characters may look childish but are not actually kids.

As reported yesterday, Malta's Justice and Culture Minister Owen Bonnici has announced new amendments to censorship laws, which he said make good on the Labour Party's promises in opposition to prevent the further criminalisation of artists and citizens based on archaic laws pertaining to obscenity.

Obscenity laws introduced in 1975 under a Labour government, which generically outlawed articles that unduly emphasised sex, crime, horror, cruelty and violence , will be repealed.

Pornography will now be defined as something which is made with the express aim to sexually arouse, and will be allowed to be distributed to adults, provided appropriate warnings will be given.

However examples of extreme pornography will be banned outright. These are defined as an act which threatens a person's life, an act which results in a person's severe injury, rape or a non-consensual sexual activity, sexual activity involving a human corpse, and any act involving a person an animal.

Speaking to MaltaToday, Andrew Sciberras, part of the legal team charged with assembling the new law, ensured that strong defenses are in place for however falls foul of these new amendments, and that each case will be allowed to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Sciberras explained that the amendments are based on the British equivalent of the same laws, which he admitted were not without their controversy . He was referring specifically to the extreme porn laws , which led to protests following their introduction in the UK in 2008.

This law has proven to be problematic when it comes to, for example, pornography of the bondage-and-masochism (BDSM) genre, which while often suggestive of violent activity by definition, could also be presented in a fictionalized setting, and performed in a safe environment.

Sciberras added that in all cases, the context of the work in question -- be it visual or a work of literature -- will be considered in context to determine whether its worth is solely pornographic or not

A student studying animal management built up a library of illegal pictures depicting humans and animals having sex, a judge heard.

The student admitted possessing 284 images classed in law as being extreme pornography.

Swansea crown court heard how police found the images on his laptop.

The student was jailed for 16 weeks, suspended for a year. He was also placed under supervision for 12 months and ordered to complete a one-to-one course to help him understand the 'harm' that was caused in the creation of the images. (presumably the twisted definition whereby making a personal copy is vindictively conflated with the act of photographing or directing the original image).

Dangerous Pictures victims are waiting up to two years for cases to come before the courts, as police are struggling to keep on top of mountains of computer evidence.

A surge in the seizure of people's computers is leading to some victims facing longer waits for a court date. Laptops, PCs, tablets and mobile phones displaying the internet are increasingly involved in investigations with a huge amount of data being processed by the county force.

Carlisle's top judge, Paul Batty QC, raised concerns over one case before him at the city's crown court after it took about two years to reach its conclusion.

Detective Inspector Neil Cooper, of Cumbria Police, explained how the force dealt with the rise. He said:

In the past few years an increasing number of crimes investigated by the police involve the use of computers, internet-enabled mobile phones and other data storage devices. As a result Cumbria Constabulary's hi-tech crime unit are examining an increasing number of devices, many of which have a huge amount of data on them.

Each case is risk assessed and the examinations are prioritised in order to ensure that the cases where there is the greatest risk to the public are dealt with the quickest. On occasions, other cases where there is a low ongoing risk to the public do take longer to be completed.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how one case where a man downloaded extreme porn featuring animals took two years to reach its conclusion. The case against Victor Noble came to light in 2013, but it only appeared before the city court this month. Noble admitted five counts of possessing extreme pornography and was made the subject of a community order.

A man who downloaded extreme porn featuring animals foolishly handed himself into police after falling victim to a computer scam.

Victor Noble fell victim to computer hackers impersonating police who remotely locked his computer and demands a fee for it to be unlocked. The scammers blanked the screen and put in place an image supposedly referring to a police force, suggesting the user had been visiting illegal sites and that he should pay a fee for his computer to be unlocked.

Noble foolishly paid the £100 requested but the computer stayed locked. He then stupidly decided to go to the police. About 600 images of an extreme pornographic nature were discovered.

Noble admitted five counts of possessing extreme pornography. He was made the subject of a community order, in which he will be supervised for a year.

Myles Jackman has played a high profile part in defending victims of Britain's repressive obscenity laws. He has now launched a new website which may be the first port of call for anyone that falls foul of UK censorship laws.

A man has been sentenced to 24 weeks in prison for possession of extreme pornography at Ipswich Magistrates Court

Police carried out a warrant at his home in Main Road in December 2013 after receiving information that he may be in possession of videos and images involving bestiality.

A number of items were seized including laptop computers and DVDs and these were sent for analysis. They were found to contain images of extreme pornography.

He was charged with seven counts of possession of extreme pornography and was sentenced to 24 weeks in custody and will have to sign onto the sex offenders register on his release and forfeit all material seized.

'Justice' Secretary Chris Grayling has been speaking of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, which was expected to get Royal Assent today,

This bill extends the definition of extreme pornography to include the depiction of rape with vague definitions that will surely see hundreds of people likely to become victims when police make commonplace and routine computer searches.

The government has also increased the maximum penalty to 2 years for those who send internet insults that the authorities deem to be abusive.