Pornography in the United Kingdom
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Pornography in the United Kingdom is regulated by a variety of laws, regulations, judicial processes, and voluntary schemes. Pornographic material generally has to be assessed by regulators or courts to determine its legality. The Victorian pornographic tradition included French photographs, erotic prints, and printed literature. As technology has advanced, pornography has taken diverse forms and become more widespread in society. In the twentieth century the production of pornographic magazines and films developed, and by the twenty-first century pornography was available by telephone, on television and via the internet. However, access to pornography has generally been more restricted than it has been in comparable Western countries. By 2006 the UK pornography industry was estimated to be worth about  billion, compared to  billion worldwide.


Legal situation

The UK has a markedly different tradition of pornography regulation from that found in most other Western countries, which legalised
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography, or hardcore porn, is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as vaginal, anal or oral intercourse, fingering, anilingus, ejaculation, and fetish play. The term is in contrast wi ...
during the 1960s and 1970s. By contrast the UK was almost the only
liberal democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into diff ...
not to do so and the UK's obscenity laws, such as the
Obscene Publications Act 1959 The Obscene Publications Act 1959 (c. 66) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity in England and Wales. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene mater ...
, remained strict by European standards. Other acts of parliament such as the
Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 is an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament which makes provision for a wide range of civic government matters. Effects of the Act Parts I and II of the Act deal with licensing by local authorities of a r ...
and the
Video Recordings Act 1984 The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon ...
combined with the
Obscene Publications Acts Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published in England and Wales. The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt," stated in 1868 by Lord ...
to set the criteria for the types of material that could be publicly accessed and distributed in any form in the UK. Together they created an effective ban on the publication, though not possession, of many types of pornography. However, this legislation was found to be difficult to enforce due to the vagueness of the legal test of material that "depraves and corrupts". The sale of hardcore pornography remained illegal until the end of the 20th century, although the ownership of such material was not a criminal offence. Printed hardcore pornography was banned under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, while hardcore videotapes and DVDs were prohibited due to the requirement under the
Video Recordings Act 1984 The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon ...
that such content had to be certified by the
British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
(BBFC). At the beginning of the 21st century, as a result of liberalisation in BBFC policy, mainstream hardcore DVDs began to receive R18 certificates, legalising them but restricting their sale to licensed
sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in th ...
s such as those in
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...
in London. UK-based websites that stream video content were also made subject to these content standards. European, American and British hardcore
pornographic magazine Pornographic magazines or erotic magazines, sometimes known as adult, sex or top-shelf magazines, are magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature. Publications of this kind may contain images of attractive naked subjects, as is ...
s became available in sex shops and by mail order, while softcore magazines continued to be sold openly in many British newsagents. This did not, however, result in the UK legalising all types of pornography. In the 2004–2005 fiscal year, the agents of
HM Revenue and Customs HM Revenue and Customs (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC) is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial Departments of the United Kingdom Government, department of the His Majesty's Government, UK Government responsible fo ...
seized 96,783 items of pornographic media carried by people travelling into the UK. Although the UK was a member state of the European Union until 2020, it was the only EU country to prohibit private imports of adult pornography by consumers travelling from other EU countries.


Literature

In Medieval England, erotic or pornographic publications were the concern of the ecclesiastical courts. After the Reformation the jurisdiction of these courts declined in favour of the Crown which licensed every printed book. In his diary,
Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
records purchasing a copy of ''L'Ecole des Filles'', a French work printed in 1655 that is considered to be the beginning of pornography in France for solitary reading. He then burns it so that it would not be discovered by his wife; "the idle roguish book, ''L'escholle de filles''; which I have bought in plain binding… because I resolve, as soon as I have read it, to burn it." An early pioneer of the publication of erotic works in England was
Edmund Curll Edmund Curll (''c.'' 1675 – 11 December 1747) was an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealt ...
(1675–1747). The conviction of Curll in 1727 for the publication of '' Venus in the Cloister or the Nun in her Smock'' under the common law offence of
disturbing the peace Breach of the peace, or disturbing the peace, is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the several jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public ord ...
appears to be the first conviction for obscenity in the United Kingdom, and set a
legal precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...
for other convictions. ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'' (later abridged and renamed ''
Fanny Hill ''Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure''—popularly known as ''Fanny Hill''—is an erotic novel by English novelist John Cleland first published in London in 1748. Written while the author was in debtors' prison in London,Wagner, "Introduction", ...
'') was written in 1748 by
John Cleland John Cleland (c. 1709, baptised – 23 January 1789) was an English novelist best known for his fictional '' Fanny Hill: or, the Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure'', whose eroticism led to his arrest. James Boswell called him "a sly, old malcont ...
. It was scandalous for depicting a woman, the narrator, enjoying and even revelling in sexual acts with no dire moral or physical consequences. The text is hardly explicit as Cleland wrote the entire book using euphemisms for sex acts and body parts, employing 50 different ones just for the term
penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males do n ...
. Cleland was arrested and briefly imprisoned but no proceedings were taken against the publishers. ''Fanny Hill'' continued to be published and is one of the most reprinted books in the English language. In the 18th century directories of
prostitutes Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
and their services, such as ''
Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies ''Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies'', published from 1757 to 1795, was an annual directory of prostitutes then working in Georgian London. A small pocketbook, it was printed and published in Covent Garden, and sold for two shi ...
'' (1757–1795), provided both entertainment and instruction. In the Victorian period, significant elements of
sado-masochism Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...
were present in some examples of erotic fiction, perhaps reflecting the influence of the English
public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
, where
flagellation Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...
was routinely used as a punishment.
Erotic spanking Erotic spanking is the act of spanking another person for the sexual arousal or gratification of either or both parties. The intensity of the act can vary in both its duration and severity, and may include the use of one or more spanking impleme ...
was the subject of books such as ''
Lady Bumtickler's Revels ''Lady Bumtickler's Revels'' is a pornographic book written as a spoof libretto for a comic opera on the theme of flagellation. It was written and published by John Camden Hotten in 1872 in his series ''The Library Illustrative of Social Progress'' ...
'' and ''
Exhibition of Female Flagellants ''Exhibition of Female Flagellants'' is an 1830 pornographic novel published by George Cannon in London and attributed, probably falsely, to Theresa Berkley. The principal activity described is flagellation, mainly of women by women, described ...
''. Clandestine erotic periodicals of this age include '' The Pearl'', ''
The Oyster ''The Oyster'' was an erotic magazine published in London in 1883 by William Lazenby William Lazenby (died c. 1888) was an English publisher of pornography active in the 1870s and 1880s. He used the aliases Duncan Cameron and Thomas Judd. His not ...
'' and ''
The Boudoir ''The Boudoir: A Magazine of Scandal, Facetiae etc.'' was an erotic magazine published in London in the 1880s by William Lazenby William Lazenby (died c. 1888) was an English publisher of pornography active in the 1870s and 1880s. He used the alia ...
''. Erotic fiction at this time was often anonymous or written under a pseudonym. The centre of the trade in such material in England at this period was Holywell Street, off the
Strand, London Strand (or the Strand) is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster, Central London. It runs just over from Trafalgar Square eastwards to Temple Bar, where the road becomes Fleet Street in the City of London, and is part of the A4 ...
. Publishers of erotic fiction at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century began to be subject to legal injunctions from the British authorities in order to prohibit their trade in such material. Because of this legal harassment some took to conducting business from Paris.
Olympia Press Olympia Press was a Paris-based publisher, launched in 1953 by Maurice Girodias as a rebranded version of the Obelisk Press he inherited from his father Jack Kahane. It published a mix of erotic fiction and avant-garde literary fiction, and is bes ...
, a
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
-based
publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
, launched in 1953 by
Maurice Girodias Maurice Girodias (12 April 1919 – 3 July 1990) was a French publisher who founded the Olympia Press, specialising in risqué books, censored in Britain and America, that were permitted in France in English-language versions only. It evol ...
, published a mix of erotic fiction and
avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
literary Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
works. It specialized in books which could not be published (without legal action) in the English-speaking world, and correctly assumed that the French, who were unable to read the books, and were more sexually tolerant, would leave them alone. Since the 1950s the publication of pornographic literature in
England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
has been governed by the Obscene Publications Act 1959. The act created a new offence for publishing obscene material, but the wording of the act is famously vague, defining obscenity as material likely to "deprave and corrupt". The 1959 act was passed just as most
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
countries were about to enter a new phase of
sexual freedom A sexual norm can refer to a personal or a social norm. Most cultures have social norms regarding sexuality, and define ''normal sexuality'' to consist only of certain sex acts between individuals who meet specific criteria of age, consanguinity ...
. The scope of the legislation led to the subsequent notorious targeting of now acknowledged classics of world literature by such authors as
Zola Zola may refer to: People * Zola (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * Zola (musician) (born 1977), South African entertainer * Zola (rapper), French rapper * Émile Zola, a major nineteenth-century French writer Plac ...
,
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
and
D.H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
plus medical textbooks by such as
Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in ...
rather than the blatant erotica which was the original target of this law. The trial of
Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Lady Chatterley's Lover ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' is the last novel by English author D. H. Lawrence, which was first published privately in 1928, in Italy, and in 1929, in France. An unexpurgated edition was not published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960, w ...
in 1960 failed to secure a conviction and the conviction in the 1971 trial of Oz magazine was overturned on appeal. ''Fanny Hill'' became legally available for the first time in 1970. Purely textual pornographic texts, with no hint of
libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
, ceased to be brought to trial following the collapse of the ''Inside Linda Lovelace'' trial in 1976. However, in 2008, a man was unsuccessfully prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act (the
R v Walker ''R v Walker'' was an English Crown Court case that was a test of the Obscene Publications Act 1959. It was the first such prosecution involving written material in nearly two decades and set a precedent in use of the act to prosecute web ficti ...
trial) for posting fictional written material to the Internet allegedly describing the kidnap, rape and murder of the pop group
Girls Aloud Girls Aloud were an pop girl group that was created through the ITV talent show '' Popstars: The Rivals'' in 2002. The group comprised singers Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. The group achieved a str ...
.


Photography

In 1841,
William Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRAS (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 1 ...
patented the
calotype Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low co ...
process, the first negative-positive process, making possible multiple copies. This invention permitted an almost limitless number of prints to be produced from a glass negative. Also, the reduction in exposure time made a true mass market for pornographic pictures possible. The technology was immediately employed to reproduce nude portraits, with Paris at the centre of the trade. Pornographic photographs were often produced in sets (of four, eight or twelve), and exported internationally, mainly to England and the United States. Many dealers took advantage of the
postal system The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...
to send out photographic cards in plain wrappings to their subscribers. At this time, it became popular to depict nude photographs of women of exotic ethnicities, under the umbrella of science. Studies of this type can be found in the work of
Eadweard Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge (; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first ...
. Although he photographed both men and women, the women were often given
props A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...
like market baskets and fishing poles, making the images of women thinly disguised erotica. The first business venture of pioneering British pornographers David Sullivan and David Gold was selling
soft pornography Softcore pornography or softcore porn, is commercial still photography or film that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. Softc ...
photos by mail order at the end of the 1960s.


Magazines

During the Victorian period, illegal pornographic periodicals such as '' The Pearl'', which ran for eighteen issues between 1879 and 1880, circulated clandestinely among circles of elite urban gentlemen. At the beginning of the 20th century the invention of
halftone Halftone is the reprographic Reprography (a portmanteau of ''reproduction'' and ''photography'') is the reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means, such as photography or xerography. Reprography is commonly used in catal ...
printing led to the appearance of magazines such as ''
Photo Bits A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
'' featuring nude (often,
burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
actresses were hired as models) and semi-nude photographs on the cover and throughout; while these would now be termed softcore, they were quite shocking for the time. These publications soon either masqueraded as "art magazines" or publications celebrating the new cult of
naturism Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...
. ''
Health and Efficiency ''H&E naturist'' (originally ''Health and Efficiency'') is a 92-page monthly commercial magazine focusing on the naturist lifestyle, through articles on travel, health and culture, as well as various features on arts and books with a naked theme ...
'', started in the early twentieth century, was a typical UK naturist magazine. Following the Second World War, digest magazines such as ''Beautiful Britons'', ''Spick'' and ''Span'' began to appear, with their interest in nylons and underwear. The racier ''Kamera'' published by
Harrison Marks George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films. Personal life Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926, Marks was 17 when he married his first wife ...
was a very popular publication. These magazines featured nude or semi-nude women in coy or flirtatious poses with no hint of pubic hair.
Bob Guccione Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione ( ; December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010) was an American photographer and publisher. He founded the adult magazine '' Penthouse'' in 1965. This was aimed at competing with Hugh Hefner's ''Playboy' ...
started ''
Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...
'' in the United Kingdom in 1965 to compete against ''Playboy''. ''Penthouse's'' style was different to other magazines; with women looking indirectly at the camera, as if they were going about their private idylls. This change of emphasis influenced erotic depictions of women. ''Penthouse'' was also the first magazine to publish pictures that included pubic hair and
full frontal nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...
, both of which were considered beyond the bounds of the erotic and in the realm of pornography at the time. In 1965, ''
Mayfair Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. ...
'' was launched in the UK in competition with both ''Playboy'' and ''Penthouse''. As competition between the magazines increased, their photos became more explicit. In the late 1960s, magazines began to move into more explicit displays often focusing on the
buttocks The buttocks (singular: buttock) are two rounded portions of the exterior anatomy of most mammals, located on the posterior of the pelvic region. In humans, the buttocks are located between the lower back and the perineum. They are composed ...
as standards of what could be legally depicted and what readers wanted to see changed. '' Fiesta'' magazine, first published in 1966 by Galaxy Publications, introduced a "Readers' Wives Striptease" section in the early 1970s. This consisted of a set of photos of a supposed wife or girlfriend of a reader undressing to full nudity. The "Readers Wives" concept was subsequently adopted in a number of other magazines. Galaxy also began publishing '' Knave'' as a slightly classier sister magazine to ''Fiesta'' in 1968. During the 1970s magazines containing images of the pubic area became increasingly common. David Gold set up ''Gold Star Publications'' to publish adult magazines in the early 1970s. The company supplied many stores around the UK and in 1972 Gold was unsuccessfully prosecuted three times for publishing obscene material. David Sullivan became his business partner and by the late 1970s their company was in control of half of the adult magazine market, publishing major titles such as ''Playbirds'', ''
Whitehouse Whitehouse may refer to: People * Charles S. Whitehouse (1921-2001), American diplomat * Cornelius Whitehouse (1796–1883), English engineer and inventor * E. Sheldon Whitehouse (1883-1965), American diplomat * Elliott Whitehouse (born 1993), ...
'', ''Rustler'' and ''Raider''. Strip club owner Paul Raymond, the owner of
Paul Raymond Publications Paul Raymond Publications is a British publisher of softcore monthly pornographic magazine titles, including '' Escort'', '' Club International'', ''Mayfair'', '' Men Only'', '' Men's World'' and '' Razzle''. The company's lawyers scrutinise the ...
, launched ''
Men Only ''Men Only'' is a British magazine title that originated in 1935 as a pocket-sized men's magazine. It became a standard-sized pin-up magazine in the 1950s and was relaunched in 1971 by Paul Raymond Publications as a soft-core pornographic maga ...
'' in 1971, and then ''
Club International ''Club International'' is a British softcore pornographic magazine published by Paul Raymond Publications that features pictures of nude women. It is a sister magazine of American magazine ''Club''. History and profile ''Club International'' was ...
'' in 1972. Subsequent titles included '' Escort'' launched in 1980, '' Razzle'' in 1983 and ''
Men's World ''Men's World'' was a British soft-core pornographic magazine founded in 1988. The final issue was Volume 24 issue 13, in December 2012. It was released every four weeks and its content mostly consisted of nude pictorials of well-known erotic ...
'' in 1988. Publishing group
Northern & Shell Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British publishing group, founded in December 1974 and owned since then by Richard Desmond. Formerly a publisher of pornographic magazines including ''Penthouse'' and ''A ...
obtained the licence to publish ''Penthouse'' in the United Kingdom in 1983, which led to them subsequently publishing a range of 45 adult magazine titles, including ''
Asian Babes ''Asian Babes'' was a British softcore pornographic magazine which featured photographs of women of South Asian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai origin. The magazine was launched in March 1992 and initially used only Indian and Pakistani mode ...
'' launched in 1992. An attempt to open up the market to women in the early 1990s by publishing
women's erotica Women's erotica is any erotic material that caters specifically to women target- demographic of various sexual preferences. When erotica is specifically directed at lesbians, it is referred to as lesbian erotica. Women's erotica is available ...
magazines was largely a failure, possibly due to British obscenity laws which forbade the display of an erect penis. ''For Women'' was one exception, and it achieved widespread circulation. In the same decade "Lads' Mags" such as '' Loaded'' and ''
Front Front may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Front'' (1943 film), a 1943 Soviet drama film * ''The Front'', 1976 film Music * The Front (band), an American rock band signed to Columbia Records and active in the 1980s and e ...
'' appeared as an expression of
lad culture Lad culture (also the new lad, laddism) was a media-driven, principally British and Irish subculture of the 1990s and early 2000s. The image of the "lad"—or "new lad"—was that of a generally middle class figure espousing attitudes typically att ...
. These were men's lifestyle magazines that included
glamour photography Glamour photography is a genre of photography in which the subjects are portrayed in erotic poses ranging from fully clothed to nude. The term may be a euphemism for erotic photography. For Model (person)#Glamour models, glamour models, body sha ...
of scantily-clad female models. More explicit pornographic magazines also began to appear in the UK during the 1990s, typically imported from Scandinavia or the Netherlands, emulating the hard-core style of US magazines such as ''
Hustler Hustler or hustlers may also refer to: Professions * Hustler, an American slang word, e.g., for a: ** Con man, a practitioner of confidence tricks ** Drug dealer, seller of illegal drugs ** Male prostitute ** Pimp ** Business man, more gener ...
''. These magazines featured masturbation,
sexual penetration Sexual penetration is the insertion of a body part or other object into a body orifice, such as the mouth, vagina or anus, as part of human sexual activity or animal sexual behavior. The term is most commonly used in statute law in the context ...
,
lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
ism and homosexuality,
group sex Group sex is sexual behavior involving more than two participants. Participants in group sex can be of any sexual orientation or gender. Any form of sexual activity can be adopted to involve more than two participants, but some forms have their ...
and
fetishes A fetish (derived from the French , which comes from the Portuguese , and this in turn from Latin , 'artificial' and , 'to make') is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over ot ...
. Hardcore magazines are typically only sold in
sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in th ...
s or by mail order because UK law does not allow hardcore R18 certificate imagery to be sold at newsagents' shops. British
softcore pornographic Softcore pornography or softcore porn, is commercial photography, still photography or film that has a pornographic or erotica, erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexu ...
magazines have traditionally been sold in newsagents' shops and
petrol station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...
s. Their popular name "top-shelf magazines" derives from the tradition of keeping them out of the reach of children by placing them on the top shelf of the magazine display. By the end of the twentieth century British adult magazine market was in decline, but there were still about 100 adult magazine titles in the UK and the top ten titles had a combined UK sales estimated at 2 million. The market supported a growing number of specialist magazines whose titles indicated their contents: ''40 Plus'', ''Fat and 40'', ''Skinny and Wriggly'' and ''Leg Love''. Paul Raymond Publications dominated the market, distributing eight of the country's ten top selling adult magazines.


Cinema

The
British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
(BBFC) was established in 1912 as the British Board of Film Censors by members of the film industry, who would rather manage their own censorship than have national or local government do it for them. It began operating on 1 January 1913. Its legal basis was the
Cinematograph Act 1909 The Cinematograph Act 1909 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (9 Edw. VII c. 30). It was the first primary legislation in the UK which specifically regulated the film industry. It unintentionally provided the legal basis for film ...
, which required cinemas to have licences from local authorities. A court ruling determined that the criteria for granting or refusing a licence did not have to be restricted to issues of health and safety. Given that the law now allowed councils to grant or refuse licences to cinemas according to the content of the films they showed, the 1909 Act therefore enabled the introduction of censorship. The film industry, fearing the economic consequences of a largely unregulated censorship infrastructure, therefore formed the BBFC to take the process 'in house' and establish its own system of self-regulation. After the Second World War, developments in cinema technology stimulated the growth of a mass market, particularly the introduction of the 8mm and super-8 film gauges which resulted in the widespread use of amateur
cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
. Entrepreneurs emerged to supply this market, such as
Harrison Marks George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films. Personal life Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926, Marks was 17 when he married his first wife ...
who produced 8mm "glamour home movies" throughout the 1960s.
Nudity in film In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scene ...
came to the British cinema screen with the British
nudist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...
films of the 1960s, beginning with Harrison Marks' ''
Naked as Nature Intended ''Naked as Nature Intended'' (released in the United States under the title ''As Nature Intended'') is a 1961 British nudist film produced and directed by George Harrison Marks and starring Pamela Green. It was the first film from producers Tony ...
'' in 1961. These films claimed to depict the lifestyles of members of the nudism or naturist movement, but were largely a vehicle for the exhibition of female nudity. They were mainly shot in
naturist resort A naturist resort or nudist resort is an establishment that provides accommodation (or at least camping space) and other amenities for guests in a context where they are invited to practise naturism – that is, a lifestyle of non-sexual socia ...
s, but augmented by attractive glamour models. The nudity was strictly non-sexual and when filmed frontally the members' pubic area was strictly covered by the angle of shot or some clothing or other objects. There was uninhibited exposure of breasts and backsides. The acting and technical production standards were not very high and the outlets for their exhibition were very limited, as was the size of the audience interested in these films, and many films were re-released several times under new titles, to trick patrons into seeing the films additional times. What audience there was lost interest in these films by the mid-1960s and production ceased. In continental Europe films were more explicit in the 1960s, and some of these more explicit imported foreign films began to appear in the UK in that decade. The legalisation of pornography in Denmark and the Netherlands (1969) and Sweden (1971) led to an explosion of commercially produced pornography in those countries. The
Color Climax Corporation Color Climax Corporation ApS (CCC) is a Danish pornography producer headquartered in Copenhagen founded by the Theander brothers. It had been one of the leading producers of European pornography up until the 1990s. Since then, CCC has recessed ...
became the leading European pornographic producer for the next couple of decades. In public cinemas in the UK, imported pornographic films were subject to a great deal of censorship and had many cuts in them. However, uncut pornographic films were often smuggled into the UK, where they were sold "under the counter" or (sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs. Hardcore films could be screened in British cinemas if they were run on a "Membership Only" club basis. Membership Only cinemas worked on the principle that the premises had to be privately owned, and that customers had to sign a form which instantly made them members. On account of this legal loophole in the ''Cinematograph Act 1952'', these cinemas were free to show material without it first being passed by the BBFC or local council, and would also be immune to prosecution under the obscene publications act. Cinemas began using this loophole to show soft core sex films in the 1960s, when
Tony Tenser Samuel Anthony Tenser (10 August 1920 – 5 December 2007)Gavin Gaugha"Obituary: Tony Tenser" ''The Guardian'', 13 March 2008 was an English-born film producer of Lithuanian-Jewish descent. He began as the producer of low budget exploitation f ...
opened the Compton Cinema Club in London's Soho. In the 1970s
John Lindsay John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
produced numerous short hardcore pornographic films on
16 mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...
for distribution on 8 mm film. Lindsay was the first to introduce hardcore films to the Membership Only cinemas when he opened the London Blue Movie Centre in
Berwick Street Berwick Street is a street in the Soho district of the City of Westminster built between 1687 and 1703. Berwick Street runs between Oxford Street to the north and Peter Street at the south. History Berwick Street was built between 1687 and 1 ...
and the Taboo Club in Great Newport Street. Other rival cinemas followed suit, notably the Cineclub 24 in
Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tub ...
, the Compton Cinema Club, and the Exxon Cinema Club run by David Waterfield in Danbury Street, Islington. Membership Only hardcore film clubs remained legal until the passing of the ''Cinematograph Act 1982''. The end of the 1960s saw the appearance of British
sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit s ...
films in public cinemas, such as ''
Her Private Hell ''Her Private Hell'' is a 1968 British sexploitation film. It is the feature film directorial debut of Norman J. Warren and the first of two films (the second being '' Loving Feeling'') that he made for Bachoo Sen and Richard Schulman, founders o ...
'' (1968) and ''
The Wife Swappers ''The Wife Swappers'' is a 1970 drama film by British sexploitation director Derek Ford. The film was produced by Stanley Long and stars James Donnelly (British actor), James Donnelly, Larry Taylor (actor), Larry Taylor and Valerie St. John. Th ...
'' (1969). Changes to the British cinema certification system in 1970 replaced the previous
X rating An X rating is a rating used in various countries to classify films that have content deemed suitable only for adults. It is used when the violent or sexual content of a film is considered to be potentially disturbing to general audiences. Aust ...
at 16 with a AA category for those over 14 and a new age for X-films at 18. British
sex comedy Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such ...
films appeared in the 1970s, such as ''
Confessions of a Window Cleaner ''Confessions of a Window Cleaner'' is a 1974 British sex comedy film, directed by Val Guest.Leach, p.132 Like the other films in the ''Confessions'' series; ''Confessions of a Pop Performer'', '' Confessions of a Driving Instructor'' and ''C ...
'' (1974), '' Eskimo Nell'' (1975) and ''
I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight ''I'm Not Feeling Myself Tonight'' is a 1976 British comedy film directed by Joseph McGrath and starring Barry Andrews, James Booth and Sally Faulkner. Cast * Barry Andrews as Jon Pigeon * James Booth as S.J. Nutbrown * Sally Faulkner as Che ...
'' (1976). Combining full frontal nudity and depictions of simulated sex, these films were among the most popular British films of the decade. In the late 1970s David Sullivan produced several low-budget British sex films including '' Come Play with Me'' (1977) (directed by
Harrison Marks George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films. Personal life Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926, Marks was 17 when he married his first wife ...
). This was followed by ''
The Playbirds ''The Playbirds'' is a 1978 British sexploitation film, made by Irish-born director Willy Roe and starring 1970s pin-up Mary Millington alongside Glynn Edwards, Suzy Mandel and Windsor Davies. It was the official follow-up to '' Come Play with ...
'' (1978), ''
Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair ''Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair'' (UK re-release title: ''Star Sex'') is a 1979 British sexploitation comedy film directed by Willy Roe and starring Alan Lake, Glynn Edwards, Mary Millington, Bernie Winters, Diana Dors and Anton ...
'' (1979) and ''Queen of the Blues'' (1979), all starring his then-girlfriend
Mary Millington Mary Ruth Maxted (née Quilter; 30 November 1945 – 19 August 1979), known professionally as Mary Millington from 1974 onwards, was an English model and pornographic actress. Her appearance in the short softcore film ''Sex is My Business'' ...
. After Millington's suicide in August 1979 Sullivan continued with ''Mary Millington's True Blue Confessions'' (1980) and '' Emmanuelle in Soho'' (1981). David McGillivray identifies ''Emmanuelle in Soho'' as marking the end of the British sex film. While the 1970s were the heyday of exploitation cinema, softcore sex films eventually succumbed to the combination of legalised hardcore pornography in other countries and the widespread availability of home video recorders in the UK. In the early 1980s publisher Paul Raymond was responsible for a small number of softcore films before moving entirely to video. The film ''Paul Raymond's Erotica'' (1981) included extensive footage of the 1970s version of ''The Festival of Erotica'' show at the
Raymond Revuebar The Raymond Revuebar (1958–2004) was a theatre and strip club at 11 Walker's Court (now the location of The Box Soho nightclub), in the centre of London's Soho district. For many years, it was the only venue in London that offered full-fronta ...
, while '' Electric Blue - The Movie'' (1982) was a film tie-in based on a series of UK pornographic videos and was shown in cinemas. The BBFC remains the ''de facto'' film censor for films in the United Kingdom. '' Deep Throat'' (1972) was not approved in its uncut form in the UK until 2000 and not shown publicly until June 2005. In the case of films shown in cinemas, local authorities have the final legal say about who can watch a particular film. However, local authorities almost always accept the BBFC's recommendation for a certificate for a film. Hence since films not rated by the BBFC cannot be shown in most cinemas, lack of BBFC approval generally makes productions of such films uneconomic.


Video

By 1982, most pornographic films were being shot on the cheaper and more convenient medium of
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...
. The technology change happened quickly and completely when directors realised that continuing to shoot on film was no longer a profitable option. This change moved the films out of the cinemas and into people's private homes. This was the end of the age of big budget productions and the mainstreaming of pornography. It soon went back to its earthy roots and expanded to cover every fetish possible since filming was now so inexpensive. Instead of hundreds of pornographic films being made each year, thousands now were, including compilations of just the sex scenes from various videos. The 1977 softcore sex comedy film '' Come Play with Me'', which had been highly successful commercially at the cinema, became one of the first British films to sell in large numbers on the new VHS format. In 1979 Paul Raymond launched the '' Electric Blue'' series of softcore videos, a range which was produced until the mid-1990s. They were an extension of his magazine publishing into new media. An ''Electric Blue'' special VHS video, ''A Night at the Revuebar'' (1983), included extensive footage of the 1980s version of ''The Festival of Erotica'' show from the
Raymond Revuebar The Raymond Revuebar (1958–2004) was a theatre and strip club at 11 Walker's Court (now the location of The Box Soho nightclub), in the centre of London's Soho district. For many years, it was the only venue in London that offered full-fronta ...
. Meanwhile, in the early eighties
John Lindsay John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
began selling compilations of his hardcore films on video through mail order, taking advantage of the then unregulated state of the British video industry. Another director to take advantage of this unregulated period was Mike Freeman, who in 1979 set up the hardcore video production company Videx Ltd. and employed Lindsay Honey as an actor. Honey went on run his own mail order hardcore video business with his partner Linzi Drew until the pair were convicted in 1992. During the 1990s and 2000s, Honey used the name Ben Dover to produce and direct
gonzo pornography Gonzo pornography is a style of pornographic film that attempts to place the viewer directly into the scene. Jamie Gillis is considered to have started the gonzo pornography genre with his ''On the Prowl'' series of films. The name is a referen ...
videos. Another successful producer of pornographic videos at this time was
Viv Thomas Vivian "Viv" Leonard Thomas (born 10 January 1948) is a South African-born British producer of pornographic movies. He has produced hundreds of features over the course of his 15+ year career. He specializes in producing lesbian pornography ...
. He began producing pornographic videos in the 1980s, moving into producing hardcore material exclusively once doing so became legal in 1999. Thomas has become known as an established producer of
lesbian pornography Lesbian erotica deals with depictions in the visual arts of lesbianism, which is the expression of female-on-female sexuality. Lesbianism has been a theme in erotic art since at least the time of ancient Rome, and many regard depictions of lesb ...
and with a reputation for producing artistic pornographic films with an emphasis on high production values. Female directors include Tanya Hyde, who began as a hardcore actor in the mid-1990s and since 2004 has been a prolific director of hardcore fetish titles for the British pornographic film production company Harmony Films. The
Video Recordings Act 1984 The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon ...
(VRA) required the BBFC to censor all video works before release. Under the act, almost all video recordings must be classified by an authority chosen by the Home Secretary. This classification is then legally binding. Since the introduction of the Act, the BBFC has been the chosen authority. Since films not rated by the BBFC cannot be distributed as videos or DVDs, lack of BBFC approval generally makes productions of such films uneconomic. After 1984 videotape sellers were more likely to be prosecuted under the VRA rather than the Obscene Publications Act. The VRA requires that all videos must have a certificate from the BBFC. If the BBFC refuses a certificate a video is effectively banned for home viewing, but not necessarily in the
cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...
. As a result, the UK became one of the few democratic countries where the sale of explicit pornography on video (and later DVD) was illegal. Home
videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...
was a booming market and it was relatively simple for individuals to
smuggle Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...
hardcore material in from
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
or the United States, where it had been purchased legally, either for personal use or to copy it for distribution. This resulted in a considerable
black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...
of poor quality videotapes. While the authorities did their best to stay on top of illegal pornography they found that
juries A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England dur ...
, while not particularly liking the material, were reluctant to convict defendants where the material was intended for private use among consenting adults. Finally, in 2000, following the dismissal of a test case brought by the
BBFC The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
,
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography, or hardcore porn, is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as vaginal, anal or oral intercourse, fingering, anilingus, ejaculation, and fetish play. The term is in contrast wi ...
was effectively legalised, subject to certain conditions and licensing restrictions. It is still an offence to sell obscene material by
mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...
. BBFC guidelines have subsequently been relaxed to allow the limited distribution of hardcore pornography under an R18 certificate. This is intended to provide a classification for works that are within Obscene Publications Act 1959, but exceed what the BBFC considers acceptable for its 18 certificate. Anything deemed likely to contravene the Act is prohibited from DVDs awarded an R18 certificate. A list of the categories of material most commonly prosecuted under the Act is published by the
Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...
. In practice, this means that the R18 certificate is mainly used for hardcore pornography. The BBFC continues to demand cuts of any material it believes breaches the provisions of the
Obscene Publications Act Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published in England and Wales. The classic definition of criminal obscenity is if it "tends to deprave and corrupt," stated in 1868 by Lord ...
or any other legislation. In 2009, 2% of cinema films had material cut, and 3.6% of videos. Most cuts occur in videos rated for 18 or R18, rather than videos intended for viewing by under-18s. In 2009, 16.8% of 18 videos, and 27.3% of R18 videos, had material cut.


Sex shops

Traditional outlets for the sale of pornography include newsagents' shops and mail order, but another route for is via licensed sex shops. A handful of sex shops were opened by Carl Slack in the London district of
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...
in the early 1960s, and by the mid-seventies the number had grown to 59. Some had nominally "secret" backrooms selling hardcore photographs and novels, including
Olympia Press Olympia Press was a Paris-based publisher, launched in 1953 by Maurice Girodias as a rebranded version of the Obelisk Press he inherited from his father Jack Kahane. It published a mix of erotic fiction and avant-garde literary fiction, and is bes ...
editions. Concerns about the visual impact of sex shops on the High Street resulted in the ''Cinematograph and Indecent Displays Bill'' in 1973, which failed to become law due to the change of government in 1974. In 1978, David Sullivan opened his chain of ''Private Shops'' across Britain. However, the introduction of the
Indecent Displays Act 1981 The Indecent Displays (Control) Act is an Act of Parliament covering Scotland, England and Wales but not Northern Ireland. It is concerned with preventing the display of “indecent” material to the unsuspecting public. As with the Protection of ...
required licensed sex shops to clearly show a warning sign at the entrance to the shop and prevented them from displaying their wares in their shop windows. The ''Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982'' provided new and tighter licensing controls for sex shops and, along with the purges of the police force that took place during the 1980s, reduced the number of unlicensed premises. The
Video Recordings Act 1984 The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon ...
introduced the R18-rated classification for videos that are only available in licensed sex shops. No sex shop customer can be under eighteen years old. The Indecent Displays Act is still in force, and as a result the fronts of sex shops are often boarded up or covered in posters, though in some cases lingerie, non-offensive covers of adult material, etc. may be shown in the shop windows depending on the licence conditions of the local authority. Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act allows the police to seize obscene material under warrant and take it to the nearest magistrate to be destroyed. This is preferred to a trial by police and defendants alike, and seizures are seldom contested.


Television

The introduction of
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
and
satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
in the UK in the 1990s allowed the development of pornographic television channels. Some channels are
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
while others are
encrypted In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...
part or all of the time. The introduction of encryption allowed a reduction in piracy and the broadcasting of material that would not be permitted on unencrypted television. Nevertheless, a majority of the content broadcast has been
softcore pornography Softcore pornography or softcore porn, is commercial still photography or film that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. Sof ...
to satisfy the regulator
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
and it is not permitted to show an erect penis or penetrative sex on television. In January 1992, ''
Home Video Channel Home Video Channel (HVC) was a British cable television service devoted to broadcast low-budget movies (such as horror, action, adventure, science fiction and erotica) from 8.00pm to midnight, and the owners also operated The Adult Channel whi ...
'' started a pornographic television channel called The Adult Channel, a cable- and satellite-delivered subscription service that featured cable-TV versions of adult movies. The Adult Channel was available to approximately 2 million cable households and approximately 4 million
Direct-To-Home Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...
(DTH) satellite households in the United Kingdom. The channel received a warning from the
Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...
in 1994 for transmitting illegally in unencrypted form. After 1 May 1999 the Adult Channel changed its focus from pornographic films to diverse pornographic content, and was subsequently acquired by
Playboy Enterprises PLBY Group, Inc. is an American global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Hefner as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. to oversee the ''Playboy'' magazine and related assets. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. The company is focus ...
. As of 2017 the channel was still in operation. In 1995 two competing pornographic channels were launched. The first was ''
Television X Television X (TVX) is a series of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by MG Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond's publishing com ...
''- The Fantasy Channel which was launched by
Portland TV Portland TV was a British adult television company that was owned by Neon X that offered subscription and pay-per-view services to UK audiences on the Sky UK, Virgin TV and Freeview platforms. History The company was established in London Dock ...
(at the time a subsidiary of
Northern & Shell Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British publishing group, founded in December 1974 and owned since then by Richard Desmond. Formerly a publisher of pornographic magazines including ''Penthouse'' and ''A ...
) in June 1995. Much of the original programming was developed by Deric Botham, then editor of ''
Penthouse magazine ''Penthouse'' is a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione. It combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictures of women that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore pornographic pictures of women. Although Guccione was Americ ...
''. The company subsequently launched several additional pornographic TV channels. The second pornographic channel to launch in 1995 was Playboy TV UK which started broadcasting in November of that year. Some companies took to broadcasting from other
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
countries in order to take advantage of their less restrictive regulatory regimes regarding sexual content. ''Red Hot Dutch'', ''TV Erotica'' and ''Rendez-Vous'' all operated in this way in the mid-1990s. Access to the channels was curtailed when the UK Government made it an offence to sell their
smart card A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...
s in the UK and to advertise or publish information about their services. In 2000, Portland TV launched a series of UK-based pornographic TV channels called ''Red Hot''. The various channels subsequently changed their names, closed and relaunched several times. In 2003 Portland TV launched two sister channels to ''Television X'' on the
Sky UK Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...
satellite platform, with a third launching in 2007. Northern and Shell sold Portland TV in 2016. In March 2017 the remaining channels using the ''Red Hot'' brand were renamed '' Xrated''. During the 2000s adult chat television channels became popular. These are broadcast live from a studio and usually feature female presenters advertising a
phone sex line Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. All parties participate voluntarily; it is typically accompanied ...
at a
premium rate Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an ...
, through which callers can talk to the woman they see on the screen. The first of these was ''
Babestation Babestation (labelled Babenation on the Sky EPG) is an adult chat television channel and programme block which has aired on television in the United Kingdom since 2002. Since 2015, Babestation has also had a complementary website that incl ...
'' in 2002, followed by ''Babecast'' in 2003 and ''
Live XXX TV Live XXX TV was an interactive adult chat television channel aired in many western European nations on Sky. The channel was shown between the hours of 21:00 and 05:30 each night, with a subscription required after 23:30. History The channel st ...
'' in 2004. ''Television X'' began airing a show using this format, ''
TVX Callgirls Live Television X (TVX) is a series of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by MG Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond's publishing c ...
'', in 2005. Another such channel, ''
Babeworld Babeworld was a British adult chat television broadcaster on Sky (UK & Ireland) from 2006 until 2011. Both the channel and programme were named ''Babeworld''. It launched on Sky on 2 March 2006, replacing the revived version of L!VE TV. In ...
'', was fined in 2006 and 2007 and had its licence revoked in 2011. ''Live XXX TV'' closed in 2009 with ''
Sex Station ''Sex Station'' is a pornographic British adult chat television programme. It began broadcasting in 2006 on Sky Digital at night on the Lucky Star channel (Sky 910) and the Live XXX channel. By 2013 it had ceased television broadcasting but it ...
'', a televised-sex-line show that was one of its major programs, becoming a stand-alone website. In 2004, a pornographic satellite channel called ''Xplicit XXX'' owned by Digital Television Production was fined £50,000 by
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
for broadcasting
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography, or hardcore porn, is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as vaginal, anal or oral intercourse, fingering, anilingus, ejaculation, and fetish play. The term is in contrast wi ...
before the 9:00pm watershed. In February 2005, Playboy TV was fined by Ofcom for broadcasting "Sandy Babe Abroad", a hardcore pornographic film. Ofcom said "it includes material which should not be transmitted at any time under any circumstance on British television". In 2009, the station was once again fined by Ofcom for breaches of its licence, by broadcasting "sexually explicit material unencrypted". In January 2013, it was fined again for failing to protect children from potentially harmful pornographic material. Ofcom said that there wasn't a system in place on Playboy's on-demand programmes services and they didn't have "acceptable controls in place to check that users were aged 18 or over". ''
Playboy One Playboy One was a free-to-air satellite television channel in the United Kingdom, and was the only permanently free-to-air television station operated by Playboy Enterprises. The channel launched in November 2005, and was described as a general ...
'', a free-to-air satellite television channel was launched in November 2005, the only permanently free-to-air television station operated by
Playboy Enterprises PLBY Group, Inc. is an American global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Hefner as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. to oversee the ''Playboy'' magazine and related assets. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. The company is focus ...
. It was originally a general entertainment and so was located far away from the main Playboy TV channel. The aim of ''Playboy One'' was to encourage viewers to subscribe to the
pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...
Playboy TV Playboy TV (originally The Playboy Channel) is a pay television channel based in the United States. History The channel first launched on December 9, 1980, as Escapade by Rainbow Programing Services (a joint-venture of four cable companies, ...
channel, operating on the same satellite service. ''Playboy One'' later moved near to the main Playboy TV channel and started to air some softcore pornographic programming. Despite a low profile, it steadily increased its ratings. It was, however, closed in 2008 and was replaced with ''Paul Raymond TV'' which broadcast softcore pornographic videos from www.paulraymond.com. The channel later changed its name to ''
My Ex-Girlfriends Babes and Brazzers is an adult pay-per-view channel that broadcasts pornographic content, and is part of the international division of the Spice Networks owned by MindGeek. The network originally launched as Paul Raymond TV in October 2008, ...
''. ''
GAYtv Gay TV was an encrypted subscription channel from the UK that broadcast over Sky and Virgin Media television platform from 20:00 to 05:30 daily, targeted at gay men. Launched in 2004 the channel focused mainly on more hardcore content, but la ...
'' was an encrypted subscription channel launched in 2004 and targeted at gay men. Until 2007 it was the only gay adult channel on the
Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...
platform. The channel ceased broadcasting in April 2011 being replaced with another Portland TV channel, Flirt TV. The channel continues to operate on
Virgin TV Virgin TV is a digital pay cable television service in the United Kingdom, owned by Liberty Global (50%) and Telefónica (50%) after the merger its UK businesses to form Virgin Media O2. Its origins date from NTL and Telewest, formerly two of ...
's on-demand service alongside other defunct adult channels.


Phone sex lines

Phone sex Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. All parties participate voluntarily; it is typically accompanied ...
lines appeared in the UK in the 1980s using
premium-rate telephone number Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an ...
s for adult services with sexual content, with many of the lines playing tape recordings. The prefixes used at the time included the well-known 0891 and 0898. The phone sex market is closely linked to the pornographic magazine market, and advertising for such services often provides a vital element of a magazine's revenue. Up to a quarter of the page length of some magazines may be devoted to such advertisements. Advertising in newspapers, which had been common in the 1980s, was ended as a result of regulatory changes in 1994 which restricted advertisements to top-shelf adult magazines. At the same time rules were introduced requiring the user to pro-actively opt-in by requesting a pin number. This dramatically reduced the number of calls, and the proportion of the income generated by premium-rate telephone numbers which was associated with adult services fell from 18% in 1992 to 1% in 1996. Telephone numbering reform in the late 1990s led to 09 numbers being designated as premium rate, and numbers starting 098 have since been reserved for adult services, along with "legacy" numbers starting 0908 and 0909. The industry's regulatory body
PhonepayPlus The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA), known as PhonepayPlus until 1 November 2016, is the regulatory body for all premium rate phone-paid services in the United Kingdom. These are the content, goods and services that consumers can buy by ch ...
(formerly ICSTIC) monitors and enforces specific community standards in terms of content and price for premium rate numbers.


Internet

During the 1990s the advent of the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
made it easier than ever for people in the UK to access hardcore material. By the 2000s, the diverse range of pornography from across the world could be accessed, rather than simply the material that could be published legally in the UK or smuggled into the country. Governments became concerned about the situation and began to consider possible forms of
internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Inte ...
. The
Byron Review The Byron Review, titled "Safer Children in a Digital World", was a report ordered in September 2007 by the then prime minister Gordon Brown and delivered on the 27 March 2008 to the UK Department for Children, Schools and Families. It was authored ...
(2008) and the
Bailey Review The Bailey Review (titled "Letting Children Be Children") was an inquiry into what was described as "the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood". It was commissioned by the UK Coalition government in response to the manifesto commitments o ...
(2011) were commissioned by two successive governments, in part to investigate concerns over the possibility of people aged under 18 viewing
Internet pornography Internet pornography is any pornography that is accessible over the internet, primarily via websites, FTP servers peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups. The availability of widespread public access to the World Wide Web in late 1990s ...
. The Obscene Publications Act, which is still in force, makes it illegal for websites that can be accessed from the UK without age restriction to contain certain types of adult content, but few pornographic websites query the viewer's age and hardly any attempt to verify the answer given. A number of steps have been taken to restrict access to pornography online:


Extreme pornography

Calls for violent adult pornography sites to be shut down began in 2003, after the
murder of Jane Longhurst Jane Longhurst (6 November 1971 14 March 2003) was a British special-needs teacher and musician who was murdered by Graham Coutts on 14 March 2003. Longhurst's partly decomposed body was found burning in woodland in West Sussex, England on 19 Ap ...
by Graham Coutts, a man who said he had an obsession with Internet pornography. Jane Longhurst's mother and sister also campaigned to tighten laws regarding pornography on the Internet. In response, in August 2005, the Government announced that it planned to criminalise private possession of what the Government now termed "extreme pornography". This was defined as real or simulated examples of certain types of sexual violence as well as necrophilia and bestiality. The passing of the
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (c 4) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes significant changes in many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland and Nor ...
resulted in the possession of "extreme pornographic images" becoming illegal in England and Wales as of January 2009.


Web blocking

Pornography is one of the types of content blocked by the Internet filtering systems used by UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Since the end of 2013 a program of applying filtering to new ISP customers has been in place, and this has been extended to existing users on a rolling basis. A voluntary code of practice agreed by all four major ISPs means that customers have to 'opt out' of the ISP filtering to gain access to the blocked content. The range of content blocked by ISPs can be varied over time.


Video on demand

The ''Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014'' require that the online streaming of videos (known as
Video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
or VOD) in the UK conforms to the BBFC R18 certificate regulations which had previously only restricted those sold in licensed
sex shops A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in th ...
. Prior to the regulations coming into force, neither
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
nor the
British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
(BBFC) had jurisdiction over such content. The UK regulator of VOD is now Ofcom, which replaced
ATVOD The Authority for Television on Demand (ATVOD) was an industry body designated by Ofcom as the "co-regulator" of television on demand (VOD) in the UK from 2010 until 2015. ATVOD was founded following a European Union directive on the regulation o ...
as the regulator from the beginning of 2016. During its tenure as regulator ATVOD regularly instructed pornographic websites based in the UK to comply with its rules, and failure to do so often resulted in Ofcom issuing a fine or shutting down a website.


Age verification

With the passing of the
Digital Economy Act 2017 The Digital Economy Act 2017 (c. 30) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is substantially different from, and shorter than, the Digital Economy Act 2010, whose provisions largely ended up not being passed into law. The act addr ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
became the first country to pass a law containing a legal mandate on the provision of age verification. Under the act, websites that publish pornography on a commercial basis would have been required to implement a "robust" age verification system. The
British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
(BBFC) was charged with enforcing this legislation. After a series of setbacks, the planned scheme was eventually abandoned in 2019.


See also

*
Outline of British pornography This is a list of topics related to pornography in the United Kingdom. Legislation * Obscene Publications Acts * Video Recordings Act 1984 * Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 * Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 20 ...
*
List of British pornographic actors A list of notable British pornographic film actors: Female Male See also * Outline of British pornography * Pornography in the United Kingdom References {{British pornography * Pornographic British British may refer to: Peoples, c ...
*
Campaign Against Censorship The Campaign Against Censorship (CAC) is a non-party political pressure group that opposes censorship and promotes freedom of expression in the United Kingdom. The group is based in Fareham, England. It was formerly named the Defence of Literatu ...
*
National Campaign for the Reform of the Obscene Publications Acts The National Campaign for the Reform of the Obscene Publications Acts (NCROPA) was an anti-censorship campaigning organisation whose goal was the reform of Britain's obscenity laws, in particular the Obscene Publications Act 1959. It was set up in ...
*
Anti-pornography movement in the United Kingdom The anti-pornography movement in the United Kingdom is a social movement that seeks to reduce the availability of pornography in the country. The movement originates from two distinct perspectives: some feminists oppose pornography because they re ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* {{United Kingdom topics British pornography Law of the United Kingdom Obscenity controversies Freedom of speech in the United Kingdom Sexuality in the United Kingdom