UK government to ban extreme pornography content

The United Kingdom government is set to ban the possession and publication of pornography depicting incest and strangulation starting in early November. This regulatory move follows efforts by civil society groups to address the normalization of sexual violence in digital media.

Experts, including Durham University law professor Clare McGlynn, note that online algorithms are driving users toward increasingly extreme, violent, and misogynistic content to maximize platform engagement. McGlynn highlights that content involving incest and strangulation, which was rare in the 1980s, has become mainstream due to these business models designed to keep users clicking.