Today, I’m revisiting “vices” and independence, combining previous posts on pornography and prostitution.
There’s nothing explicit in this, so it’s safe for work (I’ve tried to keep this as dull as possible) – though obviously some of the subject matter may be offensive/sensitive (whatever you want to call it).
Wales would only have full policy control over the entirety of the sex industry with independence.
That’s because while most of this would fall under “criminal justice” and public health (the latter of which is devolved), it also crosses into telecommunications, media regulation/censorship and broadcasting (in the case of pornography).
What doesn’t need to change?
- Legal age – 18 feels like the right cut-off point to legally work in the sex industry. It’s probably the right cut-off point to legally view or buy pornography or enter a strip club too – even if the age of consent is 16. If the highest film classification is 18 and that covers porn, then it makes sense to keep it there.
- Laws around CSAM and illegal pornography – Anything that’s illegal now would stay illegal; so that covers CSAM and “extreme pornography”. As noted, there may be an argument to more clearly define what “extreme pornography” actually is; a narrower definition or a clear list of offending subject matter may be needed instead of leaving the interpretation open to the courts. And, yes, there’s something funny about picturing legal bigwigs passionately debating that.
- Current and planned laws around “revenge porn”, voyeurism, AI-generated images and deepfakes – There’s no reason to change unless we want to make these laws stronger or clarify who is or isn’t acceptable. One issue that might need looking at again in the future would be the use of interactive AI for sex (you can probably guess why).
Now for things we might want to make changes to or consider.
 Adult entertainment & pornography
- The future (and usefulness) of sex establishment licences – There may be a stronger case to scrap specific licences for sex shops rather than strip clubs or massage parlours. The argument in favour of keeping them is that they can be restricted to people aged 18 or over as part of a licensing condition; the argument against this is that the Ann Summers chain operates without a sex shop licence. Hypocrisy, or just outdated rules?
- Should the R18 certificate be scrapped? – R18 covers hardcore pornography that’s deemed to be too strong for a standard 18 certificate and has sale restrictions – but if you’re 18, you’re 18. It doesn’t seem that useful to put additional restrictions on buying a DVD or magazine when you can go on the internet and see this stuff without any restrictions or checks whatsoever. Which leads nicely into….
- Age or ID checks to access pornographic websites – The UK Government has had on-off plans to introduce age checks, with the latest proposal being to introduce “robust” age checks by July 2025. This would likely only have any serious legal weight to sites located in the UK – and very few do. There are also workarounds such as VPNs and there’s a risk that this would push people to access sites on the dark web which are far more likely to include illegal material. There are also data privacy concerns. That said, there’s a problem and no easy way to fix it.
