Today’s the day that various types of porn are getting banned in the UK, and Brits could be in trouble if they’ve got ‘forgotten files’ in their possession.
Remember, remember that it’s 6 November and from now on it’s illegal for Brits to possess or publish certain kinds of porn, specifically the ones which show strangulation or suffocation, sexual activity between certain relatives, or adults roleplaying as children under 16.
It’s now a criminal offence which could land you in prison in the most serious of circumstances.
If it’s porn that shows strangulation, suffocation or penetrative sexual activity between certain relatives then you could spend up to two years behind bars, while it’s three years for porn showing someone who is pretending to be under 16 and five years for publishing.
Criminal defence lawyer Marcus Johnstone, managing director of PCD Solicitors, told LADbible that when it comes to exactly what ‘possession’ means with these new restrictions it was ‘not clear.
Better hope you don’t have old porn saved on some device that might now be illegal (Anna Barclay/Getty Images)
“We have to rely on how this term is applied to existing offences in ascertaining how it may be applied here,” the lawyer explained.
“In proving possession in indecent images cases, the prosecution must demonstrate beyond all reasonable doubt that the accused knows that have the image and are capable of accessing it.
“The most straightforward application of this rule is where a person knowingly downloads an image and stores it in their files or camera roll; if a person downloads, for instance, a pornographic video depicting strangulation, then they may be prosecuted on the basis that they knowingly obtained that video, were aware it was on their device, and had access to it.”
He said that when it comes to ‘possession’ of porn prosecutors would consider deleting an image to the point that they can no longer access it ‘sufficient for ending possession’.
Basically, if you were to be done with the new porn ban then prosecutors would have to consider where you kept the porn and how you accessed it, and whether you’d have known how to get to it when drawing up what counts as ‘possession’.
Maybe you’ve got an old phone in a drawer with files on it, it puts you at risk of possession (Getty Stock Photo)
He warned that in the case of indecent images people were often prosecuted when there was ‘data indicative of an image’, which means police might not have found an image in your camera roll or hard drive but their experts have the data to indicate that there was one.
Johnstone said he hopes there’s a ‘grace period’ for people to delete porn which would now class as illegal from today onwards, and that data of once having them but deleting them wouldn’t get you in trouble.
“But, if there is any indication that this image was acquired after the deadline, then it is not unreasonable to conclude that this would be treated as an offence,” he warned.
The lawyer said that ‘this law is sufficiently lacking in detail’ so they’d have to wait and see how it was enforced, but his prediction was that we’d ‘cautiously expect to see a significant increase in the number of people being prosecuted and convicted under these laws for possessing or publishing material that was, until this week, perfectly lawful’.
‘Forgotten files’ from a group chat ages ago could put you at risk (Getty Stock Photo)
As for the danger of ‘forgotten files’, perhaps old porn stashed on the computer in a folder you’d long since stopped accessing, another legal expert has warned it poses a danger.
Jasmine Mines, attorney and the founder of Mines Law Firm, told LADbible: “Possession is a continuing act, so material that was lawful to keep when it was saved becomes a criminal possession on November 6 if it is still there.
“If the owner once watched it, the ‘never seen it’ defence is gone, and years of storage is hard to call a reasonable time.”
She gave examples including old group chat content that saved itself to your phone ages ago, the old phone tucked away in a drawer or the cloud backup nobody’s accessed for a long time.
“The realistic prosecution risk after November 6 is not the accidental click,” Mines warned, “It is the file someone knew about once and stopped thinking about.”
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