LONDON – First they came for the physical and verbal abuse and spanking. Then they came for the strangulation, face-sitting and fisting.

Now the U.K. government is after anal sex.

Earlier this year, the British Department for Culture, Media and Sport released an official consultation document that has raised a royal kerfuffle among the conservative element. As stated in the consultation, one of the department’s primary concerns is that “more young people are engaging in anal intercourse than ever before despite research which suggests it is often not seen as a pleasurable activity for young women.”

As with many subjects Prime Minister David Cameron and his confederates would rather not discuss — or discover other people have been discussing — the Cameron contingent blames the “alarming” increase in non-missionary-position sex on online pornography.

The consultation document added fuel to that flame.

“Many people worry that young people will come to expect their real-life sexual experiences to mirror what they or their peers see in pornography, which often features ambiguous depictions of consent, submissive female stereotypes and unrealistic scenarios,” the document notes.

Already Parliament is eyeing additional restrictions on the types of pornography British adults may consume in the privacy of their own homes. In 2013, Cameron and company rammed through Parliament legislation mandating internet service providers restrict access to online porn unless consumers sign a statement specifically opting in to receive such content. In 2014, an amendment to a communications bill banned the production and sale of adult content depicting even simulated sex acts the government considers potentially humiliating or “life-endangering,” including almost all BDSM activity.

Similar action to ban depictions of anal sex have been suggested as a potential means of reducing inspiration for the young to engage in buggery (which was a crime in England and Wales until 1967).

At least one sexuality expert is bewildered by the whole situation.

Jaclyn Freidman, author of the book What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex and Safety, told the magazine Foreign Policy she doesn’t recall “a modern government [ever] weighing in on a particular sex act.”

She also said while she agrees porn on the internet tends toward misogyny, banning depictions of anal sex — or any other kind of sexual activity between consenting adults — isn’t the answer to ensuring people of any age play in safe, healthy, pleasurable ways. In her view, the problem lies not with pornography but with a lack of “sexual literacy” brought about by the almost total absence of sex education in the schools and at home.

That oversight, Friedman said, has left young people with nowhere to turn for education except porn.

“Porn is terrible sex ed,” she told Foreign Policy. “It’s unrealistic.”

So are politicians’ expectations if they believe banning depictions of an act will curtail people’s interest in performing the deed. Anal sex is not a modern invention. One of the earliest known depictions of sexual activity, the Turin Erotic Papyrus (dated to approximately 1150 B.C.), illustrates anal sex and other decidedly indecent carnal activities in graphic detail.

Image: an illustration from the Turin Erotic Papyrus