While the U.S. based adult entertainment industry is understandably focused on a renewed “War on Porn” at home, across the pond governments are pushing for new anti-porn policies that will impact adult digital platforms with global audiences.  Two of these governments, those of the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation, recently have proposed legislation that requires a government mandated age verification scheme and openly homophobic porn content filtering proposals. 

England’s age verification mandate

The Telegraph reports that several UK ministers are preparing to introduce a new law to prevent children from accessing pornography online.

This resumes efforts of the conservative coalition in Parliament led by Boris Johnson to  implement such a law in 2017. Conservative culture secretary Nadine Dorries and education secretary Nadhim Zahawi are in  support of such a policy after Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner of England, filed a report to ministers recommending that age verification measures be compulsory on all porn sites that are accessible across the UK. 

De Souza, according to The Telegraph, claims that she has discussed a government pushed age verification regulation with some of the largest porn providers. She says that some companies will comply if the entire adult industry is forced into doing such a thing. There is no independent indication of this. De Souza also cites only anecdotal evidence of porn being the leading factor of a an apparent cultural environment of sexual harassment in the country’s public and private schools. 

De Souza was named the children’s commissioner at the beginning of 2021. She has faced vast controversy for not holding a position on cases of corporal punishment in England. Children’s commissioners in Wales and Scotland have opposed corporal punishment against children, with England as an outlier, notes The Guardian. 

Russian proposal to ban all gay content

On the other end of the continent, lawmakers in the Russian Federation have proposed a bill that would classify all media scenes depicting LGBTQ+ relationships should be placed in the banned or restricted categories like porn. This proposal comes as a Russian official claims to have developed a toxic content catalog that labels content with characterizations like completely banned and simply undesirable.

Government-owned news groups have publicized both developments, with more Russian regulators and lawmakers pushing some anti-porn talking points. A survey conducted by the government claims that 80 percent of respondents believe that cases of film and TV homosexual relations depictions are unacceptable. That same survey says that 57 percent finds that scenes of media that feature “sexual deviance” should be banned. 

The potential implementation of such policies and the public perception would negatively impact the adult entertainment industry in Russia, including indie content creators. 

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