UK: Possessing Simulated 'Rape Porn' Could Net 3-Year Jail Term

UNITED KINGDOM—Videos and images that depict rape are already illegal to publish in the United Kingdom, but news reports indicate that the government in January will seek to close a loophole in the law that allows possession of “rape porn,” whether simulated or not, bringing “England and Wales in line with Scotland, where the offence carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail,” Metro has reported. The move to strengthen the law is part of Prime Minister David Cameron’s multifaceted campaign to address content on the internet he believes is at least partially responsible for crimes being committed against women and children. He has commented publicly, “These images normalize sexual violence against women—and they are quite simply poisonous to the young people who see them.” Metro added, “In a further crackdown on what Mr. Cameron referred to as ‘the darkest corners of the internet’, Downing Street will tomorrow announce that a national database will be created to give every illegal image a label.” The database will be created and maintained in conjunction with internet behemoths Google and Microsoft as part of a new pledge by the two companies to increase their efforts to find and eradicate videos and images that depict child sexual abuse. Yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt published an open letter in the Daily Mail explaining what Google promises to do in that effort. “We actively remove child sexual abuse imagery from our services and immediately report abuse to the authorities. This evidence is regularly used to prosecute and convict criminals,” wrote Schmidt. “But as David Cameron said in a speech this summer, there's always more that can be done. We've listened, and in the last three months put more than 200 people to work developing new, state-of-the-art technology to tackle the problem.”