British Deputy PM Expresses Concern Over Reach of Porn Regs

LONDON—Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is, at 47, only one year younger than Prime Minster David Cameron, but his outlook on some matters of national import make him seem much younger, and certainly less conservative—not surprising since Clegg is from the Liberal Democrat Party. One such matter is sex, or more specifically, porn, about which the Deputy PM yesterday expressed his reservations about the new anti-porn regulations enacted December 1 that prohibit the production of content that includes an array of sexually-related activities, including face-sitting, fisting and female ejaculation, to name but a few. The new prohibitions, courtesy of the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014, were the subject of a protest last Friday outside the Parliament building that drew a slew of both protesters and media. The regulations are also the subject of a parliamentary challenge by fellow Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert, who has the backing of Clegg, according to The Independent. "Three days after a face-sitting protest outside Parliament against new curbs on what can be shown in internet video porn, the Deputy Prime Minister said the new regulations had not got the balance right, and that the state should not invade the privacy of people’s bedrooms," reported the paper yesterday, adding, "He told his monthly press conferences that he shared some of the concerns raised by his MPs." The Liberal Democrat leader clarified, "It is not a prurient judgment of whether we approve or not of someone’s behavior in the privacy of their bedroom. It is not the role of politicians to cast moral judgments on that. It’s whether we think that in a free society, people should be free to do things that many people might find exotic at mildest or deeply unappetizing at worst, but it’s their freedom to do so. That seems to me to be is a classic liberal assertion.” He added, "Government is not there to stick its nose in the bedroom as long as people are not doing things which are illegal under the law. It’s not really for us to judge how people get their kicks, but it is our role to make sure the law is upheld, and that the law does not encroach on private spaces where the law has no role to intrude." It should be noted that the new regulations apply only to the production of sexual content featuring the prohibited activities, and not specifically to "someone’s behavior of the privacy of their bedroom," as the Deputy PM suggests, but because the new regs actually extend prohibitions already in place for DVD productions to websites, they could and indeed will impact the activity of live cam performers, many of whom may indeed work from their bedrooms—and possibly even couples' behaviors in their bedrooms, if such behavior includes a good XXX movie. In that sense, Clegg is spot on in his worry about the reach of the regulations. And of course, his larger reproach to those who would  "cast moral judgments" on sexual acts that "many people might find exotic at mildest or deeply unappetizing at worst," that a free people should be free to do those things without having to worry about being made a criminal for it applies across the board to productions as well as individuals. This is not the first time Clegg has expressed public support for a controversial issue related to porn. In 2010, as AVN reported at the time, a British porn producer named Ann Arrowsmith, who worked under the name Anna Span, was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Gravesham in Kent in the general election. She lost the race, but Clegg, who was the Lib Dem leader at the time, had told The Sun before the vote, "It's not exactly my cup of tea what she's been doing before she has put herself forward in Parliament but I also think it's really important that people like her who really care a lot about her local area are encouraged to come into politics. You can't accuse her of being a cardboard cut-out Westminster politician." Hear, hear! Photo: Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Lord President of the Council.