Regulator Atvod's ban on fetish films criticised by free-speech campaigners

Activists from Backlash, which promotes freedom of sexual expression, said Atvod was illegally subverting free speech and accused it of being out of touch with the online world.

Photograph: Richard Fremont/Getty

Courtesy Of The Guardian's Damien Gayle - @damiengayle

Authority for Television on Demand says clips on fetish sites would be banned if on DVD but one dominatrix dismisses regulator as ‘UK’s Pornfinder General’

  

Free-speech campaigners have condemned the first rulings against film-makers under new rules banning the depiction of harmful sexual fetishes.

The Authority for Television on Demand (Atvod) ruled that sites run by two dominatrix film-makers offered video-on-demand clips that would be banned on if they were for sale on DVD.

One site, Glasgow Mistress Megara Furie, was found to have breached rules with a film showing repeated kicks to a man’s genitals that appeared to draw blood. The second, Mistress R’eal, fell foul of regulations with several videos, including one of a man being whipped until welts appeared on his back.

But activists from the group Backlash, which promotes freedom of sexual expression, said the rules applied by Atvod amounted to illegal subversion of free speech and accused the regulator of being out of touch with the online world.

The rulings are the first to be brought under rule 14 of the Atvod rulebook, which bans a video-on-demand service from showing material that would be refused classification by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification).

Atvod’s ruling on Glasgow Mistress Megara Furie’s film Ballbusting said: “The sustained kicking appears to cause pain and on several occasions reference is made to the man’s genitals beginning to bleed. The end of the video features a close up which gives clear sight of Glasgow Mistress Megara Furie’s bloodied feet.”

The ruling added: “With clear sight of forceful kicks to the genitals which appear to break the skin, this goes beyond the allowance made by the BBFC [British Board of Film Classification] for ‘moderate, non-abusive consensual activity’.”

Mistress R’eal fell foul of the same rule with A Bullwhipping In The Woods parts 1 and 2, two videos that show a man being whipped for not eating faeces off the shoe of the dominatrix.

Atvod said the gag and restraints used in a third video meant a man’s “means of indicating a withdrawal of consent is not apparent”, again in breach of BBFC rules

Both sites were also found to have breached a second rule intended to keep hardcore pornography out of the reach of children.

Peter Johnson, chief executive of Atvod, said all the videos ruled against had been shown to the BBFC, whose analysts agreed they would not pass them for sale, even in licensed sex shops. He said Glasgow Mistress Megara Furie had acted quickly to shut down the service and remove the offending video, but Mistress R’eal was facing enforcement action. Sanctions include a fine of up to £250,000 or a ban from providing video-on-demand services, Johnson said.

Ruth Evans, Atvod’s chair, said: “Under the new rules, material which is banned from sale on a DVD in the UK is also banned from UK video-on-demand services.

“This is particularly likely to affect pornographic videos which feature violence or in which consent is not clear. If you can’t walk into a licensed sex shop and buy it, nor can you view it at home on a UK video-on-demand service regulated by Atvod.”

Rule 14 came into force in December amid protests by sex workers, pornographers and free-speech campaigners. Those opposed to it drew wide publicity with a protest outside parliament that included “face-sitting”, a sexual activity banned under the rule.

Campaigners with Backlash told the Guardian they believed the new regulation, brought in using a statutory instrument (a law enacted through delegated powers), went beyond the scope of the EU directive it was based on and as a result would fail a judicial review.

Itziar Urrutia, who runs the Urban Chick Supremacy Cell, a dominatrix fetish website, said: “The patriarchy knows full well that the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] don’t prosecute these minority-interest websites under the Obscene Publications Act because a jury wouldn’t convict. So they resort to illegal ‘rules’. This will end in a grown-up court.

“Atvod have erected themselves as the UK’s Pornfinder General. A modern witch-hunt against a peril that sacrifices children to a fantasy evil created by the state. The sole purpose of this new puritanism is mass control and surveillance, under the pretence of ‘protection’.”

Urrutia successfully fought Atvod last year over rules that demand explicit material must be kept out of the reach of people under 18. She added: “I have some bad news for our government: like it or not, paywalls don’t stop minors from accessing porn because they don’t need to pay for it. They are far more techie-savvy than these luddite civil servants.

“What children need is sex education to help them understand the role of porn in society,” she said.