A controversial new bill in the U.K. wants to put a gag ball in the mouth of unconventional porn.
The Digital Economy Bill would force internet service providers to bar content that doesn’t meet the standards of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). As the Daily Dot reported last month, the BBFC bans “the portrayal of sexual activity which involves real or apparent lack of consent,” “the infliction of pain or acts which may cause lasting physical harm,” and “sexual threats, humiliation or abuse which do not form part of a clearly consenting role-playing game.”
There’s concern that the bill would essentially create a government database of everyone who watches porn in the U.K., and it will certainly have a significant impact on the porn industry and its performers in the area.
But how popular are the types of sex acts that would likely be prohibited under the bill? Pornhub, the massively popular site, dug into its own data to find out, and ironically, the acts that would be barred are far more popular in the U.K. than other parts of the world.
Graph via Pornhub
In particular, “caning,” which is exactly what it sounds like and appears in rougher BDSM, is over 200 percent more popular as a search term in the U.K., according to Pornhub. Other search terms associated with femdom, such as facesitting and female ejaculation, which would be disproportionately affected by the bill, are also quite popular in the U.K.
Even with the bill, that doesn’t mean these porn acts will disappear from the internet. People just might need to become more familiar with how to work VPNs.
