The Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 coming into force in Britain on January 26 will make “extreme images” illegal. The offence is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Already depicting necrophilia and bestiality are illegal in that country. Now such things as bondage, domination and sadomasochism will also become out of bounds.

The new law states that an image is extremely pornographic if it "is grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character" and portrays an act which threatens a person's life, or which results or appears likely to result in serious injury to someone's genitals or breasts.

But there is a lobby protesting the move, arguing what goes on behind closed doors between consenting adults is unnecessarily becoming criminalized.

Finally magistrates and juries will become the subjective arbiters of taste, the campaigners say.

Claire Lewis, 35, who set up the Consenting Adult Action Network, (Caan), told The Independent: "I firmly agree that images of non-consensual activities which involve violence should be criminalised but this is a badly worded law that risks criminalising thousands of ordinary people. The Government seems to be convinced that if people like us look at pictures for too long we'll end up turning into abusers. That's outrageous."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the law would only be used to prosecute those possessing the most extreme images.

Recently Formula 1 racing boss Max Mosley became the subject of intense media scrutiny when he sued a tabloid for reporting that he had participated in a sado-masochistic role-playing and invoked some Nazi practices.

He finally won the case, denying any Nazi undertones, even while admitting to sado-masochism.

The video of the Mosley encounter, secretly filmed, became an instant hit on the Internet.

Source-Medindia
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