http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/

http://www.no2id.net/

I do consider the particular law regarding the possession of so-called, violent images to be “monstrous”. We already have laws that cover non-consensual violence/imprisonment. This particular law will effectively criminalise people who possess images of perfectly legal activities. I should perhaps note that this particular stupid law won’t have any affect on me as my kink is very “Edge of Vanilla” (rubbish pun intended).

Thanks for the various links – I’ll go take a look.

I quite agree that open, honest and freely available sex information is a laudable aim. The problem, in the surveillance society that is now the UK, is that admitting to any kind of BDSM/CP orientated sexuality could result in serious, unwanted consequences.

Huh, that makes a frightening kind of sense. Here’s the thing, though—I don’t think surveillance of the sort that England has is on its own a bad thing. What do you think? Is the “surveillance society” a negative thing on its own, or is it because in conjunction with “monstrous” laws, it makes being “out” harder to do safely?

Congratulations on the success of the KinkForAll unconference; do you fancy running one in the UK?

Thank you!

I would love to see a KinkForAll unconference break out of America. However, I’m in no financial or personal position to begin running one myself in the UK. I was never even in a great position to run the upcoming one in Washington, DC. KinkForAll is a grassroots event—only the impetus of local people who work together and transparently with the larger community can put an event on. If you’d like to see a KinKForAll event in the UK, the first steps to making that a reality is to join the public, global mailing list and listen in on the conversations we’re having, to read through the various wiki pages we’ve been composing over the last year or so, and generally involve yourself in the current community. At that point, you’ll be much better equipped to stir up interest in having an event in the UK, and where there’s more interest, there’s more people willing and able to actually work with you to make it possible.

Good luck!

I’ve just come across this post and enjoyed your presentation. You are probably aware that, in the UK, not only do we have the idiotic situation you touched on where a printer/distributor can effectively censor a publication; we also have a state-sponsored attack on “alternative” sexuality, most particularly the BDSM community.

The monstrous Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/ukpga_20080004_en_9#pt5-pb1-l1g63), which became law in January of this year, makes it a criminal offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland simply to possess material that is pornographic, depicts a level of serious violence or acts capable of doing harm, and is ‘grossly offensive’. It does not matter whether the material is real or staged: it needs only to be realistic. Nor does it matter whether those participating in any acts depicted were consenting or not. It will be criminal to possess. This means it has criminalised the possession of many adult fantasy images, including many lawful acts – you can do it legally, but you can’t possess a realistic image of it.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also have the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 which puts in place a whole raft of measures to stop the “wrong” people working in sensitive (“regulated”) jobs. This includes just about anyone who has any contact with children as part of their job. You can be banned from these jobs if you possess “sexually explicit images depicting violence against human beings”. Time to choose – your job or your sexuality.

I quite agree that open, honest and freely available sex information is a laudable aim. The problem, in the surveillance society that is now the UK, is that admitting to any kind of BDSM/CP orientated sexuality could result in serious, unwanted consequences.

Congratulations on the success of the KinkForAll unconference; do you fancy running one in the UK?