Having posted a number of times now on the growing issue of pornography in our society I was pleasantly surprised this week when I read this story on the BBC.

In 2003 a Brighton school teacher was murdered by a man that it was later confirmed was a regular viewer of violent pornographic material. It appears that he had attempted to reenact some of the scenes that he had witness on a strangulation fetish web-site. I was unaware that the production and publishing of such pornography was illegal in this country already but now, thanks to a campaign but the victims mother, it is also now illegal to posses such material. This offence carries a three year prison sentence.

What this shows is that there is indeed an awareness that such material does have an affect on those who view it. When the petition was given to parliament it gained unanimous cross party support; no mean feat. So maybe there is hope yet that the eyes of society can be opened to the destructive power of pornography in general.

Although, there is a niggling thought in my mind that this is simply a token gesture from the powers that be who don’t quite know what average Joe public really thinks about the issue. The law itself is going to be very difficult to enforce especially as there is a clause which allows for the accidental download of such material. This is obviously possible but I’d imagine quite unlikely and would make any prosecution difficult.