Hardcore porn 'is fuelling epidemic of sexual violence'


Hardcore porn websites face ­a major crackdown after an MPs’ inquiry exposed a disturbing link between violent sexual imagery and attacks on women. They will be curbed by new laws aimed at ending an “epidemic of ­violence against women and girls” fuelled by addiction to online sexual savagery.

The year-long review was launched after the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a porn-obsessed serving Metropolitan policeman.

Her murder sparked a debate about the safety of women on our streets and the corrupting influence of sexual aggression in photos and videos.

The Parliamentary committee on commercial ­sexual exploitation will on Monday outline the urgent Government action needed to make women safer.

The group’s seven recommendations include treating porn as a form of violence against women, criminalising its supply to children and requiring viewers to prove their age.

Dame Diana Johnson, the group’s chair, said: “The evidence is clear. Pornography fuels sexual violence.

“In a society in which male ­violence against women and girls is rampant, combatting the harms of pornography should be central to a strategy against sexual violence.

“Some of the most popular pornography websites have been hosting and profiting from illegal content including child sexual abuse, footage of rapes and trafficking victims. It’s high time Government recognised the damage caused by the pornography industry to the lives and the safety of women.”

Last year, the Daily Express revealed that Sarah, 33, was one of more than 20 women killed by men with a taste for brutal
online pornography.

They include music teacher Jane Longhurst, 31, strangled in Hove, East Sussex, by Graham Coutts, and Becky Godden-Edwards, 20, who was murdered by taxi driver Christopher Halliwell. David Carrick, another police officer has been convicted for rapes spanning more than 17 years.

His electronic devices revealed searches for porn including words such as “extreme” and “painful”.



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