The U.K. government continued its cracking down on pornography this week, banning a laundry list of sex acts from appearing in domestic pornography sold online.
On Monday, the 2014 Audiovisual Media Services Regulations went into effect, updating the 2003 Communications Act. Vice U.K. notes that this means that, from now on, Video On Demand services must comply with these measures. If the British Board of Film Censors doesn’t give the content an R18 rating, it will not be legally available.
This covers VoD porn, which now has to follow the same regulations for DVD porn. Online porn services can’t officially offer anything that someone couldn’t buy in a sex shop.
As the Independent notes, the BBFC has a long list of sex acts that cannot appear in anything, even an R18-rated film. The list includes spanking, caning, aggressive whipping, penetration by objects “associated with violence,” physical or verbal abuse even if it is consensual and role-playing as minors. Portrayals of non-consensual sex, urination in a sexual context and female ejaculation is also banned.
The law only affects porn produced in the U.K. Viewers can still watch porn produced abroad.
The U.K. government has made several controversial movies to put restrictions on porn. In July 2013, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that Internet subscribers will have to tell their providers if they still want access to porn.