Banning strangulation porn? It could be too little, too late

As I touched the blooming bruises on my neck, I could feel pinpricks of shame creeping up my throat. I hoped that concealer might cover the splotches. I dabbed it on ineffectively before giving up and hoping my hair would cover the worst of it.

- KIMBERLEY BOND

My date had seemed like such a nice, normal man. We'd been talking online for a while, and when we met for drinks one Thursday evening, things were looking positive. I invited him back to mine. We had sex, which was consensual. However, the part where he grabbed at my throat and squeezed it until I made a gasping, spluttering sound, was not. After he left, I blocked and deleted his number.

When I relayed the story to friends later, they listened with sympathy, but not surprise. Strangulation during sex is now par for the course. I wasn't the first of my friends to be choked without consent during intercourse. I know I won't be the last.

Choking has increasingly crept into the bedroom, regardless of whether we wanted it to or not. A study by government-backed charity the Institute for Addressing Strangulation discovered that 54 per cent of women aged 18-24 had been choked during sex. The research also found that 17 per cent of respondents had not given consent for it to happen.

Now, the UK government are looking to ban online pornography showing strangulation or suffocation, after a review found depictions of choking had helped normalise the act among young people.

I can understand why this step is being taken. Choking has steadily become more ubiquitous in porn. A study from the mid-2000s found that strangulation appeared in about 7 per cent of pornographic content; by 2020, it was among the top five forms of physical aggression found in online pornography.