Basic Protections: combatting sexual exploitation on pornography websites
Some of the most visited pornography websites in the UK have been found hosting videos of child abuse, sexual violence and sex trafficking. UK Feminista’s new report exposes the near total absence of basic protections on pornography websites enabling this to happen.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 gives the Government the power to require pornography websites accessed from the UK to take basic action to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse. However, those powers are not yet being used. The Government is first conducting a 12 month review.
Our new report – Basic Protections – sets out how and why Government must act against sexual exploitation and abuse on pornography websites.
Download the report:
Nina Humphries, Director of UK Feminista, said:
“It is a national scandal that pornography websites do not have to bother to check that the people in their videos are adults or gave permission for the video to be published. The results have been devastatingly predictable: rape, child abuse, and trafficking have repeatedly been found on mainstream pornography websites.
“The introduction of powers in the Crime and Policing Act enabling Government to force pornography websites to verify the age and ongoing consent of everyone on their platform was a landmark victory, but those powers are not yet being used. The need to prevent child abuse and sex trafficking on pornography websites cannot wait. Ministers must listen to survivors and implement the Principles for age and ongoing consent safeguards on pornography websites.”
Alia Azariah, Survivor Leader and 2025-26 Obama USA Leader, said:
“I got involved in this campaign because I know what it means to have your choices taken away. And I know how profoundly it matters to have someone finally recognize that your voice, your body, and your consent still belong to you.
“What matters to me about these Principles is that they place responsibility where it belongs: on the platforms that publish, distribute, and profit from this material. For far too long, the burden has fallen on the people who were harmed to prove that they deserve protection. These Principles offer an opportunity to change that. The legislation gives the Government the authority to act.”