Proposed offence The proposed offence is drafted in the following terms (clause 261, page 67)): It is an offence for a person to be in possession of an image if— a. the image is pornographic, within the meaning of section 63 (i.e. that “it is of such a nature that it must reasonably be assumed to have been produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal”), b. the image portrays, in an explicit and realistic way, a person strangling or suffocating another person, and c. a reasonable person looking at the image would think that the persons were real. Neither “strangling” nor “suffocating” is defined.

consistent with the government's focus on partnered sexual activity and violence against women. “Image” means both a moving or still image, and data which is capable of conversion into an image, but the portrayal must be “realistic”, and the people depicted must look “real” to a reasonable person, for the image to be in scope. This is an image-based offence, and does not impact text-based pornography / erotica, although one would still need to be mindful of the law of obscenity.