What the UK's new porn ban actually covers, from websites to your iCloud
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual topics which some readers may find distressing.
Sweeping changes to how adult materials are viewed in the United Kingdom are being enacted today (November 6), with the Crime and Policing Act 2026 officially coming into play across England and Wales.
This means the possession or publication of specific types of extreme pornography will be classed as a criminal offence, with hefty prison sentences coming alongside it. The act is being enforced amid complaints from the government that certain categories of pornography are normalizing sexual violence, particularly focusing on how strangulation and choking porn could be leading to real-world harm, especially for women.
What kind of pornography is banned under the Crime and Policing Act 2026?
Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones said the act is being brought in amid a government commitment to halve violence against women and girls in the next 10 years.
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Despite changes to how the likes of Pornhub operate, Davies-Jones says it's still easy for people to access harmful pornography online. Reminding us of the November 6 initiation, Davies-Jones went on to list some of the categories that are deemed illegal and concluded: "This isn’t about criminalising harmless sexual preferences. But porn can shape what people think a healthy relationship looks like, especially young people.
"Content that normalises, or even glorifies, violence against women is dangerous and can blur the line with what is acceptable in real life.'
As for the consequences of disobeying the Crime and Policing Act 2026, it depends on the type of violation.
In terms of what categories are classed as illegal, possessing or publishing materials that depict strangulation or suffocation, or penetrative sex between relatives (covering those who reasonable people would think are related) can carry a maximum of two years in prison.
Possessing or publishing materials depicting sexual activity that involves a person who is (or is pretending to be) under 16 is three years’ imprisonment.
The penalty for publication for all offences is up to five years’ imprisonment.
The Ministry of Justice went on to clarify "the offences only capture pornography that shows people which appear, to a reasonable person, to be real," which leaves us in something of a grey area when it comes to the likes of AI and digitally altered materials.
How could your iCloud could be putting you at risk?
The official guidance page for the Crime and Policing Act 2026 warns that storing these kinds of materials will also put you at risk of prosecution, with a whole section titled, "What we mean by possession and publication."
Here, the government reiterates that the term possess will be given an ordinary meaning: "Whether a person ‘possesses’ an image will be a question of fact for the court in each case. However, we consider that possessing an image will generally mean having custody or control of it."
To clarify exactly what this means, the page states: "This could include where an image is stored on a device, retained in a personal account or cloud, saved in files, or otherwise kept physically or virtually."
Whether you know it or not, you could be unknowingly storing images or videos that are now classed as a criminal offense in your Google Drive, iCloud, or any other kind of storage.
The act defines ‘publish’ as giving or making these materials available to another person by any means.
Uploading, posting, sending, sharing, or distributing are all covered under this, so again, be careful what you share across the cloud or what you’re being sent.
There are defenses, with the Ministry of Justice stating you could be covered if you had not seen the image before and didn't know, or have cause to suspect, it was an offense.
A potential defense also covers those who directly participated in the act and other criteria are met. In terms of possession offences, another defense is if you've been sent the image without asking for it, and didn't keep it for an unreasonable length of time.
For those who are concerned about what is being kept on their computers, phones, or in the cloud, it's better to be safe than sorry.
UNILADTech has reached out to Apple for comment.
