New laws criminalising the possession of certain pornographic images have come into force in England and Wales. The three offences, created by the Crime and Policing Act 2026, took effect on Friday, 6 November, the Ministry of Justice confirmed in a circular to courts and police published the same day.

What is now illegal

It is now an offence to possess or publish pornographic images that explicitly and realistically depict strangulation or suffocation, penetrative sexual activity between people a reasonable person would think are related, or sexual activity involving someone who appears to be, or is pretending to be, under 16. The rules apply where the people shown appear to a reasonable person to be real, and government guidance says they can cover realistic AI-generated images.

The penalties

Possessing images in the first two categories carries a maximum of two years in prison. That rises to three years where the material shows sexual activity involving someone who appears to be under 16. Publishing material in any of the three categories carries up to five years in prison.

Possession is a continuing act

The government warned that possession is a continuing act, so anyone who already held material covered by the new offences was told to delete it permanently before 6 November. Stored images on phones, computers, cloud accounts and other devices can count as possession.

Why the government acted

The government says the changes form part of its commitment to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade. Justice minister Alex Davies-Jones said the material normalises violence and can cause real-world harm. The same circular also brought into force a new offence of detaining a child abroad without parental consent.