LONDON — Two BDSM providers in the U.K. face fines after they were found to have breached the new Rule 14, which outlaws video-on-demand websites from containing content that would be denied a British Board of Film Classification certificate.
Glasgow Mistress Megara Furie and Mistress R’eal, the BDSM providers who were subject to a probe by ATVOD, both offered content on Clips4Sale.com.
ATVOD in December launched the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014, which was announced with great outcry by members of the adult entertainment industry in the U.K.
The new regs forbid U.K.-based online adult operators from distributing content that includes acts of female ejaculation, spanking, fisting, water sports, full bondage and other types of strong explicit content.
“These are the first rulings we have made under the new statutory regulation which came into force at the end of last year and which were the subject of a lively and well-covered demo in Parliament Square,” ATVOD CEO Pete Johnson told XBIZ.
Johnson said that “both services allowed any visitor free, unrestricted access to hardcore pornographic video promos or still images featuring strong fetish material and real sex in explicit detail.”
The BDSM service providers also were found in violation of Rule 11, the U.K. statute that requires operators to make sure those under 18 can't access hardcore porn.
“The operator of Glasgow Mistress Megara Furie closed the service within three days of the breaches being brought to their attention,” ATVOD said in a statement today. “Enforcement action regarding the Mistress R’eal service is ongoing. If it fails to become fully compliant in accordance with a timetable set by ATVOD, the service provider will be referred to Ofcom for consideration of a sanction, a procedure which can lead to operators being fined — Playboy TV was fined £100,000 for breaches of Rule 11 in 2013 — or having their right to provide a service suspended.”
ATVOD today also published determinations that three other U.K.-based adult websites — LadsNextDoor.com, PantiesPulledDown.com and MontysPOV.com (with companion website MontysCash.tv — were subject to determinations over Rule 11.
All five website operations also were to have determined to have not complied with Rule 1 and 4, as well. Both of those rules relate to notification and fees for companies that operate VOD sites.
