LONDON – The BDSM community across the pond is a bit tense about the new Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, set to take effect January 26th in the U.K.Though the immigration part of the act may be of interest to pervs thinking about applying for a visa, it is Section 63 of the criminal justice portion that concerns Brits enamored of erotic role-playing, particularly in the areas of bondage, punishment, submission and domination. The law provides stiff penalties — up to three years in prison — for possessing, not just creating, “extreme pornographic images.”

British campaigners, as BDSM enthusiasts are known, want the world to know they are as opposed as the next guy to depictions of child abuse, extreme violence, necrophilia and bestiality. However, the way the law is worded leads them to believe their lifestyle is threatened.

“I firmly agree that images of non-consensual activities which involve violence should be criminalized, but this is a badly worded law that risks criminalizing thousands of ordinary people,” Claire Lewis, 35, founder of the Consenting Adult Action Network, told The Independent. “The government seems to be convinced that if people like us look at pictures for too long we’ll end up turning into abusers. That’s outrageous.”

According to the law, images are deemed “extremely pornographic” if they are “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” and depict activities that are likely to threaten life or appear likely to result in “serious injury to the genitals or breasts.”

Critics across the board have castigated the law because it sets up magistrates and juries as subjective arbiters of taste.