LONDON — At least one vigilante has risen to fill the void left by the police chiefs association’s recent announcement that local constabularies would not “actively enforce” Britain’s new “extreme porn law.”An organization calling itself extremeporn (extremeporn.org.uk) contacted the British newspaper The Register Thursday, saying if the government won’t enforce the new law, it will.
“We are enforcers of the law where the government dares not tread, we are the watchers of perverts everywhere, we are legion,” the organization proclaims on its website. “More specifically, we are unofficial enforcers of part 5, section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which bans possesion [sic] of extreme pornographic images.”
The group plans to monitor the Web for images and other materials it believes violate the law, then track and report the alleged offenders to both law enforcement and internet service providers.
Why? According to the website, extremeporn feels all laws should be obeyed.
“Why have law if it will not be enforced?” asks the website. “Lack of enforcement, counterintuitively [sic], concentrates power in the hands of government, and reduces what oversight may be performed. We, as an organisation, hold no view on whether the law is right or just, but do believe that the law should be enforced.”
The group claims already to have filed more abuse reports than the government expected to file under the week-old law in a year. On the eve of the law’s effective date, the Justice Ministry said it expected to file only about 30 prosecutions annually, with only 10 resulting in an average of six months’ jail time per offender.
Upon investigation, The Register discovered extremeporn isn’t quite as ominous as it would like the public to believe. In response to questioning, Adam Gleave, the man to whom the organization’s URL is registered, admitted his group’s effort consists of “little more than 255 lines of Python code, a hastily assembled website, and a few, loose-knit members.” However, he added, “The government would have spent at least £1 million to have achieved a similar feat, though.”
The Association of Chief Police Officers appears not to take the group seriously.
“The police service will use this new legislation as part of the toolkit that police officers have to combat pornographic crime,” the ACPO noted in a statement prepared to address the extremeporn issue. “Wherever we encounter possession of extreme pornographic material we will investigate it further and take the necessary action. If there is a member of the public who is concerned that they have an illegal image in their possession, they should seek legal advice.”
