Show Featuring Bonnie Blue Criticised for ‘Glamorising and Normalising’ Extreme Pornography
The Guardian has learned that a new pornography taskforce plans to introduce legislation this autumn to ban a type of “barely legal” content linked to porn star Bonnie Blue.
Watch 1,000 Men And Me: The Bonnie Blue Story On Channel 4 for Free in the US
This move follows the recent airing of the Channel 4 documentary 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story, which triggered widespread backlash. The independent taskforce, launched last month by Conservative peer Gabby Bertin, is taking action after the documentary showed the performer claiming she had sex with 1,057 clients in just 12 hours.
Companies like Visa and Smirnoff have withdrawn their online ads from the documentary’s streaming platforms after reviewing its content. The film was strongly criticised by the children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, for “glamorising and normalising” extreme pornography.
The documentary also features Tia Billinger, known by her stage name Bonnie Blue, in a classroom setting preparing to film an orgy scene. The group of performers, dressed in school uniforms, state they were chosen for their youthful appearance.
Lady Bertin has announced plans to introduce amendments to the crime and policing bill this autumn that would make it illegal for online platforms to host any content that could promote child sexual abuse. This includes pornography involving adults dressed as children.
This content is pushing at the boundaries. We will be trying to address the ‘barely legal’ aspect legislatively,
she said
The Online Safety Act has tasked Ofcom with ensuring pornography sites protect UK users from encountering illegal material, such as child sexual abuse content or extreme material involving rape, bestiality, or necrophilia. However, there remains a loophole: certain types of harmful pornography that are regulated in offline spaces like cinemas are not subject to the same rules online. As a result, adults role-playing as children in pornographic content—material that can resemble child abuse imagery—is not currently banned online.
Read More: Bonnie Blue Documentary Sparks Backlash Just Minutes Into Controversial Channel 4 Show
In the Channel 4 documentary, the classroom scene was only shown in preparation, not in full. Footage of Bonnie Blue having sex with over 1,000 men was pixelated, but the programme still received heavy criticism for promoting her brand and failing to challenge her claim that her work causes no harm.
Bertin confirmed the documentary will be discussed at the taskforce’s next meeting. “She has become extremely successful; she is an adult and it is consensual, so it may not be harming her, but it has potentially harmful effects on people who think that this is a normal way to behave,” she said. “We should be asking more about the men who arrive with balaclavas on their head to have sex with her.”
For years we have been fighting to protect our children from the kind of degrading, violent sex that exists freely on their social media feeds. Now this documentary risks taking us a step back by glamorising, even normalising the things young people tell me are frightening. Bonnie Blue’s content showcases violence against women as entertainment and allows sexist ideas that women are ‘lesser’ than men to go unchecked.
Dame Rachel de Souza added
Visa, whose advertisements were placed by a third-party agency, requested their removal from the documentary’s online stream after employees flagged the content as not aligning with company values. Similarly, Diageo, which owns Smirnoff, is reviewing how an ad was approved to appear during the broadcast. The company has also pulled its advertising from the show.
An Ofcom spokesperson confirmed the regulator is currently reviewing the documentary and will decide whether to launch a formal investigation.
Policing minister Diana Johnson stated last week that she plans to speak with other ministers about how easily children can access the documentary on Channel 4’s website. Although Channel 4 requires users to be at least 16 to sign up, there’s no proper age verification, meaning children can simply lie about their age.
A Channel 4 spokesperson defended the film, saying it was meant to spark discussion:
The film looks at how Bonnie Blue has gained worldwide attention and earned millions of pounds in the last year, exploring changing attitudes to sex, success, porn and feminism in an ever-evolving online world. Director Victoria Silver puts a number of challenges to Bonnie throughout the documentary on the example she sets and how she is perceived, and the film clearly lays bare the tactics and strategies she uses, with the audience purposefully left to form their own opinions.
Source: The Guardian