Consenting Adult Action Network (CAAN): UK Extreme Pornography Protest Group

The Consenting Adult Action Network (CAAN) is a grassroots network of individuals in the United Kingdom formed in 2008 to protest and oppose laws restricting activities between consenting adults, most notably the criminalisation of possession of “extreme pornography” under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. For BDSM and fetish communities, CAAN is a campaign response to possession offences that can treat staged adult SM imagery as criminal even when everyone on camera was a consenting adult.

History of protests and early actions

On 14 June and 22 August 2008, CAAN attempted to seek advice on what material might be caught by the law. Activists took a dossier of images to three major police forces; none could yet say which pictures would be deemed illegal—showing how vague drafting left even police unsure of the line. On 21 October 2008 they organised a protest with Ben Westwood against the extreme pornography law. They were awarded Specialists Website of the Year by the London Gay Sex and Fetish Awards 2008.

On 25 January 2009, the day before the law came into effect, CAAN protested in London, supported by Backlash and The Spanner Trust. Peter Tatchell attended. In March 2010, CAAN announced they would publish Beyond the Circle: Sexuality & Discrimination in Heteronormative Britain by John Ozimek, expanding from street protest into longer-form argument.

Issues: extreme pornography and possession law

CAAN is concerned that the extreme pornography law criminalises possession of images involving consenting adults, including staged acts and screenshots from legal films. That hits BDSM and fetish media hard: impact play, simulated harm, and extreme aesthetics that may be legal to film and sell can still create possession risk for viewers under broad statutory language. Ambiguity about which images are illegal was why CAAN pressed police with dossiers before the start date.

Safeguarding rules, age-of-image law, and sex-work regulation

CAAN also opposed clauses in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 that ban people from jobs involving children or “vulnerable adults” if they possess “sexually explicit images depicting violence against human beings.” The government stated that 11.3 million people would have to register with the scheme; others estimated over 14 million. Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual images of 16- and 17-year-olds are treated as child pornography even though the age of consent remains 16. CAAN states it has no interest in tinkering with the age of consent, but believes this change misguided and disproportionate. The network has also opposed government plans to criminalise prostitution and to recategorise lapdancing clubs as “sex encounter” establishments—issues that sit next to BDSM freedom even when they are not pure SM statutes.

Allies and why CAAN matters

Related UK pressure points include Backlash, the Campaign Against Censorship, debates over consensual crime, Operation Spanner’s legacy, and right-to-pornography arguments. CAAN’s website and blog-and-photos channels documented protests. Together with Spanner Trust support and Tatchell’s presence at the January 2009 demonstration, the network sat inside a wider coalition treating adult consensual kink media as civil liberties terrain. Possession offences need not raid a dungeon to chill a scene: they can make collecting extreme SM imagery or screenshots from legal films a legal risk. CAAN’s 2008–2010 dossier tests, Westwood-linked protest, award recognition, eve-of-law demo, and Ozimek book project map an activist toolkit for consenting adults under Section 63 and related UK rules.