Conference notes:

1. That most pornographic material is no longer produced solely for heterosexual men, but encompasses a much wider audience.
2. The proliferation of pornography in line with the growth of the World Wide Web and the proliferation of adult content broadcast channels in line with increased consumer demand.
3. The recent minor relaxation in censorship of magazines, films and television programmes regarding acceptable sexual content.
4. The government's white paper "A New Future For Communications", and its calls for changes to the film classification system, with responsibility for video classification being taken from the British Board of Film Classification and handed to OFCOM.
5. Events in the past few months which have led to increased censorship on the web; with companies such as e-bay and yahoo introducing blanket bans.
6. The abnormalities and contradictions that currently exist within UK law on pornography.
7. That the content of much of the pornography in the United Kingdom is influenced by our current indecency laws. Laws that have recently been ruled as unfair by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
8. That R rated films can only be distributed on video and sold in licensed sex shops.

Conference Believes:

1. That the consensual viewing of pornography that portrays all forms of sexuality involving consenting adults is acceptable in today's society.
2. That pornography portraying sexual acts with un-consenting adults, those illegal as outlined by law or those involving persons under the age of consent is always unacceptable.
3. Pornography should be available to buy from, safe reliable sources, giving a 'fair deal' to all involved.
4. People should be given detailed information about the contents of programmes, videos and movies so that they can make appropriate choices about what they watch.

Conference therefore calls for:

1. Relaxation of censorship laws so that all pornography depicting consensual sexual activity is available to adults over the age of 16 who wish to purchase it, and in so doing remove contradictions in the current laws surrounding pornography.
2. Revision of the R18 rating to R16, whilst maintaining the tight and responsible enforced licensing of sex shops.
3. Reductions in the cost of licensing a sex shop, discouraging people from buying less reliably sourced material over the internet; and moves towards future regulation and licensing of on-line sex shops.
4. Work with our European Union partners to initiate similar regulation of cross-border trade in pornographic material.
5. OFCOM also to be given powers to regulate all stages of the production of pornographic materials within the United Kingdom so as to ensure good working conditions and the protection of human rights. This would include ensuring fair pay and high standards of health and safety, that all contractual arrangements are fair and freely entered into, that those involved have not in anyway been coerced, and the prevention of pubic nuisance.
6. The effects of ECHR rulings on UK indecency laws should be incorporated into law as soon as possible.
7. That all broadcasters be required to display standard information prior to a screening of a programme that may offend or distress or that contains sexually explicit material.
8. That, provided they operate appropriate safeguards, digital or terrestrial television should be allowed to show material currently rated as R18 on a pay per view basis.