On April 10, 2026, the UK government tabled sweeping amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill that would make senior technology executives personally liable — including potential imprisonment — if their platforms fail to comply with Ofcom orders to remove non-consensual intimate images (NCII). Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan stated bluntly: "If they fail to remove these images they could face jail or substantial fines. This is not an optional requirement, it's a duty that every tech leader must take seriously." The amendments frame personal criminal liability as the enforcement mechanism of last resort after Ofcom has issued a platform removal order that goes unheeded.

Why It Matters

Personal criminal liability for tech executives is a significant escalation beyond the standard corporate fines and platform-level penalties that have characterized online safety regulation to date. If enacted, the law would give Ofcom substantially more enforcement leverage than fines alone — and could drive UK-facing platforms to dramatically accelerate content moderation infrastructure and AI-assisted NCII detection. For the sex tech and adult content industry, the implications are dual-edged: stronger NCII enforcement protects performers and creators whose images are frequently targeted, but the aggressive liability framework also creates compliance pressure that could incentivize platforms to restrict legitimate adult content as a precautionary measure.

Under the new framework, platforms will have a legally mandated 48-hour window to remove NCII from the time Ofcom issues an enforcement decision. Executives who fail to comply "without a reasonable excuse" could face "imprisonment or a fine, or both." Companies that miss the deadline face additional fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover — or potential blocking in the UK market. The measures are explicitly framed as part of the Labour government's broader initiative to reduce violence against women and girls, with NCII described as a form of tech-enabled abuse that previous regulatory frameworks have been too slow to address.

The same amendment package criminalized additional pornography offenses: possessing incest content carries a maximum 2-year sentence; possessing adult roleplay presented as child content carries up to 3 years; publishing such content carries up to 5 years. These provisions target content that, while not technically CSAM, operates in adjacent territory and had previously fallen through enforcement gaps. The Crime and Policing Bill is currently before Parliament and these amendments move it toward a vote, with industry observers expecting eventual Royal Assent by late 2026.

The reaction from platforms has been muted publicly, though industry sources cited by The Record (Recorded Future News) noted private concern about the subjectivity involved in Ofcom's enforcement decisions and the 48-hour removal deadline, which they describe as difficult to guarantee across large-scale platforms with global content volumes. Free Speech Coalition has not yet issued a statement, but digital rights groups in the UK have raised concerns about the broader chilling effect on adult content as platforms over-remove to avoid executive liability risk.

Sources

Update — 2026-04-12

Initial entry — story first created.