Easy access to the Channel 4 show – which features footage of Bonnie naked, sex acts and her filming porn videos with other adult stars – appears to fly in the face of the Government’s new Online Safety Act
The shadow Home Office minister has said it is ‘bizarre’ kids can watch a TV documentary about sex marathon star Bonnie Blue despite strict new age checks to stop them viewing porn.
Channel 4 is facing twin probes by politicians and broadcasting regulator Ofcom for screening the programme about the former Only Fans content creator who claims to have bedded 1,057 men in 12 hours.
Although the network requires users to be 16 to register an account there is no age verification process meaning youngsters can lie about their dates of birth.
Easy access to the show – which features footage of Bonnie naked, sex acts and her filming porn videos with other adult stars – appears to fly in the face of the Government’s new Online Safety Act requiring age verification checks to stop minors viewing adult sites.
Asked on Times Radio if it was possible to have a credible online safety system when it was possible to log in to a public broadcaster to watch the documentary shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam said: “It seems bizarre to me.
“There is clearly a consistency problem both in terms of content and in terms of platform.”
But Channel 4 argued that its streaming has industry-standard controls to help ensure age-inappropriate content is not accessible to viewers under the age of 18
Bonnie Blue – who is really Tia Billinger from Nottinghamshire – has claimed she earned up to £1.5 million-a-month on the Only Fans website through stunts such as the world record attempt to have sex with as many men as she could in 24 hours – before she was banned from the site.
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson said she had not been aware how easy it was for viewers to see the documentary.
Asked if Channel 4 had made a mistake in broadcasting it and whether Ofcom should intervene, she replied: “That’s an important question that I think is worth considering.”
She said: “I am very happy to go away and consider that.
“I haven’t actually clicked on in the way that you suggested is available.
“But I’m very happy to do that and to look and to raise it with the technology secretary Peter Kyle.”
The Online Safety Act was introduced last week to protect children online by implementing new rules for social media companies and search engines.
The strongest protections in the act were designed to prevent youngsters from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.
That included an age verification process for websites such as YouPorn.
In the programme – called 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story – the content creator is followed by a film crew who capture her day-to-day life.
According to the synopsis the doc goes ‘behind the headlines, clickbait and rage bait to discover what life’s really like in Bonnie’s wild orbit, how she got here and what’s really going on behind those steely blue eyes’.
It also ‘explores the central question polarising debate about her – is she a ‘dangerous predator’ pandering to male fantasies and perpetuating the patriarchy or an empowered, sex positive, businesswoman having the last laugh?’
Viewers were shocked by the content.
One tweeted: “Literally 3 seconds in and Bonnie Blue is already disgusting.”
Ahead of its release director Victoria Silver said explicit scenes were important for the documentary.
She said: “If I was making a film about a musician or some other kind of performer their work would be in there.
“I think it’s really important to see what she does.”
Channel 4’s commissioning editor Tim Hancock said it was the broadcaster’s ‘job to tell stories like this that are at the edge of modern morality’.
“I commissioned this documentary because Bonnie is the tip of a huge iceberg,” he said.
“Since the pandemic there has been a cultural shift in the acceptability of creating adult content and the types of people do it.”
A spokesman for Channel 4 said: “Channel 4 streaming has industry-standard controls to help ensure age-inappropriate content is not accessible to viewers under the age of 18.
“To be able to access programming on our streaming service, a person must have a Channel 4 account. Registration requires users to be 16 or older and the programme was restricted to viewers that are 18+ .
“Channel 4 streaming is also equipped with Parental Controls that allow viewers to set a PIN on their account to restrict access to content 18+ rated content. This is standard practice across all main streaming platforms.
“Careful consideration has been given to the content and the way in which it is included, and the final programme is compliant with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.
“The explicit content in the documentary is editorially justified and provides essential context; making pornographic content is Bonnie’s job, and this film is about her work and the response to it.
“Crucially, the content is presented in a non-gratuitous and in part partially blurred manner, and viewers are alerted to the sexual content with appropriate warnings to ensure they understood from the outset the nature of the programme.”
A Channel 4 spokesman said its streaming had ‘industry-standard controls to help ensure age-inappropriate content is not accessible to viewers under the age of 18”. The spokesman said: “The explicit content in the documentary is editorially justified and provides essential context – making pornographic content is Bonnie’s job, and this film is about her work and the response to it. Crucially, the content is presented in a non-gratuitous and in part partially blurred manner, and viewers are alerted to the sexual content with appropriate warnings to ensure they understood from the outset the nature of the programme.”
Ofcom said they were ‘assessing’ the documentary and ‘then will decide whether or not to investigate’.
An Ofcom spokesman said: “On-Demand Programme Services are not in scope of the Online Safety Act.
“Broadcast programmes are regulated under the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, while on-demand content is regulated under separate rules for On-Demand Programme Services. We are assessing the programme as broadcast and available on-demand against our rules, and then will decide whether or not to investigate.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
