Date: 6th November 2000

U.K. Censor Wants More Porno Shops


Britain's chief censor is urging that the number of licensed shops in the country selling pornographic videos be increased from the current 65 to about 300 in order to reduce the black-market trade in such videos, the London Sunday Times reported. Moreover, Andreas Whittam Smith, president of the British Board of Film Classification, noted, local authorities should reduce sex-shop license fees, which are in some cases more than $30,000 per year. "It's a tax on sex -- a tax on what is a low-cost consumer product," Smith remarked. "This does not happen to shoe shops." Nevertheless, the Times observed, local authorities are resistant to Smith's proposal. A Brighton official told the newspaper, "Not everyone wants a sex shop round the corner."

Source: Studio Briefing