Wednesday Briefing: Why Strangulation During Sex Has Become So Common Among Teenagers

Good morning. Yesterday, I was shocked to publication that astir half of sexually progressive under-18s person either been strangled aliases strangled personification during sex.

“Choking”, arsenic it is known, has go normalised successful young people’s intersexual habits. A study by nan Institute for Addressing Strangulation, portion of nan Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of nan Royal College of Physicians, published connected Tuesday, recovered that 43% of under-18s had knowledgeable nan practice, contempt overmuch grounds of nan dangers it tin cause.

This highly harmful believe is causing overmuch distress among those connected nan receiving end, pinch 36% saying they felt frightened during nan acquisition and 21% suffering vulnerable beingness symptoms, including dizziness and moreover nonaccomplishment of consciousness.

To understand really strangulation became truthful rife and what whitethorn beryllium down nan rise, for today’s newsletter I said to Anna Moore, who has written extensively connected nan taxable for nan Guardian, and Clare McGlynn, a professor of rule astatine Durham University and writer of nan forthcoming Exposed: The Rise of Extreme Porn and How We Fight Back. First, this morning’s headlines.

Five large stories

1. Politics | Nigel Farage is facing fresh claims of racism and antisemitism while he was astatine school, pinch a Bafta-winning head among those making accusations against him. The Reform UK leader denies nan allegations.

2. Technology | A cardinal portion of nan internet’s usually hidden infrastructure suffered a world outage connected Tuesday. Cloudflare, whose services see defending millions of websites against malicious attacks, knowledgeable an unidentified problem that meant net users could not entree immoderate websites.

3. Health | The NHS has failed to trim waiting times arsenic promised successful its betterment scheme contempt billions of pounds successful investment, nan nationalist accounts committee has warned.

4. Home Office | Shabana Mahmood is facing demands for compassion and clarity aft it emerged that only a “few hundred” asylum seekers would initially beryllium permitted to travel to nan UK nether 3 caller schemes for refugees.

5. Espionage | MI5 has issued an espionage alert to MPs and peers informing that 2 group linked to nan Chinese intelligence work are actively seeking to enlistee parliamentarians done LinkedIn.

In depth: ‘It seems it’s a apt encounter, not a shocking encounter’

The net has expanded nan type and readiness of pornography, and allowed much young group to entree it. Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy

We cognize location is nary escaping nan type and readiness of pornography nan net has delivered. Yet it is still shocking to publication almost half of sexually progressive teenagers are experiencing an utmost enactment for illustration strangulation during sex.

It’s moreover much disturbing to publication of nan fearfulness and distress of those who acquisition it – rather isolated from nan much vulnerable beingness effects they reported, including cervix pain, dizziness and coughing. One successful 50 of those surveyed reported losing consciousness, power of their bladders or, for 1 successful 100, losing power of their bowels.

According to 1 stark portion of research, non-fatal strangulation (NFS) poses a greater consequence than nan torture known arsenic waterboarding, arsenic strangulation affects humor and aerial flow. Practised regularly, peculiarly among young group whose brains are still developing, it tin origin semipermanent harm akin to repeated concussion successful sport.

All this points to an urgent request to understand nan prevalence and normalisation of intersexual strangulation, and mitigate nan danger.

What is down nan rise?

Two alarming trends dishonesty down nan emergence of NFS aliases choking during sex, experts say.

First: nan monolithic summation successful young people’s vulnerability to online pornography. A 2023 study by nan children’s commissioner showed nan mean property a kid first saw pornography is 13 – an alarming statistic. But it’s important to statement galore entree pornography acold younger than that, earlier they are aged capable to statesman to understand what they are seeing.

Second: depictions of choking aliases NFS successful pornography person go much common. Twenty years ago, research connected pornography recovered virtually nary depictions of it; this summer, nan children’s commissioner revealed 58% of young group had seen strangulation in pornography. Like it aliases not, pornography has go today’s activity education.

“When I was a teenager, you’d spot porn successful magazines, but it is incomparable pinch nan online worldly you get now,” Anna Moore says. “Now, you tin click connected to nan adjacent point and nan adjacent thing. There is truthful overmuch grounds astir escalation. Young people are seeing illegal intersexual activities earlier they’ve moreover kissed someone.” Choking was precocious made a circumstantial offence successful England and Wales, moreover if done consensually, arsenic portion of home maltreatment legislation.

When did choking go so common?

Anna, who first wrote astir nan rumor successful a widely circulated piece successful 2019, and again successful 2025 said she was “sad” but not amazed by this week’s findings.

“When I first wrote astir it, it was shocking, but successful nan years since, it’s go acold much acceptable. It seems it’s a apt encounter, not a shocking encounter.

“This is what young group do,” Anna tells me. But, she says, if you “keep banging connected astir it, you’re seen arsenic a spot of a prude”.

She told maine she recovered 1 council-funded activity acquisition position for Welsh secondary schoolchildren appeared to see “safe” choking advice, specified as: “It is ne'er OK to commencement choking personification without asking them first”. The assembly has said it was portion of a draught position that was ne'er utilized aft master advice.

The gender imbalance

Most studies connected strangulation person recovered a gender divide, pinch men mostly doing nan choking and women being strangled. Men are being strangled too, sometimes by women but overwhelmingly by different men, though studies connected nan harm caused by choking ore connected nan effect connected women.

Tuesday’s study by nan Institute for Addressing Strangulation appears to beryllium an outlier, suggesting some men and women are almost arsenic connected nan receiving end. About 47% men and 52% women had been choked, but men were considerably much apt to person carried it out.

I was struck by a quote from Jane Meyrick, a chartered wellness scientist who leads activity connected intersexual wellness astatine nan University of nan West of England, successful Anna’s portion from July. She told Anna: “I’ve had young group travel to maine successful tears, young women saying, ‘I don’t want to beryllium strangled’ and young men saying, ‘I don’t want to do it’ … but some watch porn wherever it’s handed to them successful an uncritical way, and there’s an presumption that that’s what has to happen.”

Anna said that, aft her 2019 report, she heard 1 lawsuit wherever a young female went backmost to her fellow and said: “I don’t want to do this awkward thing” and her fellow said: “I don’t either, I thought you liked it.”

What are nan harms of NFS, and really do we reside them?

Despite proposal easy recovered online, there is “no safe way” to do it. The neck, peculiarly successful young women, is alarmingly vulnerable and blocking nan jugular vein requires little unit than opening a tin of Coke.

“We’ve known for galore twelvemonth astir nan harms,” world Clare McGlynn tells me. “If you get dizziness and unconsciousness, you cognize and that mightiness extremity you.”

Strangulation is now thought to beryllium nan 2nd astir common origin of changeable for women nether 40. It tin besides lead to difficulties swallowing, incontinence, seizures, worry and miscarriage.

There are hidden harms too. Studies utilizing MRI scans and humor tests, person shown agelong word harm caused by nan practice.

“What these are showing is that predominant intersexual strangulation, which is 4 times a month, is impairing cognitive processing” said McGlynn. “It’s for illustration representation nonaccomplishment [or] repeated concussion successful sports, cumulative complete time. And we don’t cognize nan semipermanent implications.”

McGlynn and others moving successful nan section would for illustration to spot a large-scale nationalist run informing of nan “very existent risks”, including strokes and encephalon damage.

Porn featuring strangulation aliases suffocation is owed to beryllium criminalised nether Online Safety Act, and tech platforms must region specified worldly . The push to criminalise “choking” successful pornography follows nan recommendations of a review by Baroness Bertin, published successful February. She concluded that choking is “the starkest illustration of wherever online convulsive pornography has changed ‘offline behaviour’.”

“The rule is very clear,” says McGlynn. “With utmost online porn, nan enactment will require companies to return nan worldly down. It is going to beryllium listed arsenic a privilege offence, which intends they are expected to forestall america encountering it and region it swiftly.”

The rule was a “watershed” moment, McGlynn says. Enforcement is nan adjacent step, but nan omens are not bully – pornography depicting rape is already forbidden but, she says, still communal connected mainstream platforms.

What other we’ve been reading

Alex Karp, nan CEO of Palantir Technologies. Composite: Guardian Design; Kevin Dietsch;NurPhoto;Bloomberg/Getty Images

• You whitethorn person publication astir nan eccentric views of tech billionaire Peter Thiel, but his Palantir co-founder Alex Karp has gone nether nan radar. Steve Rose corrects that. Toby Moses, newsletters team

• What connects Tom Hardy, arsenic Alfie successful Peaky Blinders, Andrew Scott, nan basking leader successful Fleabag and Mike Ehrmantraut arsenic underworld fixer successful Breaking Bad? Michael Horgan celebrates 18 late but gamechanging characters who boosted later seasons of celebrated TV series. Karen

• I ne'er had a console erstwhile the Sega Master System was churning retired 1980s’ classics for illustration Golden Axe and OutRun, truthful could only glimpse jealously astatine friends and get glimpses of nan intolerable early of an arcade instrumentality successful their sitting room. Forty years on, Keith Stuart looks back connected 1 of nan early console occurrence stories. Toby

• This study by Tam Patachako looks astatine why nan Congo basin, which is nan 2nd largest rainforest successful nan world, and 1 of it’s astir captious c sinks, has been mostly forgotten erstwhile it comes to ambiance argumentation and funding. Karen

• If you thought nan World Cup in Qatar was bad, Donald Trump says clasp his Diet Coke. Marina Hyde looks forward to adjacent year’s US jamboree. Toby

Sport

England skipper Ben Stokes astatine Perth Stadium. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Cricket | England dream to onslaught a balance betwixt activity and play astatine nan commencement of this Ashes week: arsenic Australia trained astatine nan crushed to hole for nan first Test, nan visitors were being, well, tourists.

Football | Women’s shot coach Sarina Wiegman has defended promoting Hannah Hampton arsenic England’s first-choice goalkeeper up of Mary Earps, saying she makes “decisions to win”, aft Earps criticised nan caput coach’s move successful her autobiography.

World Cup | Steve Clarke believes nan Scotland support could “smell magic” earlier World Cup qualification was sealed successful melodramatic style pinch a 4-2 triumph against Denmark. Two stunning goals triggered euphoric scenes arsenic nan Scots secured a spot successful nan men’s World Cup for nan first clip since 1998.

The beforehand pages

Photograph: The Guardian

“Alarm arsenic MI5 names China spy suspects targeting MPs” says nan Guardian on nan espionage alert, while nan FT has “UK warns China against spying aft MI5 highlights thrust to power MPs”. Looking crossed nan Atlantic, nan Times runs pinch “Trump: Prince knew thing astir murder”. The Telegraph splashes connected “Britain not fresh to take sides invasion”, nan Mirror says “Farage told maine ‘Hitler was right’” and apical communicative astatine nan Sun is “Kremlin Brit’s ‘war crimes’”. The i paper leads disconnected pinch “Reeves privately tells Labour MPs: I’ll deed able pinch a mansion taxation successful Budget” and nan Mail has “A fewer ill-advised remarks and a nationalist schoolhouse coach who mislaid his occupation and life”.

Today successful Focus

Photograph: PRU/AFP/Getty Images

Is this Labour’s dispute environment?

When Shabana Mahmood gave a reside successful parliament astir her caller migration plans, for galore it was shocking. But she received praise from unwelcome quarters. Tommy Robinson welcomed Labour’s displacement to nan right: “The Overton model has been obliterated,” he wrote. “Well done patriots.” Jessica Elgot explains why Mahmood’s announcement has caused specified consternation.

Cartoon of nan time | Ella Baron

Illustration: Ella Baron/The Guardian

The Upside

A spot of bully news to punctual you that nan world’s not each bad

Bhutan has a organization of 750,000 people, astir half of whom are subsistence farmers. Photograph: Rui T Guedes/Getty Images/500px

As Cop30 nears its close, nan landlocked state of Bhutan – organization 750,000 – is getting attraction for an eager ambiance pledge. It is aiming to trim emissions crossed each assemblage of nan economy.

As Nina Lakhani writes from Belém: “[Bhutan is] boosting power procreation from hydro, solar, wind, distributed power assets systems and piloting greenish hydrogen, arsenic good arsenic enhanced ratio and regulations for transport, buildings and agriculture.” Bhutan’s premier minister, Tshering Tobgay, told nan Guardian: “For us, gross nationalist happiness is nan goal, and GDP is conscionable a instrumentality which intends economical maturation cannot beryllium detrimental to nan happiness and wellbeing of our people.” Cutting emissions is 1 measurement to do that.

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