New guidelines covering both mainstream movies and hard-core videos sold through sex shops mean we can now lawfully watch more pornography. But legal or illegal hardly matters, except that illegal, like all crime, pays better for less work. Yes, it can. No, it can't. As far as male sexual fantasy is concerned there is no too far.
Illicit porn is the trailblazer.
Where it goes, legitimate media must follow if they are not to allow the unscrupulous to walk away with the lion's share of the profits, and ultimately the whole business. If cult movies can generate for nothing the kind of media interest that costs mainstream movies millions to pump up, mainstream movies will copy them - slowly, goodness knows, but inevitably. No matter how much froth and bubble there is around the question of what children may and may not be allowed to see, the real problem is what the parent generation demands to be shown. As long as there is demand, the porn industry will be there to serve it. As long as there are cigarettes, kids will smoke them.