The test of a tendency to deprave and corrupt was determined in 1868 and it remains the test used today. It is clearly open to abuse and asks juries to determine matters they cannot possibly be in a position to determine. The 1959 Act makes it an imprisonable offence to induce things that are not themselves criminal. Victims of consensual adult videos, for example, have never, ever, been produced despite hundreds and hundreds of prosecutions. There is no recognised standard of public opinion which justifies this legislation.
People are much more tolerant and relaxed about sexual activity than they are say, about violence.
The Act is at complete variance with the new BBFC guidelines. If the government is serious about human rights and relaxtion, which, frankly, is very unlikely, the Obscene Publications Act must go. The argument about this repressive legislation has nothing to do with the merits of sexual relations or their reprensentation in films, videos etc. It is all about the right of adults to decide for themselves what is agreeable to them. For generations, the British people have been taught from birth that sex is dirty .