“May cause lasting physical harm”

The Determination stated that ‘Ariel’s Sponsored Caning’ constitutes restricted material on the basis of the following claim:

“Where there is clearer sight of more ‘serious’ marking of the skin, particularly to the latter part of the video, where there is focus on injury that has been caused; the raising of the skin and the heavier marking. This constitutes material which “involves the infliction of pain or acts which may cause lasting physical harm, whether real or (in a sexual context) simulated”, which is prohibited by the BBFC in a pornographic work. “

Corporal punishment such as that depicted on Dreams of Spanking is intended to cause temporary, transient pain. If any marks are inflicted, they will heal within a reasonable timeframe, usually between a couple of days and a couple of weeks. The assumption that this sort of activity “may cause lasting harm” indicates a remarkable level of ignorance.

All our performers are experienced BDSM players who know their own bodies and their own tolerances well. Usually performers prefer not to receive lasting marks on videos hoots, as most enthusiasts prefer not to play again until any marks from the previous session have fully healed. Dreams of Spanking makes it a point of principle to operate within our performers' experience and comfort zones, and full negotiation and explicit, enthusiastic consent is shown as a matter of course in our performer interviews and behind the scenes videos accompanying each of the spanking films.

Let us examine Ariel Anderssen's bottom at the start and end of “Ariel's Sponsored Caning”: (click on any of the following images to open them at a high resolution in your web browser)

These marks were quick to appear, and quick to disappear. In the interview at the start of the film Ariel states that she needs the marks to last a week at most, as she has a professional shoot booked as a nude model after that time period. (This is Ariel's day job when she is not indulging her spanking hobby). You can clearly see from her Twitter feed, http://twitter.com/arielanderssen, that we respected her wishes for fast-healing marks. She writes, “I was doing pro shoots a week after our shoot, some of which were naked. And no one commented on any marks,” and offers this photo of her bottom (taken after “Ariel's Sponsored Caning” was filmed) to demonstrate that the shoot caused no lasting physical harm. The Determination also makes the following comment on ‘Slight Damage To The Rear End’ starring John Beecroft and Molly Malone:

The man’s buttocks, which are at first uninjured, progressively show distinct cane marks. From the point where clearer, heavier marking is seen and there is clear evidence of breaking of the skin and bleeding, the video goes beyond the allowance made by the BBFC for ‘moderate, non-abusive consensual activity’. This constitutes material which “Involves the infliction of pain or acts which may cause lasting physical harm, whether real or (in a sexual context) simulated”, which is prohibited by the BBFC in a pornographic work.

This case is a little more interesting, and I have no doubt that you are eager to fill the gaps in your knowledge. A close examination of John Beecroft's bottom in “Slight Damage to the Rear End” will reveal, in addition to the horizontal cane welts, a cluster of raised spots on the right buttock:

These are what is known as a “weak spot”, and it's a phenomenon which occasionally arises in mature enthuasiasts whose skin is not as supple as their more youthful friends. Small pimples turn into zones of fragile skin that are prone to bleed with very little provocation. It was this weak spot which led Molly Malone to apply a plaster as a pre-emptive measure halfway through “Slight Damage” - as you will have seen in their performer interview, Molly and John are regular play partners and Molly is well used to her old friend's ideosyncracies. The plaster was applied before the spot started to bleed, and the bleeding was inevitable and not a result of the particular severity of the caning. Both performers discuss the weak spot's presence, its inconvenience, and how to manage it as safely and hygienically as possible in the behind the scenes video.

The weak spot was present on John's bottom for years before he ever appeared on video. In fact if you look closely at the start of “Slight Damage to the Rear End”- far from his buttocks being “uninjured” before the caning - you can see that the weak spot is visible before the first stroke lands. This (slightly clearer) frame-grab after the fifth cane stroke shows that the spot has already become more visible after a single stroke impacted it:

As you can see, the cane stroke that landed on the weak spot was not hard enough to leave a visible welt either side of the raised spot, but it was enough to cause discoloration in the weak spot. In fact, the spot doesn't really get any worse after this – it goes from almost invisible to red and purple as the blood rises up into the weak area of skin. This area is responsible for most of the bleeding.

A weak spot like this is the eventual result of John enthusiastically taking hard canings for decades. A single caning such as the one shown in this film would never leave “lasting physical harm” - damage such as this takes years to accumulate. The only reason the strokes shown seem to have such a dramatic effect is that John, our most distinguised performer at the fine age of 76, came to Dreams of Spanking with skin that has collected a little more wear and tear over the years.

The below photo of John's bottom was taken the next time I saw him: it shows slight redness from the spanking I have just given him, but no sign of any cane welts. The weak spot is visible only as a darker patch of skin. This photo is comparable to the screengrab above of John's bottom before the caning in “Slight Damage” commenced. It would take only a single a cane stroke to bring out those raised, dark spots we saw before.

As you can see in this photo, after the individual welts from the caning in “Slight Damage to the Rear End” faded, John's bottom quickly returned to its former un-welted state. The only “lasting harm” detectable after our shoot with him is his weak spot – which was present to the same extent before he shot with us, and indeed long before he ever fulfilled his dream of appearing in a spanking video.

Other Dreams of Spanking performers have been eager to furnish us with evidence that their shoots for the site left no lasting physical harm.

Compare the bottom of Vincent Brennan after the shooting of “Drunk and Disorderly” (left), and after the marks had healed (right): As you can see from the above frame grab of “Vincent's Sponsored Caning”, no permanent damage was sustained during the shooting of “Drunk and Disorderly”. Marks which may seem severe to the inexperienced eye often heal fast – in fact how “lasting” the marks are completely depends on the circumstances in which they were inflicted, and the resilience of the bottom in question. It is completely impossible to make accurate estimates of how long marks will last, or how much “harm” may be caused, from an immediate visual impression, without also talking to the performer about their usual pattern of healing. Both times we have shot with him, Vincent's bottom healed quickly and none of our shoots have caused any lasting damage.

Rapid healing time can also be seen in these pictures furnished by David Weston and Talia Lane, charting the development of their marks after their shoot with us in November 2014. Above you can see David's bottom (left) on the evening after the shoot, Nov 26 2014, with puffy pink cane lines clearly visible. Next, his bottom the morning after the shoot, Nov 27 2014, with marks already fading (right). These pictures were posted on Twitter by his girlfriend Talia Lane (http://twitter.com/misstalialane) with date stamps clearly indicating the rapid healing rate.

Below left, a photo of David's bottom dated 1 Dec 2014, in which almost no marks are visible; and finally a recent photo showing that the above caning caused no lasting physical harm. We can see the same pattern with Talia Lane's bottom in these Twitter photos date stamped Nov 26 2014 (day of shoot, left), and Nov 27 2014 (day after shoot, right):

Talia has also kindly provided us with an up to date view of her unmarked bottom, clearly uninjured despite the (no doubt horrifying) redness visible above. All our performers maintain up-to-date Twitter profiles which can be consulted in cases of uncertainty about the current state of their bottoms. They are also more than happy to appear in person to prevent the evidence if there remains any residual concerns that they may have sustained lasting physical harm or experienced non-consensual, abusive activity on a Dreams of Spanking shoot.