How we exposed the head teacher who sexually exploited London's homeless

Someone uploaded a video of me on YouTube

It could be unlawful to film someone and upload the video to YouTube if the uploading of the video may interfere with your right to private life or with your right to have your data processed fairly.

Pornography law in the UK

The law that governs the production of pornography in the UK is made out of a combination of unrelated legal concepts. UK participants in pornographic movies have few resources to learn from, about their legal position. If you wanted to understand what legal rights you have, as a performer in adult films, you should consult this website, or one of the other online resources, which we have created, or speak to one of our specialist porn lawyers.

Producers and publishers of pornography, must make sure that their operation is compliant with the criminal and the civil law, or they could possibly face serious legal consequences, including civil and criminal sanctions.

How to remove your own nude images and videos from the internet

Can you remove a porn video from the internet even if you signed a release form

Proven strategies to help you remove porn films from the internet

Support for individuals who had been coerced into taking part in pornography

Can you remove porn videos featuring yourself from the internet

Legal advice about social media from an expert social media lawyer

Revenge porn legal advice

What to do if you regret having participated in a porn film

In a recent case, Cohen Davis solicitors secured damages in excess of £20,000 for a client who had participated in a pornographic video five years earlier but has since changed his mind.

Why people regret doing porn films

Is it possible to remove porn videos because you regret making them

Example of removal of porn following regret

What to do if you regret making a porn video

Why people regret doing porn films

There is a large number of individuals who participate in porn films, only to regret this later, who at the time of shooting the film did not fully appreciate the consequences of their actions.

This could be because it was promised to them that any videos produced from the porn film shooting would have limited distribution, on paid for websites, or that the films had been produced by a special request and that they would be subjected to strict confidentiality and limited viewers. In other cases, participants in porn movies have been persuaded to take part in the filming whilst in a bad place, whether being homeless, hungry or having suffered alcohol or drug addiction.

A growing number of people who participate in porn films, who later regret their action, are young people, who had been lured by predators on social media to do some modelling and whilst arriving at the studio were put under pressure to take matters further and take part in creating pornography. There is, of course, another group of people who fully consented at the time to participate in pornography and to have their videos distributed, but later in life, have moved on, started a family or decided to pursue another career. Often this group’s regret comes 5-15 years after creating the porn films.

Is it possible to remove porn videos because you regret making them

It is impossible, in many cases, to have porn videos removed from the internet if you regret ever making them. The fact that you regret making a porn film, by itself, is not often sufficient to have the porn film removed from websites. What you will need to show in addition, is that the publication of the porn film results in the breach of your right to private life, in breach of your data, it constitutes misuse of your private information or that it constitutes a breach of contract. Every case is different and we will examine carefully the evidence before advising you on the right strategy that is most suitable for your case.

Example of removal of porn following regret

In a recent case, our client, who was known by his stage name Arthur Z, and he agreed to participate in porn film shooting which took place approximately 5 years earlier. He signed a release document at the time and got paid £150 in cash for 3 hours of shooting of hardcore gay pornography, but later he changed his mind. As part of the settlement of his case, we secured him damages of £20,000 and in addition to the damages, we ensured that he had the copyright to the porn films transferred to his name, together with a binding contract compelling the film producers to help us with the enforcement of taking down the porn video permanently. 

Yair Cohen, a partner at Cohen Davis Solicitors took on the case on compassionate grounds and later acted for Arthur on a no win no fee basis. Minutes after leaving the flat where the shooting of the highly intrusive video too place, Arthur telephoned the film producer and told him he had changed his mind. He begged the producer to not publish the film on the internet. Arthur, who was homeless at the time, living on the streets of London, was persuaded by the producer to take part in the porn film, even though he had never done anything like this before. He claimed that he had been under the influence of drugs when agreeing to the filming and that he was, at the time, at a very low point in his life. The film producer refused to delete the film from the internet and went on the sell the pornographic videos on a lucrative gay porn website over a period of nearly 5 years. The video, snippets and previews were also published on other porn sites, such as YouPorn and Xhamster, together with highly derogatory titles and descriptions.

Some of the videos had been best sellers for years due to their highly humiliating nature. The case was highly challenging particularly because we needed to first identify and locate the video producer who had done all he could to conceal his true identity. However, after some detective work, the porn producer was traced and located and after sending him a following a letter of claim, threatening him with legal action, he accepted liability and agreed to all our demands, including payment of compensation and legal costs.

What to do if you regret making a porn video

If you regret making a porn video, find out what you can do about it.

Unfortunately, the internet is loaded with pornographic videos, many of which have been produced at the unfair expense of vulnerable individuals. At times it could seem nearly impossible to secure removal of pornographic videos from the internet following regret, particularly if they had been produced some time ago. However, if you regret making porn videos and you now want to see whether you can have them removed from the internet, give our friendly lawyers a call.

We have a log of experience in this area of law, being one of the only law firms that specialise in internet pornography. There is a high likelihood that we will be able to help you remove unwanted adult video from the internet and even secure you compensations on a no win no fee basis.