Hardcore pornography

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Porn stars filming a hardcore scene.

Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often in magazines, or films but it may also appear as a cartoon. Since the 1990s it has been distributed widely over the Internet.

Hardcore pornography was widely prohibited in many countries until the second half of the 20th century when many of the world's liberal democracies, experiencing a change in sexual norms, began to allow limited access. Supply is usually regulated by a combination of a classification system and regulation of points of sale, although today hardcore pornography can be easily downloaded from many Internet sites with little regulation. Public display and advertising is often prohibited. Supply to minors is usually prohibited.

[edit] Legalization

Since 1969, most of the world's liberal democracies have taken steps to legalize hardcore pornography. or they increasingly fail to enforce legislation to prohibit it resulting in de facto legalisation. There is often vigorous opposition to legalisation - see anti-pornography movement. The years that hardcore pornography was legalised are roughly as follows:

Denmark in 1969
Sweden in 1970
West Germany in 1973. (East Germany, which never legalized hardcore pornography, was unified with West Germany in 1990.)
United Kingdom in 2000
Norway in 2006

In the U.S., legal interpretations of pornography in relation to the constitutional right to free speech differ from state to state.