15 years in jail for watching terrorist videos

Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, is set to announce that viewing terrorist content online will become a criminal offence, carrying up to 15 years in prison.

“I want to make sure those who view despicable terrorist content online, including jihadi websites, far-right propaganda and bomb-making instructions, face the full force of the law,” she said.

The proposed change to the current law, under which anyone caught in possession of information likely to be useful for a terrorist could be jailed for ten years, closes a loophole that allowed people to watch streaming videos without penalty.

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“Currently the power applies only to online material that has been downloaded and stored on the offender’s computer, is saved on a separate device or printed off as a hard copy,” explains The Guardian.

Officials say that “it has become possible to identify users even if they do not download footage, but that the law has not caught up”, The Times reports.

According to the BBC, “the new offence would apply only to those who repeatedly viewed online terrorist material, to safeguard those who click on a link by mistake or who could argue that they did so out of curiosity rather than with criminal intent”.