The Future of Slash: Mortal Peril!
"Slash porn"

LAWYERS for the promoter of the Harry Potter films are clamping down on so-called 'slash porn' featuring the world-famous boy wizard.

It is estimated that there are more than 700 websites worldwide publishing lurid homosexual tales about the lead character in the best-selling books by JK Rowling.

Mainly penned by women, the genre has seen Harry Potter caught in flagrante with a variety of other males featured in the series.

The authors steadfastly refuse to accept that their work is pornography, claiming instead it is an art form.

But now websites used by the 'slash porn' writers are being closed down after legal warnings.

The bizarre craze started about five years ago in the United States but it has now become such a huge global problem that a decision has been made to act.

But the move to shut down the sites has not been universally welcomed.

One online contributor recently wrote: "Some Harry Potter fans have had, for a long time, those kind of fantasies about the characters.

"Slash fans are not new nor rare. I understand that it goes against some policies to publish this kind of stuff but, again, people are allowed to have their own fantasies.

"If they can't put them on this website they'll just start one of their own."

A spokesman for AOL Time Warner, which owns the film rights to Harry Potter and which has been instrumental in cracking down on 'slash porn', said they were determined to maintain their character's image.

He added that it was their "moral obligation" to act: "This is especially true in the case of indecent infringement of any icon whose target audience is children."