You Should Stop Watching Pornography
This is article has been copied with permission from Lauren Medlicott’s personal blog which can be found here.
Maybe you just read the headline of this article and thought, “heck no”. I am not giving up the sexually gratifying practice of watching pornography. There is no harm in it. No shame. Or maybe you read the headline and thought, “finally”. Someone is finally raising their voice and telling people off for watching dirty, recorded sex.
I’m not writing this to target a specific group or person. I’m not writing this to invoke shame. I’m not writing this to define your morality. But I am urging you to stop watching Pornhub right now, and consider not watching pornography at all – because of its links to human trafficking and exploitation of men, women, and children.
If you are a “Twitterer”, you may have seen a recent #TraffickingHub trending. It’s a hashtag to raise awareness for a current petition urging for Pornhub, the largest online porn website in the world, to be held accountable for how it has enabled and profited from sex trafficking, rape, and exploitation of women and children. It was started by Laila Mickelwait and powered by Exodus Cry, an anti-trafficking organisation in the States (who also produced Nerfarious, which was the film that got me interested in working with vulnerable women). The petition has now been signed by well over 1 million people from 192 countries around the world.
If you aren’t up to date on your knowledge of porn, Pornhub is a website where you can watch free porn. It gets over 115 million visits per day. They don’t have a system to verify age or consent of third parties. They upload just about anything. “Rape, human trafficking, child sexual abuse material, non-consensual ‘revenge’ porn, and other forms of image-based abuse have all found a home on Pornhub.” A consumer can access just about anything he/she wants to view. Pornhub profits mainly from advertising, data collection (user data that could be collected, monetised, and used for advertising purposes), and premium subscriptions (so you can have even more, “better” porn). The more porn watched, the more money they get. They don’t care who is on the videos, how they came to be on the videos, or how the performers are treated. All they care about it the profit that the videos generate.
A 15-year-old girl that was missing for a year – found in 58 videos on Pornhub. A 14-year-old girl who was kidnapped by a group of men and raped for 12 hours, whilst being recorded, found on Pornhub. These are two cases that have recently gained recent media coverage. Only two cases, but there are more. There are cases upon cases of women and children, in particular, that will have their trauma recorded for the world to see, forever. In a space of only two years, The Internet Watch Foundation reported 118 videos of child rape and trafficking on Pornhub. It seems clear to me that Pornhub needs to be shut down and owners prosecuted for their exploitative action, or inaction.
Let’s assume you are convinced, from the above facts and more that you can find elsewhere, that watching videos on Pornhub could make you an accomplice in rape, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation, as you could be funding and promoting the videos that might be harming the individuals being recorded. What about other porn?
Melissa Farley conducted a study for the Prostitution Research and Education organisation, where she found, “More than 80% of the time, women in the sex industry are under pimp control - that is what trafficking is. Pornography meets the legal definition of trafficking if the pornographer recruits, entices, or obtains women for the purpose of photographing live commercial sex act.”
I really hope you don’t read that and think, “I’ll take my chances that I’m watching the 20% that isn’t being exploited or trafficked.” There is an 8 in 10 chance that the woman you’re watching and finding pleasure in has been groomed, coerced, tricked, threatened, and hurt from pimps in the making of that video.
Laura Lederer, from The Protection Project, John's Hopkins University also researched people recruited into the sex industry. She says, "Force, fraud and coercion are used to prompt the performance of those in pornography. For example, teen girls and boys are being recruited into the pornography industry through fraudulent promises of legitimate jobs at exaggerated pay rates. Once they're on the site they are held by force, coercion, psychological manipulation and forced to commit sexual acts on camera. Their pay is given directly to their agent (trafficker) who first deducts their fee, then any debts owed, and then if there is anything left it goes to the individual. Victims are given the 'choice' to perform privates, prostitution, to pay off their debts. If the victims attempt to leave or speak out against the pornography industry they are threatened and forced to stay on site."
Here is an example from Farley’s studies that further cements the link between pornography, prostitution, and trafficking:
“Glenn Marcus ran a torture pornography website. He psychologically coerced a woman to permit pornography of her to be sold on Slavespace.com. She brought charges against Marcus who was her pimp/pornographer/trafficker - and torturer. At one point he stuffed a ball gag in her mouth, sewed her mouth shut and hung her on a wall. Her attorneys used the following definition: Sex trafficking is coercing or selling a person into a situation of sexual exploitation, such as prostitution or pornography. On March 5, 2007, pornographer Marcus was convicted of sex trafficking. This legal decision reflects a deepening understanding of the ways in which pornography, prostitution, and trafficking are the same for the person who is being sexually coerced and exploited for profit.”
It is incredibly hard to ensure that the porn you are watching was recorded without any form of exploitation of performers. The sex industry outlets are confusingly connected to each other, making it nearly impossible to guarantee everything is ‘above board’.
And yet, we will still find women who claim to have made the choice to perform in pornography videos. Is it okay to watch them? I would argue no. Aside from the fact that there are many vulnerable women that ‘chose’ the path of pornography due to their circumstances. Aside from the questionable sexual ethics of voyeuristically self-gratifying. Aside from the problematic relationship between men and pornography given the historic suppression of female independence. Aside from the numerous research studies and personal case testimonies of the addictive and self-destructive patterns created by pornography viewing. I would still argue that you shouldn’t watch even that porn, because evidence given by victims of trafficking of sexual exploitation state clearly that pornography is used by traffickers and pimps to teach victims how to perform. Traffickers must teach their victims what customers will want, and what better way than way free porn.
When we watch or buy porn, we aren’t just having a sexual experience that we can laugh about later with our buddies. We are complicit with those that have created it. And if those creators are at all involved with human trafficking (which they often are), we are part of the process that has enslaved, tortured, and raped men, women and children.
Porn is not the innocent watching that you are told it is. You have been tricked into thinking that isn’t harmful so that corporations and traffickers can get more money. But now you know. You can’t claim nativity. I know you may want to disagree with me. You may just think I’m being a prude. But all I am doing is questioning whether you care more about your sexual desires than you do the vulnerable that were used to fulfil them
What will you do?