Did you know that porn can fuel the demand for sex trafficking? That may be an uncomfortable thought, and your immediate reaction might be to dismiss it altogether. But there are real people suffering, so listen up...

#HumanTraffickingAwarenessMonth

The TVPA defines sex trafficking as a situation in which “a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.”

Let’s break that down…

COMMERCIAL SEX ACT:

An incident where anything of value is exchanged for sexual services. Usually, that means money is exchanged, but “anything of value” can also refer to groceries, rent, drugs, tuition, a job offer, etc.

UNDER THE AGE OF 18:

If a minor is involved in a commercial sex act, it is automatically defined as sex trafficking according to the TVPA. Even if the minor “willingly” participated, if they are younger than 18, they are not legally capable of giving meaningful consent.

FORCE:

If someone is physically overpowered, drugged, or otherwise made to participate in a commercial sex act against their will or without their consent, they have been sex trafficked by force. For example...

One survivor, whose captor slept on top of her at night, watched through a hole when she used the bathroom, and listened to her phone calls with a gun pointed at her head, was forced into a film that made the Sinclair Intimacy Institute’s list of “sex positive productions.”

“Every time someone watches that film,” she said, “they are watching me being raped.”

FRAUD:

Compelling someone to participate in a commercial sex act by lying, tricking, or misinforming them qualifies as sex trafficking by fraud. For example...

The owners of Girls Do Porn, a wildly popular porn production company, were charged with sex trafficking after allegedly tricking 100's of girls into being filmed for porn. Many victims were originally told they would be modeling swimsuits & were tricked into signing contracts.

“I didn’t know if they were going to kill me. Watching the video now, I can see it in my eyes—the quivering of my lips & voice. I know exactly how I was feeling in that moment. But to anyone else who sees it, they see what they want & think I was complicit.”

-GirlsDoPorn victim

COERCION:

If someone is made to participate in a commercial sex act through the use of threats, manipulation, or intimidation, that is sex trafficking by coercion. Even if no one was physically assaulted or tricked, the moment a victim is coerced, sex trafficking has occurred.

That means if a porn performer shows up on set to discover that the scene is much more degrading than they’d been told, and their agent threatens to cancel their other bookings, that's trafficking.

Situations like these are common in the porn industry...

Here are a few quotes from real porn performers:

“I was threatened that if I did not do the scene I was going to get sued for lots of money.”

“[I] told them to stop but they wouldn’t stop until I started to cry and ruined the scene.”

“He told me that I had to do it and if I can’t, he would charge me and I would lose any other bookings I had because I would make his agency look bad.”

There are countless stories just like these. In fact, it's so commonplace in the industry that not many people care. When it comes to consent, a “yes” is only valid if “no” is a legitimate option. Even in the production of mainstream porn, sex trafficking is a regular occurrence.

Now, you might be thinking, “I don’t watch rape porn or anything, so I’m safe.” Truth is, there’s no real way to guarantee that what you're watching is truly consensually made. Unfortunately, this type of exploitation in porn is more common than you might think.

Research also shows that porn consumers are less likely to intervene during a sexual assault, less likely to believe victims of sexual violence, and more likely to support violence against women. Why? Likely because porn normalizes dehumanization.

In fact, this desensitization towards the objectification of victims can even manifest in more willingness to buy sex, thus increasing the demand for sex trafficking.

And on the other side of the equation, traffickers often use porn to groom victims and to train them on what is expected of them. Porn normalizes the abuse that victims experience, so pornography often sets the stage for that abuse.

Not to mention all the major porn sites that profit off of child sexual abuse material, image-based abuse, racism, homophobia, violence, and degradation. https://fightthenewdrug.org/pornhub-reportedly-profits-from-nonconsensual-videos/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=blog

Sex trafficking shares a variety of symbiotic connections to porn. Often they’re one & the same. But if you continue to sustain & engage with an industry that helps give trafficking life, what is your outrage worth? Make it count, #StopTheDemand for sex trafficking through porn.