In recent years, the anti-trafficking field has been sounding the alarm about the connection between pornography and sex trafficking. One might be wondering, “why is this important? How does this impact me? Why is this such a big deal?” So let’s break it down and answer some of those questions.
First, it is important to understand what pornography is. According to de Alarcón,de la Iglesia, Casado, and Montejo (2019), pornography is “the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of sexual arousal using various means that includes books, magazines, drawings, videos, and video gaming.” The word originates from the Greek word that means “writing about harlots.” Originally, within these scenes, women are portrayed as submissive, tolerating harm, pleasing their partners, and not focusing on their own pleasure. While there seems to be a subtle shift by some porn creators towards recognizing the importance of female pleasure within porn, that does not erase the magnitude of harm and exploitation done within this industry – not just to the parties and victims involved, but to those who engage with porn. This has a direct impact on how people view pleasure, sex, relationships, demand, consent, and exploitative practices, which then influences their actions and behaviors.
Did you know that the top 3 porn sites in the world receive a combined 134,491 new website visits per minute and that most pornographic videos contain some depiction of aggression and violence? Did you also know that most young people are exposed to pornography by the time they are 11-13 years of age and that research has shown pornography consumption is frequent ? In fact, one study that assessed porn consumption rates of 18 to 73 year olds found that 91.5% of the men and 60.2% of the women who they surveyed reported having consumed pornography in the past month that the study was conducted (Solano, Eaton, O’Leary, 2020) .
These results mean that the minds of people are being influenced by the reality of pornography and the violence it can depict and research is finding that users are more likely to hold erroneous sexual beliefs. According to Fight the New Drug, research has stated that that porn consumers who engage and watch more consistently are:
“more likely to express an intent to rape, less likely to intervene during a sexual assault, more likely to victim-blame survivors of sexual assault, more likely to support violence against women, more likely to forward sexts without consent, more likely to commit actual acts of sexual violence, and … more willing to purchase sex”
Moreover, various research studies have suggested that adolescents who use pornography, have lower degrees of social integration, increase in conduct problems, higher levels of delinquent behavior, higher incidence of depressive symptoms, and decreased emotional bonding with caregivers. These behaviors are thought to be linked to a decrease in connectivity between different parts of the brain responsible for impulse control, reward, and regulation. (Seok and Sohn, 2018; Messina, Fuentes , Tavares, Abdo, Scanavino, 2016). Interestingly, this is what is also seen in the research that assesses substance misuse and addiction. With increased usage over time, the brain and body are being primed to establish patterns of behaviors that are linked with compulsive dependence on a substance or behavior of choice. Similarly, frequent users of pornography are more likely to want to watch more specific types of content and watch more often to produce the same effects on their bodies and brain. This increases the demand for pornographic content to be produced and this is where sex trafficking comes in as demand is one of the factors that drives the reality of sex trafficking.
What is sex trafficking? Sex trafficking is the commercial sexual exploitation of an individual. According to the federal law, it is “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (22 USC § 7102).” The term “commercial sex act” refers to any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person. Coercion consists of threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person; or the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process (22 USC § 7102). These tactics are often used by traffickers to keep victims silenced and afraid to access help. The porn industry is not immune to these tactics by traffickers.
According to cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2020, pornography moved to the number one venue of where trafficking cases were reported within the United States. Traffickers will often capitalize on the vulnerabilities of victims by using the coercion methods described above. Some of these vulnerabilities include financial desperation, substance misuse, addiction, unstable housing, ostracization due to LGBTQIA+ status or ethnicity, lack of job opportunities, and immmigration status. Once the traffickers coerce and groom them into performing through desensitization to sexual activity (which can include making the victims watch porn), they might lie and withhold information about what is expected of them which may include being subjected to more violence to meet the demand of users. They might keep identification documents from them, threaten to harm them or those who they love and care about, shame them to prevent them from trying to get another job, and more. Therefore, victims are being lied to, harmed, abused, and prevented from leaving and all of this goes on behind of scenes of many of the pornographic content that is online. The question that arises is “are users able to tell when or if consent is taken away or if a performer is being sexually exploited?” Typically, no – they are not able to tell.
So what can you do about it? If you are a parent, we encourage you to engage in conversations with your children about pornography. Teach them about the realities of the porn industry and how consumpton of pornography can influence their brain development. Resources like Fight the New Drug, Thorn for Parents, and Brain Heart World can assist you with this. We also encourage you to place some guards on your child’s phone, tablet, and/or computer to prevent exposure to pornographic content. Programs like Bark, Norton Family, Qustodio and Family Zone have softwares that help to keep kids safe online by monitoring content, filtering websites, and managing screen time. If you personally struggle with watching pornography and you want to stop but are struggling to do so, we encourage you to seek help. Fortify is an app that assists people with compulsive pornography use. You can also search for local therapists through Psychology Today, Open Path Collective, and Find A Therapist who can offer support for you on your journey.
At Fight to End Exploitation, one of our goals is to prevent trafficking from occurring. We believe that part of doing that is to reduce the demand for pornographic content by educating communities about the pornographic industry and how it connects to sex trafficking. If we all work together on this initiative, we can make our society a safer place for our kids, youth, and adults to live in.
References:
Cheng W., Chiou W.-B. Exposure to Sexual Stimuli Induces Greater Discounting Leading to Increased Involvement in Cyber Delinquency Among Men. Cyberpsychol. Behav. Soc. Netw. 2017;21:99–104.
Chowdhury, MRHK, Chowdhury, MRK, Kabir, R, Perera, NKP, Kader, M. Does the addiction in online pornography affect the behavioral pattern of undergrad private university students in Bangladesh? Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2018;12(3):67–74.
de Alarcón, R., de la Iglesia, J. I., Casado, N. M., & Montejo, A. L. (2019). Online Porn Addiction: What We Know and What We Don’t-A Systematic Review. Journal of clinical medicine, 8(1), 91. https://doi.org/10.3390/
Fight the New Drug, 2022. How Porn Can Fuel Sex Trafficking.
Messina B., Fuentes D., Tavares H., Abdo C.H.N., Scanavino M.d.T. Executive Functioning of Sexually Compulsive and Non-Sexually Compulsive Men Before and After Watching an Erotic Video. J. Sex. Med. 2017;14:347–354. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.12.235.
National Human Trafficking Hotline (2022). Hotline Statistics of 2020.
Seok J.-W., Sohn J.-H. Gray matter deficits and altered resting-state connectivity in the superior temporal gyrus among individuals with problematic hypersexual behavior. Brain Res. 2018;1684:30–39.
Solano, I., Eaton, N. R., & O’Leary, K. D. (2020). Pornography Consumption, Modality and Function in a Large Internet Sample. Journal of sex research, 57(1), 92–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/
Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106–386, Section 102(a), 114 Stat. 1464. https://www.govinfo.gov/
