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If you were to ask someone if they are against sex trafficking, you will hear an emphatic "Absolutely, I am against it." Now, if you were to ask that same person if they are against the porn industry, you may not hear the same response. A 2018 Gallup poll found 43% of Americans said pornography is "morally acceptable," a 7-point climb from 2017. Here's what I'd like people to understand: you cannot say you're against sex trafficking and support pornography. Pornography normalizes these acts.
How does the porn industry normalize sex trafficking? When you watch pornography, you become desensitized to the acts you watch. Continuous exposure to these violent acts will cause your brain to become conditioned into believing these acts are normal. Your brain will not notice the performer looks terrified, is getting raped, or anything. You will just watch to get the pleasure you desire without noticing the true act happening. Think of how normalized porn has gotten. If I were to ask you right now if you could name 5 movies that had sexual content, you could answer that quickly. Our society is obsessed with sex, which fuels the need for sex trafficking. Supply and demand.
Fight The New Drug says, "You can't be anti-sex trafficking and pro-porn. One industry supports the other." This is the truth. Most people who defend pornography or porn stars state that "Not all pornography is an act of sex trafficking." First off, what does pornography do? Exploit the performer for money. It's no different from sex trafficking.
When you watch a porn video or see pornographic images, you cannot discern if 1) the performer is consensually performing, and 2) if the performer is of legal age. One popular story was with the creators of the website, GirlsDoPorn, was arrested on rape and sex trafficking charges. One "performer" was told the lie she was modeling, but quickly learned these were lies, as she was kidnapped, coerced into signing a document, raped, then her videos were uploaded on numerous sites. Jane shared, "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 and my voice, I know exactly how I was feeling in that moment. But to anyone else who sees it, they see what they want and they think I was complicit."
Traffickers know how lax security is on these porn websites. These sites do little to ensure the content on their platform is legal. It's all about the profits. Because porn companies do not care about people, traffickers can continuously exploit their victims through these websites.
Numerous porn websites have been sued by a number of "Jane Does" who stated these companies refused to take down the videos of their rape or abuse. To claim that the porn industry is pro-woman and safe is a blatant lie. A 2019 Polaris Project report shared that pornography was the third most common form of sex trafficking, behind escort services and massage parlors. I'd be willing to bet these numbers increased during the pandemic. There's also the issue of CSAM and CSE. Both have been on these porn websites, but never taken down until authorities got involved. These websites profit from these crimes.
"Sex sells" is a common phrase we hear. It's used as a marketing technique. Well, it also means that wherever sex is sold, guess what? Trafficking will always occur. Whether it's a populated city or rural town, human trafficking exists. Understand this, and you will be able to fight human trafficking. How can we live in such a "woke" and "based" culture, but claim pornography is acceptable or pro-woman. Just like drugs or alcohol, you can be addicted to porn. After all I have shared, do you really believe that pornography doesn't profit, normalize, or drive sex trafficking?
Children as young as 13 are getting exposed to hardcore pornography. This includes BDSM, rape, or sexual abuse. What happened to Billie Eilish is growing. We cannot allow our boys to think that beating a woman is acceptable. We cannot allow our girls to think being treated with abuse or pleasing a man sexually is acceptable. We cannot stay silent on this.
This article is not to say that everyone who watches porn is a rapist or sex trafficker; nor is this to say that anyone guilty of sex trafficking are innocent just because they watched porn. But if we are to fight human trafficking, we have to also hold the industries that make these crimes go viral, like pornography. Porn fuels the demand for sex trafficking. Do NOT let anyone tell you otherwise.
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