For years, people have been consuming all types of pornography. Whether it was at a local peep show to a VHS shop that lets you rent out pornography videos, it has always been obtainable. There is almost every type of pornography you can think of online. So, what is porn exactly, and what constitutes something as sexual? Pornography, or porn, is defined as sexually explicit material that shows sexual activities or reproductive organs in a sexual manner (Coutts et al. 2016). What constitutes it as porn is that it is explicitly made to arouse the consumer. In the last decade, it seems you can now find porn anywhere and everywhere. Before, you’d have to go buy a magazine at a gas station or make your way to rent a VHS with your fetish. Yet today, porn can be found so quickly that it has become a public health issue. Children can find porn as easily as literally typing the word “porn” in google. Kids are naturally curious, and there is no harm in them trying to educate themselves. The problem is, they aren’t finding out helpful, factual information to educate. They can easily find violent porn that is causing adolescent boys to think that is what sex should be (Rostad et al. 2016).
This is where porn becomes unethical and a public health crisis. Porn didn’t always have rules or ethics, but it was mostly done by actors or with photoshoots. It wasn’t as easily accessible, and porn magazines were very taboo. Now, anything can be uploaded online to thousands of free websites. There is no longer a structure of how porn is produced and distributed. Currently, the popular porn site Pornhub is under severe scrutiny for this lack of structure and accountability. There are several lawsuits against them because nonethical porn is being uploaded. That includes revenge porn, rape, and even child molestation (Cheong 2020). It has become such a problem that organizations such as #NotYourPorn help victims get their nonconsensual videos off porn sites. To be clear, all 3 of those nonconsensual videos are illegal yet not being removed (Schmitz 2016). In early 2020, Pornhub verified a 15-year-old girl who was being sex trafficked, and her videos were allowed online (Cheong 2020). If you’re wondering, no, Pornhub does not take these types of videos down right away. One woman’s videos from when she was 14 were uploaded, and their family asked Pornhub to take them down for six months once they were discovered (Mohan 2020).
The answer isn’t banning porn altogether, which some countries have wanted to do (Schmitz 2016). Not only is that not possible, but porn can be found everywhere in every way. The way porn is seen and consumed needs to be changed. Porn made through production has also had a very long history of not being consensual, the scene goes off script, and the actress is pressured to do what is wanted (Wood 2016). People are trying to fix this problem by making porn more ethical, not ban it altogether. We need to make sex between two (or more) people feel like they actually consent and care about each other’s wellbeing. Make sure performers do scenes that are consensual and safe for their wellbeing. There needs to be a clear cut line between real porn and sex trafficking. Making porn ethical doesn’t mean make it soft and vanilla. It means making sure the porn your teenager is watching isn’t violent snuff, sex trafficking, or putting the idea that degrading women during sex is the only way. Ethical porn doesn’t have to be free of kinks or vanilla. It just needs to be done by real people who enjoy doing sex work and creating (Wood 2016).
So how can you, as a consumer, make sure your porn is ethical? How can you help create change for youth? First, education about sex should be taught to teens. Porn is free everywhere and won’t stop them from consuming it, but you can have serious talks about porn with them. Educating kids can prevent them from thinking sex should be violent and aggressive (Rostad 2019). Another way you can help make porn more ethical is by finding the right place to consume it. Many sites allow free and paid porn where you can see who is producing it. These sites demand a driver’s license when sex workers sign up, and they have rules on the type of porn uploaded. The best way to consume porn ethically is to pay for your porn (Ethical Porn Curators 2017). You can find sex workers on these sites who focus on different kinks and styles that you may enjoy. Again, porn doesn’t have to be boring or banned. It just needs to start being consumed more ethically and made with consent. Lastly, stop using sites like Pornhub that allowed rape and sex trafficking videos to stay up for months, even years before being taken down. If not for you, help the next generation see sex and porn as two different things. Make sure they see sex as respectful, consensual, and not violent. Remember, sex should always be consensual, and so should your porn.
Coutts, J.A.G.F.W.S.L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781506353968/
Rostad, W. L., Gittins-Stone, D., Huntington, C., Rizzo, C. J., Pearlman, D., & Orchowski, L. (2019). The Association Between Exposure to Violent Pornography and Teen Dating Violence in Grade 10 High School Students. Archives of sexual behavior, 48(7), 2137–2147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-1435-4
Schmitz, M. (2016, May 24). The case for banning pornography. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/05/24/the-case-for-banning-pornography/
#NotYourPorn. (ND). The commercialised porn industry is mass distributing and profiting from image-based sexual abuse. . Retrieved from https://notyourporn.com/general-2
Cheong, I. M. (2020, March 1). Pornhub Verified Child Sex Trafficking. Retrieved from https://humanevents.com/2020/03/01/pornhub-verified-child-sex-trafficking/
Mohan, M. (2020, February 10). “I was raped at 14, and the video ended up on a porn site.” Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51391981
Wood, E. (2016, May 18). Does ethical porn exist? Retrieved from https://ethics.org.au/does-ethical-porn-exist/
Ethical Porn Curators. (2017, January 1). Why Pay For Your Porn? Retrieved from https://ethical.porn/why-pay-for-your-porn/
Reading your post brought something to the front of my brain that I hadn’t thought about in a while. While we are in the season of justice, with more advanced technology, psychology, and medicine, I can’t help but think back to Ted Bundy’s final interview, where he blames – you guessed it – porn for his sexual motivations behind his serial murder of some 27 women (at least 27, some say the number may be much higher). I find this interesting because porn, and particularly violent porn, is now more accessible than ever.
I was a forensic science major for years before I changed fields, and I had what some would call morbid curiosity. In my research, I found myself looking over autopsy photos and reports online, and almost every site that contained such photos had advertisements for violent porn in the sidebars. Granted, Ted Bundy didn’t have internet porn and was a total psychopath. I do find that the association of violence with sexual arousal is troubling, especially for modern-day Ted Bundys who are seeking a sense of direction with their violent fantasies. With that in mind, you should also consider the Netflix doc, “Don’t F*** With Cats,” which also illustrates the power of sexual violence on the internet.
Research has shown that the availability of such violent material, both on the internet and in video games, has desensitized individuals and has become a sort of exception in today’s society (Atkinson & Rogers, 2015). Their research is interesting and I encourage you to read the cited article.
Great post!
Ted Bundy’s interview is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08dpnn0cd10
Atkinson, R., & Rodgers, T. (2015). Pleasure zones and murder boxes: Online pornography and violent video games as cultural zones of exception. The British Journal of Criminology, 56(6), 1291–1307.
Hello,
I understand how children can find porn so easily. I remember watching my first violent pornography video at the age of eleven. I remember feeling confused and excited, that I found something that was so adult at a young age.
In my opinion, people need to be more open about their experiences with pornography as children, because it is such a big issue. I believe people shove this topic under the rug, because it’s wrong to think children are watching adults have sex on the computer. But, I think it’s happening more often than we think.
A solution to this problem is for parents to be open with their children. It will be hard for a parent to talk to their child about sex and the porn industry. But, it needs to be discussed. A parent should also monitor their child’s electronics and place security restrictions. This isn’t going to solve the whole problem. But, it is a step in the right direction. What are your thoughts?
Thank you for this post. I have 2 children that are adults (20 and 22) and an 8 year old. The difference in technology and therefore what the children can be exposed to today vs just 10 years ago is huge and as a mom terrifying.
I know about pornhub but I had no idea the extent of things that can be and are posted on there. I have heard about revenge porn but it blows me away that porn uploaded to pornhub that are illegal to have even happened are not just taken down. Rape, sex trafficking and and sex with underage girls/boy should be instantly sent to law enforcement. I do understand that it can slip by and make its way up there but the fact that it isn’t instantly removed when discovered just blows my mind.
You bring up ethical porn. I absolutely agree that the only ethical porn is porn you pay for. I still am not sure how I feel even acted out rape porn, on the one hand if people that are attracted to rape porn could leave it at watching rape porn that would be one thing but the attitudes about women that this sort of violent porn can bring out is something that is unfortunately reality. You see this in research by Allen, D ‘Alessio & Brezgel (1995, as cited in Gruman 2016) where there is acceptance of rape myths for example the woman is was a promiscuous or she could have resisted if she wanted to. These are unhealthy and dangerous ways to view sexual violence.
I do agree that you hit the nail on the head with combating these attitudes with education to the best of our ability. We need to talk to the children about what is normal and what is not normal. This is something that maybe even needs to start being discussed in sex education.
Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems, edited by Jamie A. Gruman, et al., SAGE Publications, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=5945490.