Porn Industry Facts
- There are 4.2 million pornographic websites, 420 million pornographic web pages, and 68 million daily search engine requests.
- Worldwide pornography revenue in 2006 was $97.06 billion, and approximately $13 billion of that was generated/earned the United States.
- Child pornography is one of the fastest growing businesses online, and the content is becoming much more graphic.
- In 2008, the Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 individual child abuse domains.
- More than 11 million teens regularly view porn online.
- The largest group viewing online pornography is ages 12 to 17.
Sex Trafficking Facts
- Each year, between 100,000 to 300,000 youth are trafficked and sexually exploited for profit in the United States.
- A 2009 University of Pennsylvania study estimated that nearly 300,000 youth in the United States were at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses, "most of them runaways or throw-aways.”
- It’s estimated that each year, 300,000 American children are at risk for being trafficked into the sex industry.
- In the U.S., girls as young as 5 and 6 years old have been and are currently being forced to do sexual acts by a pimp.
The Connection Between Pornography and Sex Trafficking
Laura Lederer, former Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons for the U.S. State Department, recently stated that: “Pornography is a brilliant social marketing campaign for commercial sexual exploitation...We will never have success in eradicating sex trafficking, unless and until we tackle the cultural messages of pornography and related materials that are encouraging this exploitation and abuse.” Although not all pornographic materials are created by traffickers, “a key ingredient to commercial sex is the belief that people (women especially) are sexual commodities, and Internet pornography is the ideal vehicle to teach and train this belief.”
Many Porn Firms and Publications Are Produced Through Sex Trafficking
Insiders in the pornography industry admit that many films and publications are produced through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, actions which satisfy the very definition of “sex trafficking.” The classic example is a woman or child who is promised a good paying job, but finds him or herself being sexually exploited for little or no money. Many victims are held in debt bondage, where they owe a large sum of money to their trafficker and must work to pay off the debt. All of the money earned through performing sex acts is taken by the victim’s “agent” or “trafficker” to pay off the “debt,” and what little money is left (if any) is given to the victim. Victims are also physically, emotionally, and verbally abused in order to prevent them from escaping or seeking assistance from law enforcement.
Some Traffickers Film and Publish the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children
Preliminary findings from an international case law database revealed that more than 25% of child sex traffickers took pictures or video recordings of the rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse of the children. By photographing and/or recording the sexual exploitation, the trafficker can now profit (again) from selling the material to pornography production/distribution companies, or posting the material on the internet.
Trafficker’s Use Pornography to “Train” Young Children and Women
In a recent survey of 854 men and women in the sex industry (across nine different countries), half of those surveyed reported that pornography was used to train them how to perform various sex acts. Another survey conducted in the U.K. revealed that 35% of trafficked women had been exposed to pornography during their trafficking. In 2008 case before the Canadian Supreme Court, the Court stated that there is "clear and uncontradicted" evidence that child pornography is used for grooming and seducing victims. Discussions with former federal and state prosecutors confirm that traffickers use pornography to groom victims for prostitution, commercial sexual exploitation, and other illegal sex acts.
Pornography “Normalizes” the Victimization of Women and Children
The proliferation of pornography (especially hard-core pornography) has created a culture of tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. In an article entitled, “$28-Billion-Crime: New film shows the dark connection between sex addiction and sex trafficking,” Luke Gilkerson writes: “Media has the power to shape culture, and the choice before each and every consumer is what kind of media they will endorse, the values they want their culture to embrace. When media sanctions the belief that it is normal—even natural—for men to use and abuse women, that women are only worth the sexual pleasure they give to men, then it works like a poison in the culture. In pornography, this message comes through loud and clear. Therefore, by consuming pornography we allow that poison to infect us, spread further into our culture, and dampen the voice of justice.”
Summary
- Traffickers use pornography as a “tool” to teach young children and women how to perform various sex acts.
- Many times, the forced sexual acts between the prostituted woman/child and the John are filmed and later shared online or in videos.
- Studies have proven that pornography viewers often desire to act out what they’ve seen in porn films. If he or she does not have a sexual partner to engage in such acts, the individual will often look to the commercial sex industry to act out their desires; the increasing demand for commercial sex workers leads to increased sex trafficking to fill the demand.
- Porn users become “numb” to “soft-core porn,” and will eventually seek harder and harder material. This phenomenon has fueled the boom of “live” porn whereby trafficked women and children are forced to perform “on-demand” sex acts in front of web cameras as “Johns” or porn users watch.
- Porn users do not and cannot distinguish between trafficked women, prostitutes, and porn stars.
- Bottom-line: Pornography fuels the global sex trade by driving demand into the mainstream of society.
Sources:
http://thepinkcross.org/porn_stats_view
http://www.pornharms.com/trafficking/
http://www.crisisaid.org/ICAPDF/Trafficking/traffickstats.pdf
http://www.moralityinmedia.org/full_article.php?article_no=448;
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