Pornography and sex trafficking are two industries that most don’t think have to do with one another. In actuality, it’s further from the truth. Pornography fuels the demand for sex trafficking. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, numerous porn sites gained an influx of users. OnlyFans CEO, Tim Stokely, shared that more than 200,000 users joined the website. In December of 2020, about 500,000 new users joined OnlyFans every single day. Profits also increased tremendously for the company. Many of the users who joined were college students who turned to these sites for income to pay for tuition, classes, or bills. The same happened with PornHub, which had more visitors than Netflix in 2020.

Despite their profits, these same companies (among other porn sites) have been sued for profiteering off of sex trafficking or abuse victims. One investigation from BBC News revealed that OnlyFans (a popular porn site where you upload pornographic videos or pictures for a fee) was doing little to ensure minors couldn’t access the website.‍

PornHub and its parent company, Mindgeek, were sued by nearly 50 sex trafficking victims, who state the organizations willingly profited from their abuse. The plaintiffs (all dubbed “Jane Doe”) stated that the companies didn’t try to stop their abuse from being shared. Despite numerous victims begging PornHub to take down videos of their rape/abuse, the company refused. There is also the download button on PornHub, which means even if a video was taken down, if someone downloaded the video, that person could reupload it to PornHub or other websites. What goes online stays online. This allows for victims to continue to be re-exploited even after the content is removed.

The porn industry is not a safe industry. It’s extremely profit-driven. Numerous actresses and actors have shared their stories of abuse while shooting a scene but were forced to release an exit video. The concept of “exit videos” is to show the video is in ethical standing and that performers weren’t hurt during filming. Many have stated that they were coerced if that statement isn’t released.

Pornography makes certain acts acceptable, even normalized. Rape, underage sex, and incest are common themes on porn sites.

Joshua Broome (pictured above) is a former porn star who left the industry after 6 years, and turned his life over to God. In an interview, Joshua shares some of his story and his perspective on the issue of pornography and its ties to sex trafficking.

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