Those of us working to stop child trafficking have always known about the strong link between trafficking and pornography.
Now there's proof.
Johns Hopkins' just published an excellent scholarly research article showing the connection: The Slave and the Porn Star: Sexual Trafficking and Pornography.
My friend and colleague Laura Lederer, director of Global Centurion and former State Department senior advisor on trafficking, co-wrote the article with Robert Peters, president emeritus of Porn Harms, and attorney Shane Kelly.
Here are a few key findings, as noted by Porn Harms:
- Pornography fuels the global sex trade by driving demand into the mainstream of society.
- Pornography is used as a tool to train young children and women so that they will know what to do in performing sex acts.
- Often, the forced sexual acts between the prostituted woman/child and the John will be filmed and photographed and then shared elsewhere.
- Studies show that pornography users often seek to act out what they have viewed in porn. Often their partners will not engage in such acts, so they seek it elsewhere –- increasing the demand for trafficked women and children to be prostituted.
- Pimps are operating more and more online as it becomes easier to connect with potential buyers and to remain anonymous. Popular websites like Craigslist and Facebook have become virtual brothels where one can quickly find prostituted women and children to engage in sex acts.
- As addiction to pornography increases, users seek harder and harder material. There is a recent boom in the availability of live porn as trafficked children and women 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.
That last point is key.
When people ask me, "What can I do to stop child trafficking?" one of the things I tell them is, "Stop watching porn."
They look at me like I'm crazy.
Please read the last bullet point above. Most women and all children do not go into porn because it's something they've dreamed of doing all their lives. Most women and all children in porn are trafficked.
If you're watching porn, you're supporting trafficking. In fact, you are a trafficker because you are buying trafficked women and children.
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