Human Trafficking and Pornography: The Link
In my previous post titled “Human Trafficking: A Brief Overview of a Huge Problem,” I briefly touched on the idea that we could directly or indirectly be complicit in the evil of human trafficking. Certainly, in our consumer-driven society, we could probably find ourselves inadvertently spending our money on products made by slaves, particularly when we purchase electronics, fashion items, and agricultural products. Most people, when presented with evidence that a particular product or company is using slave labor, would gladly buy from another source. Hopefully, too, most readers aren’t participating in the purchasing of sex from prostitutes, another industry implicated in the trafficking of humans. But, what about our private lives? In America, pornography has become big business. The numbers of both men and women who regularly view online pornography are staggering. According to dailyinfographic.org, 40 million Americans regularly visit internet pornography sites, helping create a $2.84 billion per year industry.
I’ve participated in conversations both online and in person about pornography. Opinions vary widely, ranging from shock and disgust to apathy to outright support of the pornography industry. It isn’t unusual to run into perfectly reasonable people who consider pornography to be a free speech issue, best left up to the individual. They disparage the idea that pornography is addictive or harmful either to the individual or to society as a whole. I am neither a constitutional scholar nor am I a legal scholar. There are obviously laws that prohibit the production and distribution of child pornography, but production of other obscene materials may be regulated as well. The Website www.uscourts.gov states that free speech does NOT include the right to “make or distribute obscene materials.” The applicable U.S. Supreme Court case is Miller v. California (1973), which superseded Roth v. United States (1957). In “Miller,” the Court states the following:
Obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment. Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, reaffirmed. A work may be subject to state regulation where that work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex; portrays, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and, taken as a whole, does not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Is pornography harmful? I believe it is, and the evidence seems to support that belief. For example, the website fightthenewdrug.org cites peer reviewed studies that suggest that regular pornography consumption can actually rewire the brain:
Porn happens to be fantastic at forming new, long-lasting pathways in the brain. In fact, porn is such a ferocious competitor that hardly any other activity can compete with it, including actual sex with a real partner. That’s right, porn can actually overpower the brain’s natural ability to have real sex! Why? As Dr. Norman Doidge, a researcher at Columbia University, explains, porn creates the perfect conditions and triggers the release of the right chemicals to make lasting changes in the brain.
They also point out that, like a drug, pornography is addictive. Apparently, continuous pornography use can cause the release of chemical substances in the brain, very much like what happens in the brain of a drug user:
…porn consumption follows a very predictable pattern that’s eerily similar to drug use. Over time, excessive levels of “pleasure” chemicals cause the porn consumer’s brain to develop tolerance, just like the brain of a drug user. [19] In the same way that a junkie eventually requires more and more of a drug to get a buzz or even feel normal, regular porn consumers will end up turning to porn more often or seeking out more extreme versions—or both—to feel excited again. [20] And once the porn habit is established, quitting can even lead to withdrawal symptoms similar to drugs. [21]
So, not only are pornography users becoming addicted, but they end up seeking out more “hardcore” types of pornography to satisfy their craving. As if that isn’t bad enough, pornography use is also associated with mental health problems. Once again, from Fight The New Drug:
Although porn use promises to help users relax and relieve their stress, a growing number of studies have found that porn use is actually linked to poor mental health outcomes. This link is particularly strong when porn users engage in a pattern of “self-concealment,”—which is when they do things they’re not proud of and keep them a secret from their friends and family members. This pattern not only hurts their relationships and leaves them feeling lonely, but also makes them more vulnerable to emotional and psychological problems. For both male and female porn users, their habit is often accompanied by problems with anxiety, body-image issues, poor self-image, relationship problems, insecurity, and depression.
They aren’t just making this stuff up to make people feel bad. These studies come from publications like “Developmental Psychology” and “The Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health,” and this is just a sampling of the problems pornography users can have.
It seems then, that regular viewing of pornography has a deleterious effect on the users, but what effect does it have on those involved in its production? Certainly no one would claim that all the men and women working in the pornography industry are trafficking victims. I’m sure that many of them are willing participants (although I suspect that willingly submitting to this type of exploitation doesn’t have a positive effect on them, either). The question, though, isn’t whether some people choose to be involved in this industry. The question we need to address is whether the pornography industry is driving, or is helping to drive, the sex-trafficking problem. Increasingly, experts are focusing on a criminal element that uses trafficked men, women, and children in the production of pornography. If the claims are true, and they seem to be, it means that when men (and, increasingly, women) pay for online pornography, they are directly participating in the exploitation of human slaves who are coerced into a life they didn’t choose. In the Michigan Journal of International Law, Catharine K. MacKinnon makes the assertion that organized crime is heavily involved:
Although legitimate corporations increasingly traffic the materials, the pornography industry, like other means of human trafficking, remains at base an organized crime industry built on force, some physical, some not. As with all prostitution, the women and children in pornography are, in the main, not there by choice but because of a lack of choices. They usually “consent” to the acts only in the degraded and demented sense of the word (common also to the law of rape) in which a person who despairs of stopping what is happening, sees no escape, has no real alternative, was often sexually abused before as a child, may be addicted to drugs, is homeless, hopeless, is often trying to avoid being beaten or killed, is almost always economically desperate, acquiesces in being sexually abused for payment, even if, in most instances, it is payment to someone else. Many are children. Most enter the industry as children.
Claims about the links between pornography and human trafficking are not exclusive to activists and anti-pornography organizations. Consider the following quote from the Administration for Children and Families Office On Trafficking In Persons:
Victims trafficked into prostitution and pornography are usually involved in the most exploitive forms of commercial sex operations. Sex trafficking operations can be found in highly-visible venues such as street prostitution, as well as more underground systems such as closed-brothels that operate out of residential homes. Sex trafficking also takes place in a variety of public and private locations such as massage parlors, spas, strip clubs and other fronts for prostitution. Victims may start off dancing or stripping in clubs and then be coerced into situations of prostitution and pornography.
The above quotes should give pause to those who claim that pornography is an innocent past time, best left up to individual choice. If not, it’s at least worth considering whether the fact that we may have a “right” to produce, distribute, or view pornography necessarily absolves us from the consequences, both on ourselves and on others. Laws exist so that citizens can meet the minimum standards for behavior. Character determines our moral and ethical standards.
Unfortunately, in the end, pornography will likely continue to be produced as long as there is a demand for it. Considering the statistics, that demand may only grow (see the complete statistics at Daily Infographic). So, then, what can the individual actually do about it?
1. If you are one of the many people who struggle with pornography addiction, get help. See the “Important Links” section of this site for websites that provide help and resources for those addicted to pornography ❏
2. For men, go to sharedhope.org, take the pledge, and become a Defender ❏
3. Know what your teens are looking at online, and talk to them about the dangers of pornography. Many men report that their journey into addiction started as a teenager, when they were first exposed to pornography ❏
4. Read The Mighty Man Manual by John Snyder ❏
5. Research and learn more about the links between human trafficking and pornography (this post barely skims the surface), and inform others ❏
M.