This is the fifth in a series of columns that answers the most commonly asked questions about child sex trafficking. We’ve addressed why men purchase sex with kids, why some kids go willingly with traffickers, the difference between sex trafficking and prostitution, and the best prevention for child sex trafficking. Today we’re going to take on the subject of the connection between pornography and child sex trafficking.
There are two links between porn and trafficking. The first is the fact that many vulnerable young people are lured into trafficking by way of participation in the creation of pornography. The second link has to do with demand. There is a proven connection between consumption of porn and purchase of sex with children.
Let’s take a look at participation in porn. Given that many young people willingly engage in sexting and posting provocative pictures of themselves online, it isn’t difficult to imagine how easily traffickers lure in young people to participate in pornography. This is especially true with foster alumni who are desperate to make money. These young people may consider a promise of an audition for modeling or acting their “big break.” When they get there and find that the “audition” involves taking their clothes off and performing sex acts, those who have previously experienced sexual abuse often become willing participants.
In some cases, participants in these “auditions” are given drinks that are laced with common date rape drugs, and are then filmed while being raped. The footage of the sex acts is then sold over the Internet and to pornography stores and businesses all across the country. In some cases, these rapes are live-streamed to pay-per-view audiences who are able to make requests that are acted out against the victim in real time.
Now let’s take a look at how the consumption of porn leads to child sex trafficking. There is myriad evidence that supports escalation from porn consumption to acting out deviance, often with children.
We tend to have a picture in our minds of unkept, dirty looking guys purchasing sex with kids. The reality is that otherwise “normal” looking men are the average purchasers. Dr. Annalisa Enrile of the USC School of Social Work reported that the average consumer of sex with children sets up his “appointment” online, mid afternoon from his workplace, no different than one might book a dental hygiene appointment. But how in the world does the average guy become the predator who is purchasing sex with children?
In her article, Pornography as Trafficking, Catherine MacKinnon writes, “[Pornography] stimulates the viewer to act out on other live women and girls and boys the specific acts that are sexualized and consumed in the pornography.” So when an otherwise average guy consumes porn which escalates to more deviant porn, he can eventually find himself acting out what he’s seeing online. And the online community of purveyors of porn, many of whom are trafficking in children, make it easy for the average guy to cross the line from watching to acting out what is commonly referred to as *TPE*, which means “the porn experience.”
A 2015 study by the Journal of Sex Research demonstrated that “internet pornography is a unique activator of the brain’s reward system.” What’s of particular interest here is how the need for novelty in porn escalates with consumption. The report went on to say that “novelty is compelling because it triggers bursts of dopamine in regions of the brain strongly associated with reward and goal-directed behavior.”
Dr. Victor B. Cline, a clinical psychologist who has treated many individuals with pornography addictions, writes in Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children, “Porn-consumers get hooked. Once involved in pornographic materials, they keep coming back for more and still more.... There is an escalation-effect. With the passage of time, the addicted person requires rougher, more explicit, more deviant, and “kinky” kinds of sexual material to get their “highs” and “sexual turn-ons.” It is reminiscent of individuals afflicted with drug addictions.... The next phase is desensitization. Material ... which was originally perceived as shocking, taboo-breaking, illegal, repulsive, or immoral, in time is seen as acceptable and commonplace.... The final phase is an increasing tendency to act out sexually the behaviors viewed in the pornography.”
Dr. Sandie Morgan, director of Vanguard University’s Global Center for Women and Justice, says, “When we understand the addicted brain, we realize that addicts need treatment and must seek help so that they do not contribute to abuse, violence, and further exploitation. In response to the national drug addiction crisis, there are treatment centers in every major community! Pornography addiction also requires treatment! Seek help!”
Help for addiction of all types is available from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline. Help specifically for porn addiction is available from Focus On The Family. https://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/facing-crisis/resources-to-help-you-fight-pornography-addiction. For help in your area, just search “help for porn addiction.”
If we want to stop child sex trafficking, there are two beliefs that we have to change. One is that porn consumption is no big deal. The other is that sex is about predatory self-gratification to a belief system that says that sex is about intimacy with another person who is unique and precious.
Promoting that paradigm shift may prove to be one of the most difficult things we can do. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Boston performed a Google trend analysis showing searches for “teen porn” more than tripled between 2005-2013, and teen porn searches reached an estimated 500,000 daily in March 2013 or over one-third of total daily porn searches. You read that right, 500,000 searches daily for teen pornography—and that was in 2013. Although we know that many teens seek online pornography as “sex education,” the researchers concluded that Americans are becoming more and more attracted to pornography depicting sex with underage persons and this growing exposure to increasingly deviant porn is driving more criminals toward victimizing more teenagers.”
While the average man who consumes pornography considers it harmless, we need to all step back and ask ourselves about the young people in these pictures and videos and live-stream events. They’re often middle-school aged kids who are made up to look 18. These kids who are being used for the profit of others have justifiable reason to believe that they are trash—only good for whatever enjoyment they can provide to others.
Haven’t we as child advocates fought for decades to help kids to see their worth and value, to have self esteem, and as a result to make good choices for themselves? If there is going to be a shift in the belief systems that would cause a man to be repelled by child porn, then we child advocates have to lead the way. We cannot compartmentalize consumption of porn as “harmless,” while at the same time working to contribute to the dignity of children who have been mistreated. It is not harmless for a young person to be stripped of his or her clothes and dignity for the momentary gratification of another.
For easily shareable resources, including graphics, videos by thought leaders in the fight against trafficking, a downloadable QuickStart Guide To Ending Human Trafficking, and Dr. Sandie Morgan’s podcast, Ending Human Trafficking, please visit www.stopchildsextrafficking.org.
Owner/Editor - Chris Chmielewski