I have written a number of previous post on the issue of child pornography, including virtual child porn, and I have often debated and questioned the links between child porn and child sex trafficking. Regardless of any data I am unquestionably moved to see an end to both and do see a link between the two. There are some 300,000 children trafficked within the U.S. each year and the issue is only getting worse and that U.S. children under the age of 18 look to now make-up the largest segment of trafficking victims in the country.
A recent United States Congressional briefing was held which examined the harms of pornography and what Congress can do to strengthen and enforce existing laws. The hearing came during White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week – October 31th, to November 7th – which is set forth to educate the public about the issues of pornography and what can be done legally to fight the problem.
The hearing featured testimonies from anti-trafficking such as, Laura J. Lederer, J.D., who examined the link between sex trafficking and illegal pornography. Lederer, an activist and leader in the feminist anti-pornography and anti-prostitution movement helped found the first women’s anti-pornography organization, Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media in in 1977. Lederer’s June briefing for Pornography harms: A Briefing What Congress Can Do to Enforce Existing Laws, video can be viewed here.
Other prominent voices at the hearing were, J. Robert Flores, Esq., former Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Department of the Department of Justice, who submitted comments on behalf of Enough Is Enough to the Massachusetts Attorney General regarding the role of websites in facilitating human trafficking. As well Enough Is Enough president, Donna Rice Huges also gave testimony on how pornography harms children and Dr. Sharon Cooper is a Forensic Pediatrician and instructor and Board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The Porn industry in the United States alone is a 15 billion dollar industry and its links to sex trafficking may not always seem clear when looking at the scope of an issue of Playboy, however it takes little to widen the lens and see just how vast and connected the industry is. With advancements and an increased access to technology, we have also an increased access to child porn and exploitation – regardless on your views of lumping all forms of porn into one category there is no dispute on the issues of child porn. Mobile technology is continually increasing, as phones and pda’s are now Internet accessible, laptops work on public transportation, fewer and fewer people are without access to the worldwide web. This open wave of technology has literally left the door open for any kind of porn to surface, mingling the tame with the down right perverse, seamlessly merging grown women with young girls, all of which creates murky waters in the commercial sex industry, the line of legal and illegal seems to be drifting further and further apart. This often not only brings the line between various types of porn, as much is often debated on virtual child porn, together but increasingly brings commercial sex and sex trafficking closer and closer, leaving many divided on where the “line” actually stands.
The relationship between the massive scale demand for porn and both the domestic and global demand for prostitution/commercial sex are unquestionably connected. The commercial sex industry is a gateway to sex trafficking and to those who see profit from such exploitation. Regardless of the involvement of sex trafficked victims in a particular piece of pornography it does open the door for an increase in the demand for prostitution, which thus fuels human trafficking. Porn is also often used as “training tools” for inexperienced – most often minors, as the average entry into the commercial sex industry in the U.S. is 11-12 years old – persons forced into the life.
