How can you tell if someone in a porn video is a victim of Human Trafficking?

You Can’t: and Here’s Why

• Someone being victimized is not going to announce that on camera – they will pretend they are loving what is happening as if their life depends on it: because often it does.

Consider this story from Fight the New Drug: “One female survivor, whose captor slept on top of her at night so she wouldn’t escape, watched her through a hole when she went to the bathroom, and listened to her phone calls with a gun pointed at her head, was forced to appear in a video that made the Sinclair Intimacy Institute’s list of ‘sex-positive productions’! [1] ‘Every time someone watches that film,’ she said, ‘they are watching me being raped.’”

• Even if someone being victimized does announce that, cries, appears terrified, or asks for help, it goes unnoticed or unanswered because rape and abuse-themed porn have now become mainstream
• “Consent” is often manipulated.  Coercion can look something like this[2]:
  • “I signed the consent form, because he threatened to harm my family if I didn’t”
  • “I was forced to pay for the hotel room, security personnel, videographer, props, lingerie, drugs and alcohol to shoot the porn film. Over time, this ensured I could never leave due to my high debt to them.”
  • “I thought I was signing a modeling contract. I was told if I didn’t sign it immediately, I would lose the amazing opportunity. I signed it without reading it.”

Not one of the scenarios listed above is from someone kidnapped, tied up in a basement, or held at gunpoint to film the videos. Each of the actors above lived in their own home and collected a paycheck for their role. But does this sound like consent to you?

• There is definitive proof that there are videos of trafficked individuals all over mainstream porn sites right now

Please do not participate in an industry that assaults people for profit. Chains Interrupted offers assistance for those struggling to quit viewing pornography. This includes both men and women! If you would like assistance through a NON-JUDGEMENTAL, confidential and highly successful program, please contact us at info@chaininterrupted.com or call our office at (319) 364-0222.

~ Teresa

[1] Catharine A. MacKinnon, Are Women Human? (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007)

[2] Hughes, D. (2010). “Sex Trafficking of Women for the Production of Pornography,” Citizens Against Trafficking.

*Like many nonprofits, Chains Interrupted has been negatively impacted by the economic downturn due to COVID-19. Please visit the “Support Us” page on our website to donate financially or with your time (you can also mail to PO Box 583 Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406). You are appreciated!