Danielle Shankman
Content Warning: This article contains discussion of unconsensual sex and child pornography.
Ok, let's all be honest with ourselves. We all masturbate. Phew, now that that's out in the open, let's dig a little deeper, shall we? Considering that we have established that we all masturbate, the second question that goes along with it is; What do we watch while we do it? 80% of the population watches or has at some point has watched porn, while the other 20% of us are simply lying. This is nothing to be ashamed of. Porn happens to be a 100 billion dollar industry, grossing 13 billion from the USA alone. With this being said, watching porn is entirely natural and if anything it is just another step in anyone's dirty little coming of age story. What isn't natural is some of the porn that individuals are being exposed to and produced. The most used porn site in the world is (drum roll please)... Pornhub, who would've guessed :). Unfortunately, pornhub along with many other sites fail to regulate the videos that are uploaded, leading to some very disturbing content that has fucked up consequences for both the stars and viewers involved.
For anyone that has pulled up a private tab and stumbled onto Pornhub's website, they would quickly realize that the videos are categorized into kinks and preferences for easy viewer convenience. While having a kink is nothing to be ashamed of, many of the kinks that popularize the Pornhub feed are problematic. You see, Pornhub doesn't regulate the videos many users posts. While larger corporations like Brazzers or Xvideos use Pornhub to distribute material, many of the site's videos are coming from amateur pornstars whose content isn't reviewed before publishing. This questions the authenticity of the videos, and if perhaps individuals in the videos are even aware they were being recorded or posted online. Along with nonconsensual filming, it also begs to question if the sex represented in the videos was even consensual. Specific kinks like “CNC” or “teen” have been met with heavy controversy. There have been countless instances where cases have arisen in which “teenage” pornstars were actually underage, making it child pornography, or in CNC videos where the videos became high-profile evidence for rape investigations. The lack of undertaking for Pornhub's instream of videos makes clicking on them a gamble. While it occurs most often in these categories, this is not exclusionary to any amateur porn video that is posted to Pornhub. You never quite know the circumstances behind the video and the jeopardy some stars are put under to perform. This is anything but arousing for individuals and creates an unsettling environment for everyone involved.
From those I've spoken to, they feel uncomfortable clicking on a video that is amateur-made, merely out of the discomfort of not knowing the background of it. I am no exception to the many who have absent-mindedly clicked away in the heat of a wank, however, as more and more stories have been released in past years, it feels safer to just avoid those types of videos altogether. I urge you all to do your own research and look up the cases associated with what I'm speaking of. I warn you, they are upsetting and should be read with caution, but as any individual contributing to the porn industry as a consumer, it's important to know what you're consuming and the effects of it as well. All in all, this piece was not to defer you from jerking off or watching porn, both are completely healthy. Rather I wanted to encourage you to be careful of what you might be watching and to take a moment to think of how your extra view could be supporting something exploitative.
Apart from that please everyone wank away with discretion advised.
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