You might think it’s hyperbole to say porn is dangerous, but you’d be wrong.
Just last week, Faithwire reported on how the world’s largest free pornography website, which draws more than 110 million visitors every single day, is profiting off illegal videos. And in a culture that rewards verboten sexuality, it’s no wonder we are seeking increasingly explicit content. We become numb to what we saw yesterday and, just as with chemical drugs, need something even more outré in the future.
So I was far from surprised when I saw news reports about a man and a young woman filming a pornographic scene inside a Santa Monica library, later uploading the video to the popular smut site.
When a concerned parent found the video online, he or she was bothered and raised the issue with nearby resident Janet McLaughlin, who took the matter to KCBS-TV, a local Los Angeles news outlet.
In the video, which is more than 10 minutes in length and was recorded during business hours, the woman is reportedly seen exposing her genitals and breasts outside and in front of a local elementary school. She then performs various sexual acts inside the Santa Monica Public Library.
“God forbid a child walked in the library and walked right in on the middle of it,” said McLaughlin, who lives near the library. “That’s my biggest concern. Children don’t need to be exposed to this. If you want to do porn, stick to the hotels.”
McLaughlin was so unnerved by the video, she took to social media in hopes of getting the attention of local officials.
The city’s leaders are aware of the scene but said they are unable to do anything about it since they didn’t catch the pair filming the video in the act.
“They say that it is a misdemeanor, and unless they witness it themselves, there is nothing they can do about it,” explained McLaughlin.
The KCBS-TV journalist who reported the matter, Cristy Fajardo, perfectly explained the danger of our pornified society:
The video was uploaded to a porn site that pays per click. The man in the video’s face is never shown. And we are not naming the woman, but a search shows she has other adult films.
And in this age of pays per click, people are going to extremes to get views. McLaughlin worries the laws are not keeping pace.
“We have to have laws to stop them from doing things that puts children in harm’s way,” McLaughlin added.
There is no doubt “content” creators and uploaders are going to increasing extremes for money — and many are willing to do that with no regard for legality.
After all, there is clear evidence the leaders behind the world’s largest porn site know there is illegal content on their platform — videos involving coercion or assault and underage girls — and they have put forward negligible effort to have it removed and banned from being re-uploaded.
All of this is why activist Laila Mickelwait, director of abolition for Exodus Cry, an advocacy organization focused on ending sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, has called for MindGeek, the company behind the massive porn website, to be shut down.
The petition to have the smut site shuttered has more than 125,000 signatures.
“The onus of responsibility is not just on the traffickers and those who are raping the girls; it’s on the website that is not only hosting these videos, but profiting off of them,” Mickelwait told Faithwire. “And that’s what makes them a mega-trafficker.”