More than a dozen former porn stars — including outspoken Christians Brittni De La Mora and Joshua Broome — have signed an open letter demanding pornography producers, directors, and agents stop preying on barely legal “impressionable teens” for their content.
“The implications of appearing in a pornographic film are significant, with potential lifelong consequences,” the letter begins. “For many, it has destroyed their lives. We are asking you to end this injustice by raising the age of entry into porn from 18 to 21.”
Broome, who left the porn industry and has since become a pastor, told CBN’s Faithwire he signed the letter because he has “personally witnessed hundreds of people be manipulated into doing things that they weren’t fully informed and fully committed to do.”
“The level of manipulation and blatant coercion that happens in the porn industry has damaged not only my life but thousands of other people,” he said. “While I might not ever change what happened to me, my hope is that advocacy like this and legislation in the future will protect people from predators within the industry.”
The GirlsDoPorn saga is a perfect example of the kind of manipulation to which Broome is referring.
GirlsDoPorn was an account that uploaded videos to Pornhub — the world’s largest pornography website — for years, earning the platform millions of dollars. In 2019, though, the account was identified as a sex crime operation led by wanted fugitive Michael Pratt.
According to court filings, Pratt and coconspirator Matthew Isaac Wolfe tricked young women who thought they were agreeing to modeling jobs into performing sexual acts. Pratt and Wolfe also purportedly lied to the women about how — and where — the explicit videos would be distributed.
Wolfe, 40, pleaded guilty in early August to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. The criminal charge pertains to 15 adult victims.
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As for the former porn stars who signed the letter, they argued they had no idea the anguish performing in pornography would cause in their lives. They asserted there is no way a teenager can fully comprehend the consequences of participating in pornography.
“Before we began shooting porn scenes, we had no understanding of the extreme physical, emotional, or psychological trauma that awaited us,” they wrote. “Some of us weren’t even old enough to drink alcohol, and, as brain science reveals, the decision-making part of our brains wasn’t fully formed.”
Pulling back the curtain on what really happens in pornography studios, the former adult actors explained they were often made to “appear as an underage minor,” were forced to “enact sadistic pedophilic fantasies,” were often “rushed into signing consent forms,” and routinely became “victims of violent sexual assaults.”
“The fact that this trauma is immortalized in images and videos only multiplies the damage,” states the letter. “Once this content is circulating on the internet, nothing can permanently remove it. This is one of the greatest sources of our pain, because we feel re-traumatized with each new view.”
The letter was published by Exodus Cry, a nonprofit organization fighting sex trafficking and advocating legislation to protect men, women, and children from commercial sexual exploitation.
Exodus Cry CEO Benjamin Nolot is the producer and director of the new Magic Lantern Pictures docuseries “Beyond Fantasy,” a three-part documentary exploring the dark and sinister underbelly of the pornography industry. The first part, “Barely Legal,” has already debuted. The remaining installments — “Hardcore” and “Unsafe Sex” — are premiering in September.
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