Does Pornography Harm America?

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There are several problems with the argument that pornography “has nothing whatsoever to do with” human trafficking.

First, the statement that “pornography is protected speech” is inaccurate.  Whether materials are “obscene” and therefore not protected by the First Amendment is determined by a jury applying the “Miller test.”  Because this test depends primarily upon jurors’ application of “contemporary community standards,” what passes muster in Oregon may not in Ohio.  As Chief Justice Burger stated in Miller v. California, “a majority of this Court has agreed on concrete guidelines to isolate ‘hard core’ pornography from expression protected by the First Amendment.”  Similar to human trafficking, the problem is a lack of prosecution, not a lack of proscription.

Second, the statement views the question of the relationship between pornography and trafficking from only one perspective—whether porn producers are utilizing trafficked individuals in their productions.  It leaves out altogether the possibility that porn consumption can lead to increased demand for prostitution, which fuels human trafficking; indeed, studies and articles demonstrate the connection between johns’ pornography consumption and their acting out of the demonstrated behavior with prostitutes.  Further, testimonial evidence demonstrates the role pornography plays as a “training tool” for inexperienced prostitutes, forced or otherwise.

Third, the statement ignores the inherent association between pornography and prostitution.  Pornography, literally a “depiction of prostitutes,” involves performers, paid to engage in sexual activity, for the express purpose, as Merriam-Webster puts it, of “caus[ing] sexual excitement.”  While the direct relationship between the huge demand for porn and the domestic and global demand for prostitution is in the process of being researched and documented, the nature of the two institutions is unquestionably connected.  They are the two main pillars of the commercial sex industry, one a gateway to the other, existing only to satisfy demand for increasingly vulgar sexual desires and to line the pockets of those who would profit from such exploitation.  To say that pornography “has nothing whatsoever to do with” the surging sex trafficking industry is simplistic, misguided, and wrong.