Forced sex acts between a trafficked woman or child and a “John” are often filmed and photographed.
Reports from victims, pimps, Johns and law enforcement show that the recorded footage is used in a number of ways:
Uploaded to the Internet for mass consumption. Footage is often uploaded to popular sites that share user-generated content for free and is sometimes uploaded to pay-for-porn sites as well. There is no way to always tell the difference between “consensual” acts and “forced” acts in porn. Regular users of Internet pornography will very likely view material frequently that has been created during the trafficking of women and children.
“Pimps” use the images as advertisements for selling their victims again. Traffickers often upload the images to popular websites such as Craigslist.com or Backpage.com, or use on flyers as a means to entice buyers.
There have been many reports that “pimps” will manage their own porn sites as a way to make even more money. This enables them to get paid not only for the initial exchange, but to continue making money even after the “John” has finished. Some victims have explained that they are required to maintain the websites themselves and to update them with new content frequently.
“Johns” use their recordings as keepsakes and mementos, and sometimes share them on “bragging” forums with other men who buy sex.
Trafficked women and children are sometimes used in the the increasingly popular form of pornography today called “Live Porn” in which a performer is in front of a webcam. There are many different types of these sites. For example: a John/viewer relays requests, often for torture, through chat and within seconds the requests are filled (“Be your own porn director!”); live stream the raping of girls by “johns” with others watching via the webcam; girls/children forced to perform and then the footage is sold later to an exclusive buyer or uploaded for free to draw more viewers in.
Forcing women and children to perform simply for the production of pornography.
Trafficking for the purpose of porn — especially live porn — is increasingly popular. There is an unyielding demand for pornography and as porn users become desensitized to material, they often demand much more violent and degrading acts. Pimps have capitalized on this and found that they can make more money and remain anonymous much easier by getting into the business of creating porn. Running a “virtual brothel” is safer and easier for them than selling girls on the street.
It needs to be understood that much of the pornography out there contains unwilling participants subjected to violent and humiliating conditions without the ability to fight back or escape.
“More money’ spent on porn than Pro baseball, basketball, football combined. You’ve got this growing, unhealthy, extreme addictive, Internet environment [and] a limited number of women who are willing to enter into that lifestyle… Its slavery, its abuse, its rape for money. So when guys are telling me, “I watch that and I masturbate, nobody gets hurt,” [they] should talk to the girls on the back end of the story.”
SOURCE: Pastor Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill Church, Seattle (Jacob’s Story)
“If a trafficking victim is forced to engage in a sex act that is filmed or photographed for sale as pornography, then the production of pornography itself becomes a severe form of trafficking in persons that is subject to criminal liability… Participation as a nude model for soft-core pornography that does not involve a proscribed sex act could be a form of labor trafficking… Production of pornography that involves sex trafficking in persons is not purely theoretical. (“Rape Camp,” live interactive bondage sex shows from Cambodia with pay-per-view access in which customers could relay requests for torture that would be fulfilled within seconds.)”
SOURCE: The Protection Project: Journal of Human Rights and Civil Society
