Pornography is often used by traffickers as a tool

Pornography is frequently shown to sex trafficking victims to train them in what they will have to perform/endure. Studies and surveys show that nearly all men who buy sex from prostituted or trafficked women are also pornography users. Their tastes are greatly affected by what they have seen in porn and they often demand that victims perform similarly. When asked about this subject, many victims of sex trafficking explain that “Johns” will sometimes bring porn with them and demand the victims reenact what they have seen in the film.

Pornography is also used as a training tool to desensitize the victim to the violence, degradation and humiliation. This is especially true if the victim is a child or a young woman. The victims soon believe that porn sex is real sex and that everyone is expected to perform this way.

Repeated and sustained viewing of pornography alters the way viewers think about sex and the presence of violence, even if the viewer will be on the receiving end. Dr. Mary Anne Layden of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania explains pornography is “a permission-giver for, and a trigger of, many negative behaviors and attitudes that can severely damage not only the users but many others.” Sex traffickers understand the cognitive power of pornography to change the brain to accept porn life as real life. They use this reality against their trafficked victims. By forcing them to watch porn, traffickers force victims to normalize the abuse perpetrated against them.

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