LOS ANGELES — America’s legal adult entertainment industry has long faced ideologically driven zealots bent on its destruction, but as their censorship efforts have largely failed in the face of consumer choice and First Amendment protections, anti-porn activists continue to broaden the range of companies and other entities whose behavior they find unacceptable; embracing “trafficking” and other nebulous terms as their new call to arms.
While no responsible entity will defend the forced trafficking of labor — especially not the legitimate adult industry, which is so inwardly focused on the concept of consent these days — it is a real problem that is being highlighted in news headlines about the debate over the U.S.’ southern border and elsewhere.
What is also a real problem is when folks cry “wolf,” and in doing so, take away from the seriousness of the issues of trafficking and sexual exploitation and the very real harm faced by those who are affected.
Thus, it is always surprising to see the list of entities that the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) puts out every year as the “12 Leading Facilitators of Sexual Exploitation,” in hopes that these entities will be named and shamed as part of an organized effort to bully them into compliance with the beliefs of the foes of freedom.
For example, NCOSE’s 2019 “Dirty Dozen” includes:
- Amazon
- EBSCO Information Services
- HBO
- Massage Envy
- Netflix
- The State of Nevada
- Roku
- Sports Illustrated
- Steam
- United Airlines
All of these entities were labeled by NCOSE as “major contributor[s] to sexual exploitation,” while an additional “watch list” puts Snapchat, Verizon and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on notice that they are also running afoul of NCOSE’s vision of virtue.
It’s important that the adult industry is aware of the overreaching efforts being made by anti-porn activists and the distorted messages they present to lawmakers while influencing consumers to engage in holier-than-thou hate campaigns to bully private companies and even government entities into succumbing to their scarlet-letter will.
Knowledge is power, so how can you and your company help to counter-message these backward assaults? One way is to take to Twitter, Reddit and other major forums for public debate and to let the facts be known.