Most pornography involves criminal acts of torture, with women as the victims.
So concluded a study by the French High Council for Equality, which formally presented the findings of the report entitled “Pornocrime,” to France’s Ministry of Equality at the end of September.
The shocking report found that 90% of pornographic content available online contains extreme physical or verbal violence against women. The report called pornography “criminally reprehensible,” classifying the content as an “illegal act of torture” and decrying a “system that massacres women for profit.”
It stated that many of the specific acts in the pornographic videos “fall within the legal definition of acts of torture and barbarism.”
It also pointed out that “these acts are not simulated, the violence is real, it is not cinema.”
Additionally, the victims are almost entirely women being brutalized by men.
It also found that a significant amount of content on the sites included images that sexualized children, even if not constituting acts of pedophilia.
The study analyzed videos on major pornography platforms that are easily accessible to minors and whose videos get downloads counting into the tens of millions.
“Our aim is to shake people’s consciences by crudely describing the torture practices that are commonplace in the porn industry. We call it ‘pornocrime’ because these practices are illegal and fall under the penal code,” Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette, president of the council, told AFP.
Anti-pornography groups have warned for years of the increasing violence in pornography, but the study describes it in a detail that is rarely stated openly.
While the women in the videos have seemingly consented to the violence since they sign contracts with the production companies and platforms, “the contracts that these companies force women to sign are illegal,” the report concludes.
“It is not possible to “consent to an act of violence against yourself,” it adds, and production companies and platforms “have no right to profit from the exploitation of the human body.”
The conclusions coincide with the allegations of the French case going through the courts in which several pornography actresses allege torture and barbarism.
“Sexual acts were performed on them without warning, without them being able to comprehend them, and therefore without [them] being able to give their consent,” the investigation document said.
“We were tortured,” one of the women told AFP. “I need the barbarity and the sexist and racist hatred that I was the victim of to be recognised and punished so I can live again.”
The “Pornocrime” report calls for the authorities to take action by enforcing controls on age-based access to such sites and obligations for platforms to remove content at the request of someone in the video. It also calls for education about pornography to be included in sex education in schools.
Given the scale of criminality described in the report, the measures seem minor.
Indeed, even while authorities in both Paris and Brussels crack down on “misinformation” and political opposition, pornography may once again slip through the net.
The EU’s Digital Services Act is now in force, bringing online platforms under greater scrutiny. This should include pornography sites as well.
A Czech-based pornography site is one of the most visited platforms in the World Wide Web, and according to its own disclosure of visitors—160 million monthly users—should be categorised as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP). This would mean it will have to provide Brussels with an assessment of the risk of gender-based violence and psychological damage to women occurring on its pages.
So far, the commission is still determining which platforms fall into the category of VLOP.
“The Commission is currently at an advanced stage in investigating a number of companies regarding their user numbers, also on the basis of information received through third party sources,” a commission spokesman told The European Conservative in an email.
Hopefully, the next investigation will dig into the content of pornography platforms.
