Adult World News

Pornography and Sexual Aggression: Can Meta-Analysis Find a Link?

By Christopher J. Ferguson, Richard D. Hartley

First Published July 21, 2020

Abstract

Whether pornography contributes to sexual aggression in real life has been the subject of dozens of studies over multiple decades. Nevertheless, scholars have not come to a consensus about whether effects are real.

The current meta-analysis examined experimental, correlational, and population studies of the pornography/sexual aggression link dating back from the 1970s to the current time. Methodological weaknesses were very common in this field of research. Nonetheless, evidence did not suggest that nonviolent pornography was associated with sexual aggression. Evidence was particularly weak for longitudinal studies, suggesting an absence of long-term effects. Violent pornography was weakly correlated with sexual aggression, although the current evidence was unable to distinguish between a selection effect as compared to a socialization effect. Studies that employed more best practices tended to provide less evidence for relationships whereas studies with citation bias, an indication of researcher expectancy effects, tended to have higher effect sizes.

Population studies suggested that increased availability of pornography is associated with reduced sexual aggression at the population level. More studies with improved practices and preregistration would be welcome.

Pornhub explained in a blog post:

At Pornhub, the safety of our community is our top priority. Last week, we enacted the most comprehensive safeguards in user-generated platform history. We banned unverified uploaders from posting new content, eliminated downloads, and partnered with dozens of non-profit organizations, among other major policy changes (please read here for more details).

As part of our policy to ban unverified uploaders, we have now also suspended all previously uploaded content that was not created by content partners or members of the Model Program. This means every piece of Pornhub content is from verified uploaders, a requirement that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter have yet to institute.

Leading non-profit organizations and advocacy groups acknowledge our efforts to date at combating illegal content have been effective. Over the last three years, Facebook self-reported 84 million instances of child sexual abuse material. During that same period, the independent, third-party Internet Watch Foundation reported 118 incidents on Pornhub. That is still 118 too many, which is why we are committed to taking every necessary action.

It is clear that Pornhub is being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform. The two groups that have spearheaded the campaign against our company are the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly known as Morality in Media) and Exodus Cry/TraffickingHub. These are organizations dedicated to abolishing pornography, banning material they claim is obscene, and shutting down commercial sex work. These are the same forces that have spent 50 years demonizing Playboy, the National Endowment for the Arts, sex education, LGBTQ rights, women's rights, and even the American Library Association. Today, it happens to be Pornhub.

In today's world, all social media platforms share the responsibility to combat illegal material. Solutions must be driven by real facts and real experts. We hope we have demonstrated our dedication to leading by example.

Payments giant Mastercard is considering banning people from spending their money at Pornhub.

Mastercard  is reviewing its business with pornography platform Pornhub, following a campaign against the website being highlighted by the New York Times.

Mastercard responded after reporter Nicholas Kristof said he didn't see why search engines, banks or credit-card companies should bolster Pornhub.

Pornhub is free to use but users can pay £9.99 a month for higher-quality video streams and advert-free and exclusive content.

Update: Visa too

13th December 2020. See article from avn.com

Visa followed Mastercard's lead and said that it too won't allow Pornhub users to use their credit cards to make charges on the adult content site. Visa said in a statement:

We are instructing the financial institutions who serve MindGeek to suspend processing of payments through the Visa network.

And according to Bloomberg.com, Mastercard said it's continuing to investigate potential illegal content on other websites, most likely XVideos.

In response to a new COVID-19 surge in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has now ordered already-struggling sex workers to shut down their businesses for at least the next two weeks.

A spokesperson for the sex worker lobbying group Red Light United told DutchNews:

It is very quiet in the red light district, there are no tourists and hardly anyone on the streetsMany of our workers are in enormous financial difficulty.

The government announced the new lockdown on Tuesday, and Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that the business restrictions would include sex clubs, but not other close-contact businesses, such as hair salons.

Offsite Article: And across the EU too

10th November 2020. See article from politico.eu

It's going to be a bleak winter for Europe. But for sex workers, a group that feels it's been forgotten during the pandemic, the return of lockdowns doesn't just mean being out of work, it could also mean being once again cut off from vital health services. As the first wave of coronavirus hit the Continent, many countries implemented complete bans on sex work.

See full article from politico.eu

Thai media is reporting that many users of the porn video sharing website Pornhub were unable to access the site since Monday.

The Thai authorities have banned 191 URLs of porn websites and have instructed Thai ISPs to block users from accessing the censored websites.  The news service Manager reported that this was the action of the Digital Economy and Society Ministry. Manager said that the DE would soon be banning many gambling websites too.

The censorship seems to be implemented by compromising the negotiation of HTTPS encryption certificates leading to the illustrated error message which will vary from browser to browser.

Thai internet users will will surely now be researching methods to evade the ban, such as by using the TOR browser or installing a VPN. However it must be said that ISPs can still throttle the bandwidth for unrecognised video even when they don't see where the video is coming from. (I spotted this when using VPNs on a 3BB connection).

Update: Give us our Pornhub back

4th November 2020. See article from uk.reuters.com

Thailand's internet users are revolting over their government's recent censorship of major porn tubes websites.

On Twitter, the hastag #SavePornhub trended in Thailand with the majority of post speaking out against the censorship.

An activist group called Anonymous Party said:

We want to reclaim Pornhub. People are entitled to choices.

A few dozen brave activists protested outside Thailand's digital ministry, holding banners saying free Pornhub and reclaim Pornhub.

Internet research firm Top10VPN said it saw a spike in searches from Thailand for Virtual Private Networks (VPN), which help circumvent censorship.

Thailand's government has faced months of youth and student-led protests demanding the removal of military ruler/Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, as well as reforms to reduce King Maha Vajiralongkorn's powers.

A Thailand language hashtag that translates as #HornyPower is trending on Thai Twitter with comments that the censorship will only add to the number of people angry with the current elite. eg tweeting:

If someone doesn't hate the current military government, now they probably do.

Emilie Pradichit, director of the Manushya Foundation, which campaigns for digital rights, said the decision showed Thailand was a land of digital dictatorship, with conservatives in power trying to control what young people can watch, can say and can do online.

Update: VPNs uptick

8th November 2020. See article from techradar.com

 A pornban that has taken effect in Thailand is driving a massive surge in VPN usage as citizens seek out ways to continue to access their favorite services.

According to Atlas VPN data, VPN installs in the country surged by 644% following the confirmation that 191 adult websites - including popular platform Pornhub - will no longer be available to citizens.

Despite the meteoric growth of the VPN industry in recent years, the privacy service was not particularly popular in Thailand prior to the ban, with only 1.17% of the population downloading a VPN in the first half of 2020.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has published a report on decriminalising sex work. The ACLU writes:

The ACLU's Research Brief, Is Sex Work Decriminalization the Answer? What the Research Tells Us, reviews existing empirical research on the impacts of decriminalization -- and conversely criminalization -- of sex work to inform recommendations for policy and practice. The ACLU has a history of supporting the decriminalization of sex work, but as efforts for U.S. legislative reform at the local, state, and federal level grow, examining the potential impacts of proposed policies is critical. Developed in consultation with local affiliates and sex worker organizers, this Brief provides an assessment of the growing evidence base on the potential benefits and harms of the decriminalization of consensual sex work (including buyer-only criminalization and full criminalization) and concludes with specific recommendations for policymakers, law enforcement, advocates, and researchers.

The report concludes with the following recommendations, starting with:

• Decriminalize all consensual sex work, including prostitution, among adults. Fully decriminalize by eliminating all criminal penalties for sellers and buyers. Also remove all criminal penalties for youth who participate in sex work, but not for adults who exploit youth. Decriminalization should include a retroactive component, permitting expungement of criminal records.

• Eliminate unwanted police presence within the sex work community.

• Support sex workers and listen to the recommendations of community organizers who lead sex work decriminalization groups and grassroots organizations.

• Decline to prosecute charges related to consensual sex work.

• Remove barriers to reporting violent crime.

The UK Government has changed the law to dictate that couples in an established relationship are now banned from intimate meetings (unless they live together or are in a support bubble). Previous incarnations of coronavirus restrictions offered exemptions fro people in an established relationship but these have been dropped from rules imposed on areas classed as high or very high risk areas (applying to about half of the people in England).

Downing Street has confirmed that couples living apart in areas under these tougher restrictions can only meet outdoors. And, if the prospect of outdoor-only encounters during the bitter winter months was not grim enough, Boris Johnson's official spokesman clarified that they are not even meant to touch each other under social distancing rules.

Asked if couples living apart in tier 2 areas can see each other indoors, the prime minister's official spokesman said on Friday:

The rules on household mixing in tier 2, I think, set out that you should mix with your own household only unless you've formed a support bubble, and that obviously does apply to some couples.

The prime minister's spokesman clarified that the restrictions were set out in law. Asked why an exemption for established relationships was not written into the law for those in tiers 2 and 3, Johnson's spokesman added:

Because the purpose of the measures we've put in place is to break the chain of transmission between households, and the scientific advice is that there is greatest transmission of the virus indoors.

I don't suppose the Government will be publishing daily statistics about compliance with such miserable and unfeeling rules.

A security flaw in a hi-tech chastity belt for men meant the device could be locked remotely by hackers. The flaw also made it possible for hackers to remotely lock all the global devices simultaneously.

A team of UK security professionals flagged the bug to Qiui, the Chinese developers of the app that controls the internet-linked sheath called the Cellmate Chastity Cage.

The developers have now fixed the bug in the sex toy's app and have also published a manual workaround, which will be useful for anyone with the old version of the app still at risk of getting stuck.

The Cellmate Chastity Cage is sold online for about $190. Tech-researchers Pen Test Partners believe about 40,000 of the devices have been sold.

A Japanese porn producer is opening a sexxx-rated adult theme park staffed with starlets.

SOD Land (Soft on Demand) is slated to open Oct. 10 in five floors of a complex of bars and entertainment venues in the Kabukicho red-light district of Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward next month.

In the basement, newly minted porn starlets will staff the space, while industry vets will serve drinks on the third floor, Syain Bar Kabukicho, described as a space of dreams.

On the second floor, women from the commercial sex industry are featured. The fourth floor is the Silent Bar where porn stars clad in bikinis can be gawked at by customers through a one-way mirror.

On the first floor is a souvenir shop loaded with porn DVDs, sex toy machines and a photo booth.

Soft on Demand boss Yoshiaki Nomoto said the establishment had been on the drawing board for some time.