An interesting turn in the world of porn jobs: we are watching more porn and, oh, more and more ethically

Good news from the point of view of porn jobs too: we watch more and more porn, more and more ethically

The big Pornhub scandal showed even more clearly that it is essential to make fundamental changes in the porn industry and in the field of adultworks.

For decades, the industry has been trying to make porn jobs and viewing more ethical for creators, performers, and consumers.

As time goes on, almost everyone is moving in a new direction, and as a result, people are watching more porn than ever before.



Three years ago, there was a global outcry when it was revealed that among the content on PornHub's site were many videos that contained rape or child pornography.

The scandal of the largest porn site has once again shown that the porn industry does not always operate ethically, even if such extreme content was relatively rare.

Erotic jobs can also be ethical: ethical porn sites have existed for a long time

Despite the fact that more than twenty years before the scandal, there was already a website that aimed to promote ethical porn and was successful on this path, and more and more people joined this initiative over the years.

This was Sssh.com, which started in 1999 and was created primarily for women and couples.

The founder, Angie Rowntree, described the website as an ethical porn site, which

focuses on positive and inspiring portrayals of sexuality, highlighting the importance of genuine pleasure and intimacy.

In addition to creating a favorable environment for creators, the purpose of the site is to provide consumers with a comfortable and confident feeling when learning about their own sexual desires.

Rowntree's husband entered the adult industry as early as 1994 when he founded the website Wasteland.com.

Thanks to this platform, Rowntree realized what her problem with porn was.

From the beginning, she found the lack of erotic films and content for women confusing and frustrating.

All the sex work and attention was focused on the male fantasy and solely reflected the pleasure of the man, leaving little or no content for the women.

When she spoke to people in the industry about this, they responded that there was no market for women and that "women just don't watch porn" or "women are not visual."

All this happened back in 1998.

I wanted to change that, but at the time I wasn't sure what it would look like in practice

- Rowntree said.

That's why she started asking women through surveys what they would like to see or experience.



The original version of Sssh.com was launched in 1999, and although there were initial skeptics, it quickly found a lot of supporters and more and more people in the erotic industry and adult work were interested in the new initiative.

Of the many innovations available, the creation of ethical porn was of outstanding importance.

But what exactly does the concept of ethical porn mean?

The answer is not simple, as it is partly complex and defines different tasks for different roles and actors.

According to Rowntree, all interactions are based on mutual agreement, and in fact, they jointly determine where and under what circumstances the act takes place,

how they feel comfortable and what activities they actually engage in.

The crew and cast work together, and it's not unusual for them to work on character development, which is extremely rare for a porn film.

They have begun to put more emphasis on the story and at the porn job casting they choose couples who already know each other, thereby giving additional naturalness to the encounters, while at the same time minimizing non-consensual acts for this sexy job.

When a solo actor is asked, they have the option to choose who they want to partner with during the scene.

A porn job is ethical only if the viewer is too

In addition to the creators and actors, the third party, i.e. the recipient, must also be able to or at least adapt to ethical porn, i.e. develop an ethical consumer attitude.

According to Rowntree, this means that porn consumers should pay for porn, as this is part of ethical consumer behavior.

Rowntree and her team create films that aim to provide a positive and empowering experience in an environment where people are free to indulge their fantasies and desires without being burdened by shame or judgement.

According to Rowntree, watching ethical adult films is not only satisfying but also liberating, which she claims is not always the case with "unethical porn".

The criteria of ethical porn haven't changed much in recent decades, in fact, the criteria have become stronger, so the genre is not something that can be defined in many ways and varies from actor to actor, but has become a precise definition of the new era of online gratification.

Although there are countless definitions, ethical porn is essentially a product that focuses on the proper treatment of sexworkers.

Simply put: she insists on workers' rights.

Performers' pay, safety and treatment come first - consent, sexual health and credit are paramount.

We've written about PornHub's scandals before, so maybe it's easier for anyone to understand why they put so much emphasis on ethical porn:

According to Vice's overview, ethical porn can roughly be divided into three main areas

One is that the erotic content was made in a safe environment.

In today's porn, regular screening, breaks during filming at certain intervals, and constant refreshments on site are already a basic requirement. How this can be checked is another matter, but it is possible.

This also means that the performers are over 18 years old.

There are signs on the basis of which we can find out whether the porn we are watching is ethical: for example, it is indicated on the site that the videos feature people over the age of 18, or that the videos were made by adults (those who have not reached this age limit cannot enter, in principle.)

Another important factor is the content itself.

This is difficult to regulate if a given site does not produce its own content, but instead collects it.

If someone's picture or video is uploaded without their permission, and this has adverse consequences for that person, it can be remedied with a so-called takedown request (DMCA).

Of course, some actors cannot monitor all pirate sites, but there is for example Cam Model Protection which monitors this and reports all taken/stolen content.

On OnlyFans, a blue tick indicates whether we are consuming legal content, and this sign can be used by actors if they send a picture of their ID card and the editors of the site make sure that the user is indeed over 18 years old.

The third condition of ethical porn is that we pay for the content.

With all the information, you one can decide for themselves whether they consume porn ethically or unethically. According to the experts interviewed by Vice, it is not only a question of someone acting ethically by paying for a product, but by paying they also meet all the previous criteria at the same time: i.e.

they are certainly looking at adults who voluntarily stood in front of the camera and who were properly paid.

Minority rights with jobs in porn

Ethical porn also has a stated/unstated intention to speak up for social equality, to assert the rights of minorities by not insisting on the white straight man/white straight woman line-up.

According to experts interviewed by Vice

ethical porn can diminish or eliminate stereotypes against people of color, people with disabilities, or members of the LGBTQ community.

Because even though lesbian porn slipped under the radar of even the most conservative consumers, a big gap was created afterwards, which ethical porn is trying to fill.

Jet Setting Jasmine, performer and psychotherapist, founder of Royal Fetish Films, also spoke to Vice.

According to her, when we consume porn that lacks context and doesn't humanize the people in it, we risk normalizing it and seeing these behaviors play out in real-life situations where people can be hurt.

Unfortunately, many people learn about sex and sexual relationships through adult content.

Therefore, she sees it as their responsibility to increase people's porn literacy and increase access to content that can be learned from safely.

One should not feel bad about having to watch porn

The conditions can therefore be created, but the normalization of porn films and porn consumption seems to be a more difficult task, and according to industry performers interviewed by Vice, this is one of the main bastions of ethical porn.

Starting from the fact that the performer in an erotic film is not treated as someone doing some lowly erotic job, until someone can say without any sense of shame or embarrassment what a juicy movie she started the night before.

According to those interviewed, if this were to prevail, it would attract the fulfillment of the other conditions, and even increase them.

In this regard, it was a big step forward that fewer and fewer people are downloading porn illegally today, the goal is to make people want to watch ethical porn.

If we accept the criteria, the ultimate example of ethical porn is an OnlyFans job.

In 2021, the site had a faint attempt to break out of the adult film world, and eventually surrendered to the will of consumers.

Here, most people produce their own content or what appears to be their own content, you can't even register under 18 and everyone pays.

The number of Only Fans subscribers is constantly increasing, at a higher rate than other similar sites, which can also be attributed to the fact that it does not live in the public mind as a classic porn site, or that people can actually get hooked on ethical porn.

The popularity of porn sites has not only fallen, but is steadily increasing year by year, OnlyFans is advancing and PornHub is also soaring, and last time only the Champions League final could beat it.

Due to the transformation wave, the number of porn sites is also increasing, and in parallel, the total number of visitors:

every single minute, roughly 2.5 million people are on porn sites around the world.

Source: Daily Star.