Does Fight the New Drug Fight to Ban Porn?

You won’t find Fight the New Drug protesting porn on the steps of state capitol buildings. We don’t take petitions around trying to get signatures for a porn ban. We certainly don’t have the power or authority to ban porn, even if that was our goal. 

What you will see us doing is championing healthy relationships and real love by raising awareness when it comes to the facts about porn’s harmful effects and its link to sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, educating high school and college students in live assemblies, and wearing our gear (which is great for starting conversations). We’ve even made a documentary about how porn can negatively impact consumers, relationships, and our larger society.

Why do we spend so much time and attention on these efforts? Because we think consumers should have access to the research and science surrounding the harm that can be caused by porn. That way, consumers can make an informed, intentional decision regarding the choice to click. 

Fight the New Drug’s Mission

Fight the New Drug’s mission as a non-religious and non-legislative organization is to provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts, and personal accounts.

Our mission statement was created in 2009 along with our organization to guide our efforts in decreasing the demand for porn—not by restricting it—by teaching about its potential harms and by fighting for real love instead.

Fight the New Drug believes that every person has the right to their own opinion about porn, whether it’s in line with our mission or not. That’s why we are not actively fighting against already legal types of porn. We believe that both knowledge and love can have a more effective influence than legislation.

Education and Awareness

In a letter to our Fighters, Clay Olsen (Co-founder and President of Fight the New Drug) states the ultimate goal of Fight the New Drug is to use education to decrease the demand for porn by making people aware of its proven negative effects. 

If porn is banned, the industry would not be likely to decrease in either size or impact, but will just move underground to appease consumers who demand or are addicted to the content. However, making consumers aware of all the personal and societal damage porn causes can diminish demand at the source. Consider that both child sexual abuse material—commonly known as “child porn”—and sex trafficking are already illegal, yet still happen all over the U.S.

We’re convinced that once people understand the science that connects porn to sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, they’ll make their own decision to lead a healthier lifestyle for themselves, for the people they love, and for society as a whole.

The Bottom Line

Fight the New Drug doesn’t exist to outlaw legal forms of porn or to bully or shame its consumers. We’re simply here to talk about the actual harms of porn so that people can make their own educated choice. We provide the information, you make the decision.

While we do support non-restrictive resolutions that many states have implemented to declare porn a public health concern, we believe bans are neither very effective nor required for decreasing demand for sexual exploitation.

Fight the New Drug does not exist to take away the right for adults to view legal forms of porn. However, we are confident that once consumers understand the research, they’ll choose for themselves that porn is not for them.

Private Browsing Is a Myth: Research Shows 93% of Porn Sites Leak User Data

Many consumers of porn use “private” or “incognito” modes when searching for and viewing content. What users don’t know is that porn sites collect and sell their data, regardless of browsing mode.

In 2019, Microsoft conducted a significant study in which researchers analyzed the top-visited porn sites (over 22,000). What did it find? An astounding 93% of those porn sites were leaking user data to third parties. Who are the third parties tracking porn sites? Google tracks 74% of porn sites, Oracle tracks 24%, and Facebook tracks 10%. Additionally, porn-specific advertisers also do tracking, including companies from Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia. 

The study also found that only 17% of the porn sites are encrypted, meaning hackers can steal login and password details, giving them access to user profiles and all the information stored in them. 

How, What, and Why User Data Is Tracked on Porn Websites

Cookies (bits of text downloaded by the browser) are used to track user data on porn websites. Another way to track is through embedded pixels on a screen. These two methods of collecting, using, and sharing user data are fairly standard. 

Before clicking on a porn site, consumers should be made aware that their data is being tracked. Being aware allows consumers to make a more informed and intentional decision about their privacy. Sadly, this is rarely the case with porn sites. 

Privacy policies generally listed on websites are for educating users on how their data will be used and/or protected. The problem with porn’s privacy policies is that only 17% of porn websites even have one. And websites that have privacy policies only disclose 11% of third-party data collectors to the user. 

Types of User Data Tracked on Porn Websites

Users need to know that some of the data analytics platforms and advertisers track on porn sites include:

• The device used for browsing

• A phone’s advertising identification number

• I.P. addresses

• URLs visited

3 Reasons Why User Data Is Tracked on Porn Websites

There are three main reasons porn websites collect and sell their users’ data:

1. Identifying and classifying repeat visitors.

2. Keeping a user logged into a site without having to sign in for every visit.

3. Recording user preferences with the intent of building a marketing profile for targeted advertising. 

Why Tracking Data Can Be Damaging

In the study mentioned above, researchers found that 44.97% of the websites in the sample had URLs that likely reveal personal information, including “specific gender/sexual preference, identity or interest related to the sites’ content.” 

Having such personal information fall into the wrong hands can be damaging, especially for individuals who have sexual interests labeled non-normative, since the information can be used to discriminate against or exploit them.

There is another reason why tracking a porn consumer’s data can be damaging. Circling back to the fact that only 17% of porn sites are encrypted, these unprotected sites open their visitors to the risks of experiencing internet hacks and phishing scams. 

The Porn Industry Doesn’t Care About Privacy

Whether you want to believe it or not, your digital fingerprints are everywhere, and porn sites have no interest in protecting them from being seen. The porn industry seems to have little regard for obtaining consent from their users before gathering and selling personal data.

Just one more reason to consider before consuming.

Expert Opinion: How to End Sex Trafficking

There is a pervasive misconception about sex trafficking and what it looks like in real life. The misconception is that “sex trafficking” predominantly describes a scenario where a woman is kidnapped and sold across the border into forced sex slavery. There are also misconceptions that every person who sells commercial sex has been sex trafficked. We’re here to set the record straight about what trafficking truly is, and what factors fuel it.

The truth is that sex trafficking has many more, and more common, scenarios that play out every day, everywhere, and it doesn’t only happen to young women. It can happen to anyone of any gender or age. 

The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) states that sex trafficking occurs any time sex is sold or bought and is done so by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which a commercial sex act involves someone who is under 18 years old. Under this definition, there are different kinds of situations that are considered to be sex trafficking. Just a few examples are:

• Luring individuals under the pretense of offering a model job, but then forcing or coercing them into acting in porn.

• Coercing a porn performer to do on-camera sex acts without their expressed consent.

• Bribing, blackmailing, or selling a person to perform a sex act live or online.

Consider that we are not here to police anyone’s sexual choices, while we do exist to shine a light on the realities of sexual exploitation and how the porn industry both normalizes and fuels it.

Buyers Equal Business

Another misconception about sex trafficking is that there isn’t anything the average person can do to help solve the problem. However, Dr. Michael Shively of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation knows this isn’t true. Dr. Shively, an expert in preventing and addressing trafficking issues, spoke with Fight the New Drug to help us understand how everyone can help reduce the demand for sex trafficking. 

He says we need to understand that traffickers prey on the basic economic principle of supply and demand with commercial sex. So, when people want to buy sex, traffickers often take the opportunity to sell victims for that purpose. The motivation for sex traffickers is simple—money. 

Education Reduces the Demand for Exploitation

There are plenty of reasons why buyers are interested in paying for sex. Some of those reasons are to soothe loneliness, fulfill a strong sex drive, get a thrill, or try something sexually new. A lot of buyers aren’t even aware of all the impacts of buying sex, and they often don’t know that there are trafficked individuals within the commercial sex industry. Oftentimes, they believe all people who are in the business choose to be. Unfortunately, this frequently is not the case. Not every person who sells sex is a trafficking victim. But there are many people who do sell sex due to force, fraud, or coercion.

Dr. Shively analyzed a one-day education class that individuals attended after getting arrested for buying sex. The results showed that the program is “effective in producing positive shifts in attitudes and gains in knowledge. More importantly, the program was found to have reduced [the tendency to reoffend].”  

The Link Between Sex Trafficking and Porn

Porn sells the idea that people are always available for and eager to have sex. Not every porn consumer believes that buying sex is okay, but porn gives a deeply flawed education on sex, including the legitimacy of paying for it—even from exploited individuals.

Together, let’s decrease the demand for sex trafficking by increasing education on the harmful effects of porn and its connections to sexual exploitation.