Ending Sexploitation

In this episode, we get to hear from Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls for the United Nations. We were honored to have her join us to speak at the 2024 CESE Global Summit, and this session is titled "Beyond Consent: Prostitution, Pornography, and Human Rights" in which she looks at prostitution as sexual exploitation and a violation of the human right to dignity....

Haley McNamara and Dani Pinter discuss the groundbreaking lawsuits against multiple pornography websites that were recently filed in Kansas. These cases are the first of their kind as the new Age Verification Law was allegedly violated when a minor was able to access sexually explicit content without any age verification efforts from multiple websites. Haley and Dani talk about the real people aff...

Lisa Thompson joins Haley McNamara to discuss the recent launch of a groundbreaking new report, Not a Fantasy: How the Pornography Industry Exploits Image-based Sexual Abuse in Real Life , which exposes how the pornography industry facilitates , normalizes, and profits from image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Lisa shares her journey into this work to end sexual exploitation and how she was able to br...

The Take It Down Act has passed congress! As it heads to the president's desk for signing, Haley McNamara sits down with  Eleanor Gaetan (VP and Director of Public Policy at NCOSE) to discuss what this law does, why it's needed, and what's next on the horizon for protecting kids online. They also discuss the momentum we are seeing at the state level for the Safer Devices for Kids Act, which requir...

Tim Estes joins Haley for this week's episode to discuss the launch of an incredible new platform: AngelQ . Among his many other accomplishments, Tim is the CEO and Founder of Angel AI. He chats with Haley about how AngelQ got started and what parents can do with this tool. They also discuss the recent report of a disturbing conversation that journalists from the Wall Street Journal were able to g...

Haley McNamara and Dani Pinter sit down with Melinda Tankard Reist, Co-Founder and Movement Director of Collective Shout, for a discussion around the recent successful campaign to remove a sexually violent game called "No Mercy" from Steam. Melinda describes how the game allows players to sexually assault your family members and rewards you for doing so. In less than a week, this campaign garnered...

"Children being the targets of this deepfake technology is our worst nightmare" Haley and Dani discuss the current state of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology in the realm of sexual exploitation. Overwhelmingly, these tools are used for pornographic material, and 10% of teenagers have reported being aware of deepfake pornography depicting someone they know. They also dig into how this...

Haley McNamara and Dani Pinter discuss The Guardian article: "'I didn't start out wanting to see kids': are porn algorithms feeding a generation of paedophiles – or creating one?" They talk about the chilling reality of how pornography platforms algorithms cause escalation for so many of their visitors. Read the full article on The Guardian here: https://tinyurl.com/yc48mczp Learn more about the h...

Haley McNamara (NCOSE Senior VP of Programs and Initiatives) and Dani Pinter (Senior VP and Director at the NCOSE Law Center) talk about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and why it's essential for it to end. They also discuss the history of the Dirty Dozen List and what led to this unique version of the list in 2025. Since its inception in 1996, Section 230 has effectively provi...

In this special episode of the Ending Sexploitation Podcast, Lisa Thompson (Vice President of Research at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation) chats with Kristen Jenson. Kristen is the founder of Defend Young Minds and #1 best-selling author of  Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today's Young Kids and Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr.: A Simple Plan to Protect Young Minds . She is the...

In this special episode of the Ending Sexploitation Podcast, Teresa J. Helm (Survivor Services Coordinator at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation) chats with Cristian Eduardo. Cristian champions anti-trafficking initiatives, particularly the Equality Model, and fervently advocates for immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights. He serves as a Survivor Leader in this movement engaged with various Survivor...

In this special episode of the Ending Sexploitation Podcast, Dani Pinter (Senior Vice President and Director of the NCOSE Law Center) chats with Joshua Broome about this important topic. Joshua is an author, speaker, and advocate for shining a light on the harms of pornography. Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/8bB4B-xebnM

Dr. Stephany Powell, Director of Law Enforcement Training and Survivor Services at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, joins the Ending Sexploitation podcast to discuss the concept of Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) through the lens of implicit bias.    Dr. Powell explains that Trauma-Informed Care entails a paradigm shift from wondering, "What's wrong with you?" to "What happened to you?". She...

Why focus on combatting the demand for prostitution (ie. Sex buying)? Is combatting demand an effective way to reduce sex trafficking? Is it affordable and accessible for law enforcement? What kind of tactics and strategies can be used to deter sex buyers? How does full decriminalization of prostitution affect demand reduction efforts? These are some of the questions explored by the experts on Dem...

Peter Gentala, Senior Legal Counsel at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, joins the Ending Sexploitation podcast to discuss the issue of holding social media platforms legally accountable for facilitating sexual exploitation. Gentala addresses both the particular challenges in this space as well as the unprecedented progress that has occurred over the past year.   Gentala explains how Ame...

Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Chair and Founder of Hunt Alternatives and Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government joins the Ending Sexploitation podcast to discuss the importance of combating demand for commercial sexual exploitation.   During the discussion, Ambassador Hunt shared the story of speaking to survivors of commercial sexual exploitation interna...

Kindsey Pentecost, Chief Marketing Officer of ItWorks, an industry leading beauty and nutrition company), and Founder of Turn Your Life Around (TYLA), a Prostitution Diversion Court joins the podcast to share about her experiences collaborating with and training law enforcement and court systems on sex trafficking.   "Especially in the United States, we really treat victims [of sex trafficking] as...

In the face of an explosion of child sexual abuse material (CSAM, aka child pornography) being distributed and consumed online, the EARN IT Act holds technology companies accountable if they aid and abet the distribution and/or consumption of child sexual abuse material. This episode is a chance to listen in to the February 8th, 2022, EARN IT Act virtual congressional briefing. The EARN IT Act is...

Kristen Jenson, founder of Defend Young Minds, shares about the necessity of teaching children "Digital Defense Skills" for online safety and preventing/defending against exposure to online pornography. Kristen speaks to the necessity of talking to kids about the harms of viewing pornography early, and educates on strategies to do so in a comfortable and age appropriate way. Kristen has developed...

Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, joins the Ending Sexploitation podcast to discuss the history of the organization and its vision for the future. The discussion includes the need for a bipartisan and diverse movement that addresses the full spectrum of sexual abuse and exploitation issues. Dawn Hawkins emphasizes the need to address not only sex trafficking and chil...

In this interview, Haley McNamara (VP at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation) speaks with Julie Inman Grant who shares about the genesis of the Australian eSafety Commission, and the importance of corporate and technological accountability for safety online.   She also discusses Safety By Design principles, and the importance of pursuing age verification for consumers of pornography. She al...

Alvin W. Amadu has over 18 years of working on anti-exploitation in Africa. He's currently the Program Manager at the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) Liberia. He is a 2019/2020 Humphrey Fullbright Fellow sponsored by the United States Department of State – and he also worked as a Fellow with us in Washington DC at the National Center on S...

Dr. Stephany Powell joins the podcast to share about her unique insight into the world of sexual exploitation and trafficking gained through her thirty years with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), coupled with her time serving survivors and advocating for vital policy reforms. She addresses law enforcement perspectives on identifying and investigating sex trafficking cases, and misundersta...

Child sexual abuse materials (or CSAM, aka child pornography) has surged over 106%  during COVID according to the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children. And tragically, CSAM isn't only happening on the Dark Web - it's also flourishing on mainstream social media platforms like Twitter. Survivor John Doe was only 16 when he discovered exploitative child sexual abuse materials of himself...

Since the 2007 movie Lars and the Real Girl, sex dolls have become increasingly popular and normalized. In fact, mainstream companies like Amazon, Etsy, and the Wish shopping app have sold sex dolls, including ones that looked child-like. During this episode of the Ending Sexploitation podcast, Haley McNamara interviews Caitlin Roper, PhD candidate, and Campaigns Manager at Collective Shout. They...