Ending Sexploitation

A surprising number of public libraries do not have pornography filtering software and a much larger number employ  ineffective  filtering software that children and adults are bypassing to gain access to all kinds of pornography while at the local library.  This leads to problems not only for the health of individuals using pornography, but also to problems of child pornography use and unintentio...

Amnesty International has developed a policy document supporting full decriminalization of prostitution.   Full decriminalization of prostitution is one of the world's most disastrous approaches to the sex trade. Decriminalized prostitution refers to the removal of laws criminalizing the sex trade. One form of decriminalization—commonly referred to as the Nordic model—targets only individuals invo...

The research shows that the sexting phenomenon is not something we can just ignore. Some estimates of teen and young adult sexting rates run from as low as 4% to as high as 20%. Comparing the studies, it is safe to say 7-9% of older teens (14-17 years old) send sexts, while older age groups tend to be involved in sexting at higher percentages, perhaps 20% or even more.  One survey released in 2016...

The National White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week brings together hundreds of national, state and local groups, along with driven concerned citizens in a massive effort to educate the public on the harms from pornography and the many resources available to aid those affected. National WRAP Week always starts the last Sunday of October. WRAP Week began with one woman in Butler, PA in 1987....

Ep. 6 What the hype and the research have to say about trafficking at the Super Bowl.   Claim # 1: "The Super Bowl is the largest sex trafficking event in the world."   Claim # 2: "Sex trafficking at the Super Bowl is way overdramatized; it's not a big problem."   Over the last few years, both of these claims have been perpetuated by different media sources. But what's the truth?   To begin it's i...

  Popular media portrays those involved in prostitution as typically glamorized or empowered individuals. However, the research reveals that this is not the experience of the vast majority of those involved in the sex trade. Typically, positive portrayals of prostitution as voluntary work are coming from a place of privilege. The vast majority of prostituted people are not engaging in paid sex bec...

Episode #4. Research is showing that pornography is linked to increases in sexual violence. Pornography shapes the user's sexual template around themes of degradation, ambiguous consent, and violence. Cognitive Script Theory reveals that media provide a heuristic learning model outlining: 1) what should or should not be happening; 2) how people should or should not behave in response to what is or...

This is episode #3 of the Sexploitation podcast, I'm here today with Dawn Hawkins from NCOSE, and today we're talking about the question "Does Facebook Facilitate Sex Trafficking?" We think of sex trafficking as only occurring in dingy dungeons, but really so much of it has moved online – it's a digital age – you no longer need to "know a guy" or go to the seedy side of town to have access to info...

This is episode #2 of the Sexploitation podcast, I'm here today with Dawn Hawkins from NCOSE, and today we're talking about the question "Is Porn Really a Public Health Crisis?" This question has been everywhere lately. Utah passed a formal state resolution declaring pornography a public health crisis in the summer of 2016, then that fall the RNC added the same language to its official republican...

This is podcast episode #1, thank you so much for tuning in! Maybe you're listening because you're familiar with our organization, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, or maybe you just clicked on it because of the catchy name. Either way, I'm glad you're here! Today I'm going to give you a quick tour of what we're about and what you can expect to gain from this podcast. We're gonna get you...