“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”[1]

Who we become, the character we choose to have, begins with a thought. If that is true and thought fuels action then the road to human sex-trafficking begins with nothing more than a thought. Repetitious thought becomes action, repeated action becomes habit, and habit becomes character: human sex-trafficker. Pornography is a fuel which “creates and drives the demand” for human-sex trafficking.[2]

Pornography & Sex Trafficking

Pornography Creates Thought

When a person sees pornography they are going to have a thought. If the thought is something like, “This is pornography and I don’t want to see it,” the image may burn in the brain for a time, but the thought is unlikely to repeat. On the other hand, if the thought is, “This makes me feel good. I’m going to keep looking,” than the thought is likely to be repeated.

The Role of Dopamine

Based on multiple studies, “When a person is aroused by porn, their brain releases a chemical called dopamine that makes them feel pleasure.”[3] Should the viewing of pornography become repetitive, our brain responds by removing some of its dopamine receptors.[4]  In order for a person to achieve the same pleasurable response they experienced when first beginning porn use, they must view with increasing amount or look at more shocking forms.[5]  

Pornography Addiction

Pornography, unlike drugs, is not a substance that eventually works itself out of the body. It is thoughts, it is images; easily recalled and difficult to forget. In other words, pornography is highly addictive and creates a thought process not easily overcome.

Once thought processes are in place, the thoughts easily express themselves as behavior.  The unrealistic expectations created from regular viewing of pornography may lead to the abuse of faithful spouses.   

The Story of One…Or Many

In an anonymous letter, a woman wrote relating the death-bed confession of her husband. He admitted that he had been addicted to pornography for much of their 35 years of marriage. This devastating news led her to better understanding of the treatment she often received at his hands. “For many years in our marriage… he was most cruel in many of his demands. I was never good enough for him….”[6]

According to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, a man who watches hard porn may ask a spouse or girlfriend to “act out” what he has seen. Women in trusting relationships don’t usually want to participate in violent, painful, and humiliating sex so the addict may choose to seek satisfaction elsewhere.[7] Repeated use of pornography encourages harmful action.

Repeated action becomes human-trafficking.

Should a man desire more aggressive forms of sex, those types of which wives and girlfriends refuse to participate, he may seek out those trained and willing, or not-so-willing, to perform in such a way; he may seek out prostitutes or trafficked women.[8]

Perhaps a man will try this once and decide that the risk of being caught is not worth the stress and expense, or perhaps his conscience will catch up with him and he will recognize the behavior as wrong. If so, perhaps the cycle will end for that man. If, however, the man, already addicted to pornography, decides that viewing is no longer enough, that the temporary pleasures afforded through trafficked individuals are worth the physical, emotional, and legal risks, he will form a habit and continue to seek out prostitution, likely with increasing deviant behavior. If so, he has become a human sex-trafficker.

Pornography: A Tool of Sex Traffickers

Pornography, while creating a demand for prostitution, also fuels human-sex trafficking in other ways. The NCSE affirms that Pornography is used to train and de-sensitize victims/prostitutes, advertise “product”, and increase demand for trafficking. See https://stoptraffickingdemand.com/facts/.

Pornography is used to train and de-sensitize

Sex-trafficking victims are regularly forced to view pornography as a sort of “training video”, educating victims in how to perform for their “Johns”. Pornography is used to “desensitize victims to the violence, degradation and humiliation” they may encounter. Victims may, through viewing, come to believe that such sexual encounters are “normal”, that everyone behaves this way, thus teaching resignation and acceptance of future abuse. Victims may be threatened with violence or deprivation unless they watch and learn the desired behaviors.[9]

Pornography is used to advertize victims

Pimps create pornography using victims as a means of advertising “product”. These images are then uploaded on various internet sites or printed in flyers “as a means to entice buyers” [10] Many innocents, demoralized through regular abuse or life alone on the streets, are forced to create pornographic videos or face additional violence.

Pornography increases demand for sex

As pornography addiction becomes more powerful, users “become more impulsive, making it more likely that they’ll give into their cravings”. [11] On the site stoptraffickingdemand.com, it states “…many victims of sex trafficking explain that Johns will sometimes bring porn with them and demand the victims reenact what they have seen in the film”. [12]   

Pornography and Trafficking: A Vicious Cycle

When pornography is viewed, it increases the demand for sex, the demand for sex, increases the need for “product”. As the need for product increases, so does the need for additional training and advertising of victims. As the number of willing prostitutes fails to meet the increasing demand, the demand for unwilling prostitutes is naturally multiplied. The regular viewing of pornography leads to harmful actions perpetrated by those who view and/or create pornography. And so the cycle of human sex-trafficking grows.          

“. . . pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking are not unrelated phenomena. Women are trafficked into the production of hardcore pornography, and hardcore pornography in particular may trigger and exacerbate sexual desires and pathologies that motivate men to seek out the services of prostituted women. This stimulation, in turn, contributes to the demand for women trafficked into prostitution. As Victor Malarek put it, ‘Pornography fuels prostitution, and prostitution fuels the sex trade.’”

-Peters, R., Lederer, L. & Kelly, S.[13]

Sow A Thought…

As thought leads to action, and action leads to habit and character, so pornography leads to sexual action, and sexual action leads to sex-trafficking.  Martin Luther King once suggested we ought to judge one another by the content of our character.[14] So let us judge.

The viewing of pornography leads to the formation of character. Individuals, each with unique characters, are what form the character of our nation. Does the viewing of pornography lead to a charitable society, or does it lead to a place that so many perpetrators and victims of sex-trafficking find themselves, a place of confusion, misery, and darkness?  

Again, in the words of Martin Luther King, “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children. It would be fatal for this nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”[15]  Let us put a stop to another form of human-enslavement still perpetrated in our nation today, human-trafficking. The solution is simple: If we refuse to linger on a thought, it will not become our destiny.

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[1] Covey, Stephen R. The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.

[2] https://stoptraffickingdemand.com/johns-acting-out/

[3] “Why Watching Porn is an Escalating Behavior”; August 8, 2014; https://fightthenewdrug.org/why-watching-porn-is-an-escalating-behavior/ ; Hedges, V. L., Chakravarty, S., Nestler, E. J., and Meisel, R. L. (2009). DeltaFosB Overexpression in the Nucleus Accumbens Enhances Sexual Reward in Female Syrian Hamsters. Genes Brain and Behavior 8, 4: 442–449; Bostwick, J. M. and Bucci, J. E. (2008). Internet Sex Addiction Treated with Naltrexone. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 83, 2: 226–230; Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. New York: Penguin Books, 108; Mick, T. M. and Hollander, E. (2006). Impulsive-Compulsive Sexual Behavior. CNS Spectrums, 11(12):944-955; Nestler, E. J. (2005). Is There a Common Molecular Pathway for Addiction? Nature Neuroscience 9, 11: 1445–1449; Leshner, A. (1997). Addiction Is a Brain Disease and It Matters. Science 278: 45–7.

[4] ibid

[5] ibid

[6] Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Tragic Evil Among Us”; Ensign; November 2004

[7] “Pornography + Sex Trafficking”; National Center on Sexual Exploitation; https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/Handout_Brochures_StopTraffickingDemand_08-25-2015_NCOSE-1.pdf

[8] ibid

[9] “Pornography is Often Used By Traffickers as a Tool”; https://stoptraffickingdemand.com/training-tool/

[10] “Pornopraphy + Sex Trafficking”‘ National Center on Sexual Exploitation; https://stoptraffickingdemand.com/forced-acts-recorded/

[11] “Why Watching Porn is an Escalating Behavior”; August 8, 2014; https://fightthenewdrug.org/why-watching-porn-is-an-escalating-behavior/ ; Citation 18:  Mick, T. M. and Hollander, E. (2006). Impulsive-Compulsive Sexual Behavior. CNS Spectrums, 11(12):944-955.

[12]  “Pornography Is Often Used By Traffickers As A Tool”; https://stoptraffickingdemand.com/training-tool/

[13] “Pornography + Sex Trafficking”; National Center on Sexual Exploitation; https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/Handout_Brochures_StopTraffickingDemand_08-25-2015_NCOSE-1.pdf; Peters, R., Lederer, L. & Kelly, S. (Fall 2012). The slave and the porn star: Sexual trafficking and pornography. The Protection Project:Journal of Human Rights and Civil Society, 5, 1-21.

[14] “I Have a Dream…”; Martin Luther King; 1963; https://www.archives.gov/files/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf

[15] Ibid

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For more information on the role of pornography in human trafficking, please see the following sites:

https://stoptraffickingdemand.com/

https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/NCOSE_SymposiumBriefingBooklet_9-2_final_web1.pdf

https://endsexualexploitation.org/wp-content/uploads/NCOSE_PornographyPH_RESEARCH-SUMMARY_9-8-16.pdf