Pornography is a business globally worth $57 billion, with the United States accounting for over $11 billion. Pornography was first developed as a means to help individuals fulfill their sexual fantasies and serve as a criminal deterrent against violent crimes, but pornography has just made sex more violent. Just as the pornography industry began to flourish, a survey of U.S. college girls showed that 69.8 percent of them had been “verbally coerced” into having “unwanted sex.” And in the United Kingdom in 2006, 33 percent of all women say that they have been forced into sex. Pornography has been further exacerbated through the Internet and the emerging trend to use child victims. Statistics indicate​ that upon the legalization of pornography, emerging growth rates of failed marriages have occurred, as well as an increase in sex-related crimes.

In 2013, child pornography arrests grew by 2,500 percent. It is attributed to the demand and an impoverished supply. Families under economically desperate conditions utilize their children as vessels of income. Pornography pretends to offer economic gain to the vulnerable, many of whom are led by coercion, force or kidnapping. In general there is an issue with the way in which the poor are represented in media. The media’s use of impoverished people objectifies them, as does pornography.

Sex industry recruiters and sexual deviants alike choose from a pool of candidates who have experienced various levels of previous exploitation and remain economically desperate. In countries such as Kenya, children as young as the age of six are sold and used in child pornography. The documentary “ Working Lives” is about child sex tourism and pornography in Kenya’s coastal towns. It discusses how in Kenya, some parents send their children to have sex for foreigners for as little as one dollar.

Due to limited options, some parents choose to knowingly rent their children for pornographic or sex slave purposes. In “The Secret Child Sex Trade Hiding in Kenya’s Tropical Paradise,” viewers are introduced to a six-year-old girl suffering from signs of rape, sodomy and beatings, that occurred on film for pornographic purposes.

In the Philippines, there was a major case involving a made-to-order porn operation, with charges that include murder and torture. An Australian made a global business of using impoverished victims for sexual and violent performances based upon customer request. Here he monopolized on the poverty and was strategic when choosing the cities, local child recruiters and victims. Often, he would utilize the other poor local children to establish connections and lure in street children. The documentary “ Catching a Monster” covers methods of grooming and deviant practices to recruit the needy for pornographic use.

His youngest performer was an 18-month-old girl name Daisi, of whom he created a series of pornographic videos of her sexual abuse. All of the children used in these videos had parents that had been coerced by false promises and the opportunity to provide a better life for their children.

Many people are victims to poverty and more so generational poverty, that has passed down impoverishment from the previous generations. Many of those in vulnerable populations experience exploitation and are forced to become workers in the sex industry. For the extreme poor, many questionable work opportunities arise; pornography is one of them. Ending poverty can help to decrease victimized children in pornography.

– Erika Wright

Sources: Oh My News, Feed the Right Wolf, Huffington Post, The Crime Report,