OPINION: Reducing the demand for pornography could help
University officials have the ability to significantly reduce sex trafficking in a variety of ways, including combatting porn usage and educating female students on the dangers of the misleadingly-titled “sex work.”
Female students have turned to platforms like OnlyFans, where many users post pornographic images in exchange for money. (The College Fix is not linking to articles about this because the content contains pornographic material).
Government-imposed lockdowns shut off many jobs college students would typically take, and school imposed lockdowns sent them home or kept them trapped in their dorms.
OnlyFans has been linked to sexual exploitation and there is a clear connection between porn and sex trafficking.
One step colleges can take is to educate students, especially males, on how they could be incentivizing sex trafficking by using platforms such as OnlyFans or other pornographic websites.
Documentaries and courses should be required by incoming freshman to be educated on the truth of pornography and sex trafficking. Benedictine College in Kansas has a successful anti-porn program. While it’s a Catholic university, there’s no reason most of the materials could not be adapted for a secular setting.
MORE: Pornography and the war on human dignity
If people understand they are complicit in human trafficking by buying sex or watching porn, we can bring an end to sex trafficking.
Mental health experts canalso be put in place to be a guide for confused, anxious or stressed students who watch porn. Colleges can provide counselors for male and female students struggling with porn addiction. Since men are the primary consumers of pornography, there can be specific counseling initiatives to help them.
Universities can also provide education for what sex trafficking is. Many have a view that human trafficking is like what happens in movies like Taken. Although the movie can describe some cases of sex trafficking, it isn’t perfectly representative of what most victims endure.
There are already courses and videos available that colleges can incorporate into freshmen orientation and student organization training. Professors could also use the content in their classes.
Organizations have courses or documentaries that can be shown to incoming freshmen at a university. OnWatch Training has a free program consisting of short videos about sex trafficking.
Polaris Project, an anti-human trafficking organization, has a free training to become certified in knowledge about human trafficking.
One organization that brings awareness to sex trafficking in pornography, Fight The New Drug, has a documentary titled Brain, Heart, World which explains the effects pornography has on an individual. They also provide articles to educate on the horrors of pornography.
A similar organization called Exodus Cry recently came out with a documentary titled Raised on Porn teaches the audience how pornography usage from childhood can impact a person.
Punishment for buying sex should be considered
There must be accountability for students to understand that if you buy sex or participate in industries like porn, you are potentially participating in human trafficking, and that has consequences.
Colleges must take action against students who buy sex.
It is reasonable to punish students who are caught buying sex from a prostitute — students can be punished for underage drinking, cheating on tests, and lately, not wearing a mask. The physical and societal damage is higher from prostitution than an improperly worn mask.
Paying a fine or suspension could be adequate.
Students, just like any other person, should take the responsibility that if they bought sex, they are potentially guilty of human trafficking.
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