In an alarming revelation, the French High Council for Equality between Women and Men, a government body responsible for promoting gender equality, has found that the vast majority of online pornography contains violence against women. This announcement is part of a comprehensive report aptly titled “Pornocriminality: Let’s put an end to the impunity of the pornography industry” released on Wednesday.
This extensive study, spanning over a year, was conducted by the High Council’s Violence Against Women Commission. The commission scrutinized pornographic videos available online, conducted hearings, and studied existing literature. In March, they meticulously reviewed the content of the four most highly trafficked pornographic platforms. The staggering finding: approximately “90% of pornographic content presents unsimulated acts of physical, sexual or verbal violence against women.”
These figures became even more disturbing when the Commission reported approximately 1.4 million videos of sadistic practices and 1.3 million child-themed videos that trivialize and eroticize incest and child criminality. The report clarified that, while content may carry the term “cinema”, it is inappropriate to think of these as simulated acts, emphasising that “the violence is real”.
Furthermore, it pointed out existing legal disputes, including charges of “aggravated human trafficking, pimping, gang rape and rape with acts of torture and barbarity,” that some producers faced. Such violent content, the report argues, is not only morally shocking but also fulfills the legal definition of acts of torture and barbarism.
Presented to Bérangère Couillard, the Minister for Gender Equality and the Fight against Discrimination, the detailed report has called on French institutions and Pharos, a government platform for reporting illegal content, to ensure that these illegal activities are prosecuted and publicised.
In a recent interview, the council’s president, Sylvie Pierre-Brossolette, described violent pornography as creating “future rapists, future killers of women,” and saw no justification for allowing minors access to “these unlawful acts of unbearable torment”.
The council offers several propositions for course corrections. These include blocking pornographic websites that do not implement effective age controls, establishing a right to remove sexual content at the request of any person featured in a recording, and enforcing sex education in schools to counteract the danger of young people using pornography as their primary source of sexual education.
While France has passed a law requiring age controls for pornography websites, it has yet to be implemented, showing the complex struggle to regulate this largely uncontrolled sector.
Covering this report is not just about exposing alarming but necessary truths. It’s about pressing on areas of law that we expect our institutions to protect. It’s about asking the tough questions: How does one reconcile sexual liberation laws with the fight against crime? How does a society deal with freedom of expression when it’s at the expense of the vulnerable? And ultimately, how do we hold industries accountable in a legal and moral sense?
As the report so starkly highlighted: we’re navigating a world of ‘pornocrime’ — and the terrain is fraught.
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