Violence
Sexual violence as a sexual script in mainstream online pornography.
Open Access: No.
Abstract
This article examines the ways in which mainstream pornography positions sexual violence as a normative sexual script by analysing the video titles found on the landing pages of the three most popular pornography websites in the United Kingdom. The study draws on the largest research sample of online pornographic content to date and is unique in its focus on the content immediately advertised to a new user. We found that one in eight titles shown to first-time users on the first page of mainstream porn sites describe sexual activity that constitutes sexual violence. Our findings raise serious questions about the extent of criminal material easily and freely available on mainstream pornography websites and the efficacy of current regulatory mechanisms.
Relevance
“In total, we found 12 per cent (n = 15,839) of the total analysable sample (n = 131,738) of titles described sexual activity that constitutes sexual violence. This equates to one in every eight titles.”
“Teen” was the most frequently occurring word.
The most frequent form of sexual violence was sexual activity between family members. Additionally, sexual activity between “step relations” was less common than immediate or ‘blood’ relatives. The next most common category was physical aggressions and sexual assault – here not including verbal aggression.
“We have found that mainstream pornography websites are likely hosting material that is unlawful to distribute or download. It is not the case that criminal material is relegated to niche sites, hidden from all but a determined viewer, or only available on the dark web. It thus cannot be assumed either by regulators, individual users or policy-makers, that the mainstream websites are ‘safe’ sites, free from unlawful material.”
Citation
