People who want to watch porn should be paying for it to avoid consuming it unethically.
Free porn websites like Pornhub may have videos that are uploaded without the creators’ permissions and the performers in them lose out on the earnings that these videos generate.
Although it may not seem like porn websites are making money from free videos, the advertisements bring in a large amount of revenue. Pornhub gets100 million views a day.
Because of the exorbitant amount of views many porn websites get, this can be a huge loss of income for the people featured in those videos who aren’t making money from advertisers.
Porn websites like Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn are owned by Mindgeek, a company which manages porn sites but does not actually produce content. Essentially, Mindgeek gets paid for the work of others. Although they are involved in sex work, they are not sex workers.
The people featured in these films can face serious repercussions that can affect their chances of getting jobs in the future and they are not even being compensated for that risk.
In 2012, Stacie Halas was fired from her teaching job after school officials found out she had a past career in porn according to a Jan. 16, 2013 CBS Los Angeles article.
The people behind Mindgeek will never face the same kind of backlash as their content creators, yet they will always get paid for their work on the website.
Porn actors, however, will not get the money they deserve if these websites continue to use their content without paying them.
Stealing their videos is stealing their earnings and people who view porn should be aware of what they're doing if they choose to watch free porn.
Not every free porn video is uploaded without the creators’ permission, but an important factor that is not often brought up is how these videos are available for free.
Some creators have partnerships with websites like Pornhub which allow their videos to be viewed for free and they still get paid from streams or advertisements.
One creator who goes by the name Jade Jordan said she is “so grateful for this platform,” on the Pornhub Model Program recruitment page, because of how it helped her become more well-known. However, not everyone featured on Pornhub uploads their videos themselves.
There have even been recent scandals of people stealing content from independent creators on other websites like Onlyfans, a subscription-based site used by adult content users, uploading the stolen videos to bigger websites and then sharing links on Twitter to the content according to a Feb. 27 Vice article.
Although this is not the fault of the websites, it proves that without paying, it is hard to know where your porn is really coming from and who is getting paid.
Paying for porn is relatively easy and does not even have to be expensive. There are many platforms for individual creators, but even well-known sites have premium services.
Purchased porn usually has a bigger budget for production and will be more specific toward buyers’ interest so the quality can be better for the consumer.
By paying for your porn, you are ensuring that the creators are giving permission to upload their videos to certain sites and are being given credit for their work so that they can be paid.
This is the most ethical way to consume porn and really the only way anyone should be doing it.
