The following comes from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
Cover Image: The Hall of Justice Courthouse in downtown San Diego.
As a civil lawsuit filed by 22 women against pornographic website GirlsDoPorn got underway in San Diego Superior Court last week, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) applauds all 22 plaintiffs, who have suffered job loss, psychological trauma, and harassment as a result of duplicitous scheming common in the porn industry.
“This pioneering lawsuit gives voice to young women manipulated and seduced into pornography through intentional lies,” said Benjamin Bull, NCOSE general counsel. “It’s standard practice for pornography website owners and operators to profit from the destruction of young women.”
Lured to San Diego via Craigslist ads promising modeling gigs, the women were locked in high-end hotels, threatened into making videos, and assured images would not be distributed online or in the U.S. GirlsDoPorn’s owner, videographer, and recruiter are named in the suit, which outlines 14 causes of action including false promise, fraudulent concealment, imprisonment, sexual battery, and gender violence.
“The lawsuit creates a template for an army of plaintiffs lawyers, who have previously remained on the side-lines,” Bull observed. “Only by aggressively engaging in litigation against the out-of-control porn industry can we prevent the extensive and lifelong harm it causes.”
“On the heels of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein, this lawsuit takes the #MeToo Movement to its next logical battleground: a war against Big Porn,” Bull added.
For more information on the harms of pornography visit Pornography: A Public Health Crisis and Defend Justice: Prosecute Illegal Pornography.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
