Globalisation, Media and Adult/Sexual

Content;
Challenges to Regulation and Research
Παγκοσμιοποίηση, Μέσα Επικοινωνίας και Σεξουαλικό Περιεχόμενο:
Νέες ανάγκες για ρυθμιστικό πλαίσιο και έρευνα

Organised by:
Hellenic Audiovisual Institute, Greece

Centre for International Communications

Research, Institute of Communications Studies
University of Leeds, UK

Faculty of Communications and Mass Media,

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

and supported by The British Academy

Revisiting mediations of sex:
The global industrial complex, policy and
knowledge

Αναθεώρηση της διαμεσολάβησης του ‘σεξ’:

το παγκόσμιο βιομηχανικό σύμπλεγμα, ρυθμιστικά πλαίσια και γνώση
Dr Katharine Sarikakis

Centre for International Communications Research,

Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds
 numbers & lives
αριθμοί & ανθρώπινες ζωές


'adult' entertainment industry $60
billion in 2007= Hungary's foreign
debt

11,300 hard core titles in the USA
in 2002= half Hollywood's revenue
of $9 billion

in 1999: 66,000 pornographic
websites - in 2005: 15 million

in 2001 66% of online revenues was
pornographic

4.5 pornographic emails/user daily

$US 20 billion trafficking in women and
girls

2 million children trafficked annually

child pornography is a $US 20 million
industry worldwide

since 1998 sexual exploitation of children
400% increase

80% of children in pornography
production under 10 yrs; consumers’
preference for pre-verbal victims

11 average age of first internet exposure
to pornographic images
 On revenue...
Online adult content revenue

US UK and Germany= 86% of 5000
all online adult entertainment
4500
market

Porn is the most profitable 4000

content genre on the internet 3500


revenue from: paid 3000 US

$US millions
subscriptions,advertisements, 2500
UK
Germany
sending traffic to other sites, 2000 Rest of the world
auxiliary services, sale of sex- Total
1500
related products
1000

Creation of new market niches =
increasingly brutal and more 500

violent content 0

‘cultivation’ of consumption 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

behaviours in young people 2000-2006

 
19% of online pornography users
...and users are under 18 yrs of age

Largest group 29% ages 35-49
followed by 25-34

ALL classes involved in online
pornography usage

Same groups with access to
sophisticated technologies and
disposable income
 Global production and
consumption

slave labour: links to prostitution and
sex trafficking

labourers are not protected socially,
economically, culturally or
physically

today's wages one third of 1988;
increasing demand for extreme acts

no control over one's image-
copyright issues

outsourcing of production

new suppliers of women for
pornography: Ukraine, Latvia,
Belarus, Russia

Synergies between major
‘respectable’ electronics and media
companies and pornographic content
providers and portals

parallel trends in other sectors of the
sex trade

extremely short career spans

market niches: more brutality

amateur production mimicking-
reinforcing industry trends for
violent content

socialisation of children through
pornographic cultures

Mainstreaming of pornography
through mass media – pornification
of everyday cultures in media,
fashion, music, speech, aesthetic
standards
Regulating or regularising?

Lack of international oriented legislation

Lack of common definition of pornography

National regulation focuses on issues of obscenity i.e. sexual
explicitness and decency and on harm to minors

Historically censorship has been used against arts, information on
reproductive rights, health and sexuality

Pornographers maintain the right to freedom of expression

Attempts to distinguish between 'hard-core' and 'soft' pornography
(Germany) and criminalize the consumption of violent content
(UK)

Lack of legislation that follows the links of the sex trade-
pornography- human trafficking

Lack of legislation that addresses need for protection, working
conditions, exploitation, physical and mental health

Lack of political will to address the link to popular culture (sexist
advertising, gendered hate speech, fashion etc)
Emerging - and existing- issues

Conditions of socialisation of sense
of self, sexuality, gender relations

Sexualisation of power relations
gender, race, age and violence

Conditions of labour and exploitation
of human beings through real acts-
not just their representation

Dehumanisation of disadvantaged
social groups (poverty, status, power)
through processes of objectification,
fragmentation and commodification
of physical and mental integrity.

Pornographic saturation of public
spaces, blurring of public and private
through changes in consumption
patterns

Media literacy and sexual education
absent from school and adult
education curricula

Questions around human security,
dignity and human rights

Implications for democratic
deliberation and a shifting
dimension of the concepts of ‘free
will’ and ‘choice’

Questions regarding the ability of the
nation state and national legislation
to articulate solutions to the
problems raised.