Corporations Who Contribute To Sexual Exploitation In 2022

“No corporation should profit from or facilitate sexual exploitation.”

This is the firm stand being taken by The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), a leading non-profit organization seeking to eradicate sex trafficking. They recognize that corporations are what drives today’s society. They influence the information received and the fashion standard set among this generation.

These corporations even influence the words and body language used to communicate with one another. And each one of these companies has the chance to set a positive example in our culture. Sadly, some are instead relinquishing that opportunity to pursue dishonest gain. They are doing so at the expense of countless victims to the sex trafficking industry.

Advocating for Change

Annually, NCOSE creates a list, known as The Dirty Dozen List. It exposes annually exposes 12 corporations that have risen in power and monetary value while also promoting pornography, prostitution, and/or sex trafficking.

Since 2013, The Dirty Dozen List has called out and rallied for change among major corporations. Many, including Verizon, Walmart, the Department of Defense, and various hotel chains, have since significantly improved their policies.

One of the most recent victories came after United Airlines found their name on The Dirty Dozen List in 2019. They have since adopted a zero-tolerance policy for any videos promoting hardcore pornography, or anything over an R-rating. Additionally, United Airlines has implemented improved flight attendant training. This upgraded program will now include information about how to recognize, address, and respond to any issues that occur in-flight.

More recently in March 2022, Roku, a leading media streaming company, announced their decision to remove Pornhub and other exploitative pornography channels from its platform. NCOSE shares, “Other corporations to similarly distance themselves include Unilever, Kraft-Heinz, Comcast, Mastercard, and Paypal—the pornography industry and Pornhub itself is losing its infrastructure of mainstream support!”

Who Made the List This Year

While 7 companies unfortunately continue to hold their place, 5 new corporations have been placed on the list – which was released on March 8. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is calling out these major companies and urging them to revisit their policies to take a stand against sexual exploitation.

While we’re not reviewing all of them here, we are taking a look at some of the top corporations listed.

Netflix

With over 200 million monthly subscribers using their services, Netflix is lauded as the leading video streaming service provider in the world, making them #1 in at-home entertainment. This, of course, does not include the number of people who aren’t official subscribers, but instead mooch off of their relative or friend’s account, so you can probably double or triple that number.

And with such a large audience base, it is gravely concerning the influence the content Netflix puts out has on its consumers considering that Netflix, according to NCOSE,

“glorifies sexual violence, sexualizes children, normalizes incest, trivializes prostitution and child sex trafficking, and propagates graphic sex scenes and gratuitous nudity – all in the name of entertainment.”

Related Article: How Porn Is Poisoning Society

They go on to share, “While Netflix has made significant changes to their platform in recent years such as updating and strengthening parental controls and increasing the age rating on app stores to 12+…there is still an abundance of content hosted and produced by Netflix that is harmful to minors and that normalizes sexual violence and the commercial sexual exploitation industry.”

Discord

Entire servers on Discord are dedicated to users finding and sharing nonconsensual pornographic images of girls and women—material sometimes referred to as 'revenge porn' or image-based sexual abuse.

Attaining exponential growth in the last 3 years, in spite of the pandemic, Discord’s communication platform has grown from 56 million to more than 150 million monthly active users. Their largest user base: teenagers and children. Starting in 2015, as a communication hub for gamers to connect while they played games, Discord has since transitioned their services to start catering to a wider market share by now offering text, video, and audio chat functions that can be accessed via computer, tablet, and mobile phone.

Discord is unique in that it offers users access to different servers, or chatrooms, specifically dedicated to a game, hobby, or topic that others share interest in. The two largest servers in Discord are Fortnite with over 571,000 members and Minecraft with over 569,000 members. As you can imagine, those are mostly comprised of teenagers and children.

Related Article: Parents Beware: Porn Companies Are Targeting Video Gamers

Discord touts themselves for not being a social media platform, where there is no algorithm, no scrolling, no news feed, no likes, etc. It’s a place where people with common interests can get in conversations which are driven only by the people you choose and the topics you pick. Sounds great, right?

The problem:

• Discord doesn’t have a true age verification and moderation feature which makes it difficult to monitor when underage kids access age restricted chat rooms.
• Discord is also pseudonymous, meaning that your Discord account doesn’t have to be tied back to your identity. So, how does a child know the “13 year old” they’re talking to isn’t really a 45 year old man with a history? Or does one know a 13 year old isn’t posing as a 21 year old to access age restricted servers?
• And although Discord’s community guidelines state to not sexualize children in any way, or to not make adult content available to anyone under the age of 18, and to not share sexually explicit content of others without their consent, a quick search on Discord can clearly reveal their users are creating all types of sexually explicit content to be promoted and shared on Discord’s servers with little regulation of what kind of content is being posted or who is accessing them.

Visa

Visa, one of the major credit card networks world-wide, was first put on The Dirty Dozen List in 2020 for partnering with the porn industry by helping them process their payments. After much pushback, they rightfully cut ties with Pornhub that same year.

Related Article: What The Porn Industry Doesn’t Want You To Find Out

However, Visa has since re-initiated a relationship with MindGeek (Pornhub’s parent company) via its advertising portal TrafficJunky. TrafficJunky provides ad revenue to Pornhub. While you may think this isn’t a big deal, this is actually significant because in 2021, MindGeek CEO, Feras Antoon stated,

“We are an ad supported platform. That’s how we make our revenue. That’s how Pornhub makes its revenue.”

Antoon estimated, at that time, that about 50% of the company’s revenues came from advertising. To put that in perspective, in 2018, MindGeek generated $213 million in advertising, and only $52 million in premium subscriptions. In short, NCOSE concludes that Visa is still providing the infrastructure which brings Pornhub and its parent company its most important source of revenue.

NCOSE believes that Visa is not only endorsing the abusive nature of pornography but that they are also violating their own ethical standards. According to its website, Visa claims to uphold the law.

However, in their partnership, Visa is in fact violating federal laws that prohibit the distribution of obscene pornographic content. They have agreed to process payments from porn giants, even those who have been found to host videos of children being sexually abused or sex-trafficked women. In doing so, Visa is choosing to not only ignore the physical abuse but also the financial and mental abuse that performers are expected to endure.

OnlyFans

According to NCOSE, OnlyFans, a subscription-based website where “creators” can market their content to “fans” who will pay to see it, has become the latest iteration of the commercial sex industry.

During the pandemic, OnlyFans grew 553% within less than a year and they don’t show signs of slowing down, with an estimated 500,000 people joining OnlyFans ever day!

Despite it’s record growth, they have come to recognized as a platform used for exploitation and criminal activity. NCOSE reports,

“OnlyFans has faced increased scrutiny by police, policymakers, and the press for growing evidence of child sex abuse material, sex trafficking, harassment, doxing, cyberstalking, and image-based sexual abuse and host of other harms and potential crimes.”

As a result in June 2021, the FBI opened an investigation into the financial activity and wide array of potential crimes of OnlyFans and its owners, who also own other large porn webcamming sites.

This is DEFINITELY not a site you want your children to be on!

Twitter

Created as a social media platform, Twitter is one of the largest social media companies in the world with close to 400 million users who send an average of 500 million tweets each day. It allows users to communicate online using “tweets” that are limited to 280 characters.

Infamously listed on the The Dirty Dozen List since its inception in 2013, Twitter, unfortunately, remains a target despite its claims to have a "no-tolerance policy” when it comes to Child Sexual Exploitation Material (also known as “child pornography”). However, according to NCOSE, Twitter fails to properly moderate content or adequately respond to victims, claiming it cannot be held accountable for disseminating illegal material. Twitter has even flat out refused to remove verified child sex abuse material from its site when asked by victims.

By neglecting these important elements, NCOSE states that,

“Twitter has increasingly become a platform rampant with accounts and posts functioning as ads for commercial sex. This creates a [prime environment] for potential sex traffickers to groom minors.”

Related Article: This Is How Porn And Sex Trafficking Are Linked

This is why NCOSE, in partnership with The Haba Law Firm and The Matiasic Firm has jointly filed a federal lawsuit against Twitter on behalf of two minors who were trafficked on the social media platform

Hopefully, under Elon Musk’s new leadership, Twitter can finally address these serious issues prevalent on its platform.

NCOSE wants to see Twitter held accountable under the law for putting profits before people and for claiming to be above the law and immune from liability for the exploitation of children online.

Related Article: Major Porn Site Suffers Tremendous Blow

It’s Time to Take Action

This is only a small sample of the companies that have made The Dirty Dozen List this year. The National Center for Sexual Exploitation also acknowledges that they have proactively placed corporations on a watch list. Some of the practices of the companies on that list are leaning more toward fostering an atmosphere that promotes sex trafficking.

We, as Americans, cannot sit back and helplessly watch as non-profit organizations rally to protect our human rights. Now is the time to enter the battle, fighting for the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being exploited around the globe. Boycotting these corporations will not make the problem go away, though you can allow your voice to be heard. Instead, we must take an internal look into our own lives, families, and churches to see how we are further contributing to sexual exploitation in our own backyards.

Studies conducted by various organizations such as Covenant Eyes, the Barna Group, and Pure Desire Ministries have highlighted that pornography is a huge issue – even among church-goers. Not only is pornography an accelerant to sex trafficking, but it also contributes to violence towards women, sexual abuse, and more.

Related Article: 15 Mind-Blowing Statistics About Pornography And The Church

As a result, prisons are reporting an increase in the population by those who have been charged with sex crimes. And children often have the greatest risk of becoming addicted, which can result in poor choices, failed marriages, sexual dysfunction in men, and an increased risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.

Related Article: 4 Ways Porn Is Hurting Our Children

What Can Be Done

First, we must educate parents and children alike about the dangers of pornography. We must also examine our own lives to see if any issues of sexual sin may be present. And then, in response to that discovery, we must take appropriate action to seek healing and freedom. This will not only benefit us but also significantly benefit the generations to come. And don’t worry, you don’t have to figure this out on your own.

The Conquer Series, a cinematic study exposing the truth about sexual sin and providing a battle plan for purity, has been helping those who are willing to champion this fight for more than six years. Already, more than one million men have started their journey to a life free from porn as a result of this riveting study.

Not only are individuals learning how the brain changes when viewing pornography, but they are learning the importance of finding their identity in Christ.

Related Article: Who Am I? Knowing Your Identity Brings Freedom From Porn

Men are learning why trying harder does not work and are able to identify, sometimes for the first time, lies that are hiding in their belief system. The enemy loves to feed us lies, and will often embed them at the point of our greatest pain.

Taking A Stand

The Conquer Series has been a real game-changer for individuals, families, and churches alike. Many parents have started using it with their teens, finding it to be extremely educational. It exposes them to the truth that Satan is attacking sexuality, and it’s providing a battle plan to maintain purity.

For those who have struggled, sometimes for years, it’s giving them hope that they can be free. And it’s becoming a weapon in the hands of pastors and church leaders who are ready to tackle this issue head-on within their congregations.

Marshall Hoberecht, Pastor at First Missionary Church in Newton, Kansas shared,

“I’m a pastor, and 90% of my work is when people come to a conclusion that they need help. The Conquer Series is the most amazing tool I’ve ever seen to help.”

It’s time to let your voice be heard. Let corporations know that you’re advocating alongside NCOSE for change. Take the first step to bring about healing in your life, or the lives of those around you. As the demand decreases, the profitability of such a vile industry will also diminish. Change starts with you.