Remember that now-infamous Miss Universe pageant blunder where host Steve Harvey read the wrong winner? Afterward, a popular porn company offered runner-up Miss Colombia $1 million to do porn. Yikes. And now, a recent poll has shown what Americans would do if given the same offer.
What would it take for you to have sex on camera for the world to see online? Do you have a price tag? According to the results from a recent survey conducted by OnePoll.com, some people do.
What would it cost?
The polling site asked visitors how much it would cost for them to violate laws and disregard basic human rights. The questions tested how far these people would go for money, asking them if they would do things like shoplift, flash a stranger, or even murder someone. The poll went through this list of highly illegal, dangerous, and/or socially unacceptable activities, and what sum of money it would take for people to perform these acts.
For example, for a payment of just $1,000, 15% of the people surveyed said they would commit robbery or illegally bet on a sporting event. If that’s not concerning to you, then the fact that 13 of the people surveyed said they would murder someone for that amount.
And it only got worse from there. People were game for marriage fraud and evading taxes for $100,000 in their bank account. One in 10 people said that they would prostitute themselves for that same amount.
Finally, as the stakes got higher as the amount of hypothetical money increase, the level of $1 million was reached. The question asked: For $1 million, would you star in porn?
The results?
About 10% of Americans surveyed would do porn for $1 million. And given that there are about 249,485,228 legal adults in the US, if we apply those results to the rest of the country, that amounts to almost 25 million people willing to strip down for the cameras.
Would it be worth it?
We are guessing that the 10% who said yes don’t entirely understand the real cost at which porn is produced. Many people believe the false image that the porn industry is a fantasy world of endless sex and better sex.
But the facts show that the porn industry is filled with violence, drugs, abuse, and disease. We are willing to bet that if the people who agreed to the $1 million just took the time to read 10 Ex-Porn Performers Share Their Most Disturbing Stories From Within The Industry, or watch Ex-Porn Star Confesses Hardships Of Life After Leaving The Industry, they would have a much different answer. Add the fact that the porn industry is inseparably linked to sexual exploitation and supports the demand for sex trafficking, and many would think twice before entertaining such an offer.
Needless to say, porn is not worth it, at any price. Science and research are showing this fact more than ever.
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
This is why Fight the New Drug exists—but we can’t do it without you.
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