by Pineapples Studio » Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:30 pm
I understand the desire to speak out against false representations of LP, especially when we now have to contend with well-intentioned, yet easily-led crusader journalists like Nicholas Kristof. These people are so eager to cast specific entities (like Xvideos) as villains instead of confronting the problem of child sex imagery on the Internet from a practical point of view. To a certain extent, I get where they are coming from. Kristof desperately wants something to be done about the problem, so he is exaggerating and inflaming the passions of the proletariat (so to speak) on purpose, but it is clearly not the intent of Xvideos to traffic in this content and they are clearly doing as much as possible to remove it when it is detected, so there is something else going on which Kristof is ignoring, or perhaps cannot see in the first place. The stories of the women and girls who have had sexual images posted on the Internet without their consent are powerful, but if we want to make real effective progress to prevent more stories like them, we need to put on our thinking caps and actually look at the problem. It is not a simple issue with an easy fix.
Pierre Woodman sees a man like Nicholas Kristof and swoops in right away to portray himself as the great white knight of the porn industry. He is all too happy to speak out against the misdeeds of his competitors (whether real or invented, proven or hearsay, it makes no difference to him), over-simplifying the facts and conflating the operations of LP with those of Xvideos in the process, but it is just a cynical and calculated chess move designed to place LP / Xvideos in the disadvantageous position of defending itself against false representations. I mean, he basically tried to “cancel” Xvideos. Meanwhile, Woodman looks like this amazing brave guy for having the courage to speak out against the evils of his industry, yet nobody thinks to look into the numerous accusations made against him over the years or question his participation in this industry that he critiques so harshly. I wonder if Nicholas Kristof did any actual research or if he simply took Woodman at his word. The way he has chosen to tackle this issue has been irresponsible and will ultimately prove ineffective, in my opinion, because even if he were to succeed in deplatforming these giant tube networks, they will simply be replaced by others in due course.
I have talked about this elsewhere before, but I will just say in the interest of absolute candor: The current situation is untenable, whether we like it or not, and big changes need to be made on both sides of the issue if we are going to see real progress that actually sticks and doesn’t also punish the wrong people or censor the industry as a whole in the process. The government needs to step up big time with respect to its enforcement of existing laws (like 18 USC 2257) that were designed to protect against child exploitation. There should not be so many loopholes allowing child sex imagery to propagate on the Internet. At the same time, the industry needs to step up with respect to re-building its existing tube platforms with better safeguards against child sex imagery. Frankly, I do not think retroactive content detection is enough. Uploads should be vetted before they go online. Content producers are supposed to be maintaining performer age records by law, which has been the case since 1988. Why are the tube sites not maintaining those records? I do think there is fault on both sides here, but I also think that neither side wants to perpetuate the problem, and it is clearly not in the best interest of either side to allow the problem to continue, so nobody seems to be thinking clearly. We can solve the problem if we work together, show the humility to acknowledge that change is required, and initiate an open dialogue. Even then, we won’t even be touching upon the millions of illicit sexual images that are traded on social media platforms like Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram, but at least it will be a start. Those platforms are going to be the real uphill battle, but I think we can all agree that illicit sexual images have no place on a dedicated porn network. There is a certain reluctance within the industry to admit that this is a real problem, but the simple fact is that it’s not going away, and unless we want credit card processors and governmental oversight boards to swoop in and fix the problem for us (which they are absolutely willing to do), we kinda have to do something about it.
That’s all just my own opinion, of course, but I do not see any way around it.
Kristof claims to respect the porn industry (and sex workers in general), but his approach says otherwise because he has framed the problem as an “us vs. them” war of attrition against unscrupulous porn giants. That may be easier for the masses to stomach, but it also avoids the core problem and will ultimately fix nothing.