VERNON HILLS, Ill. — A former suburban Chicago high school soccer coach has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing her of sexually assaulting two male students. Cori Beard of Vernon Hills faces a dozen counts of criminal sexual assault involving the boys. The 28-year-old entered the plea Wednesday in Lake County court. Defense attorney Barry Sheppard asked a judge to reduce Beard’s bail from $1 million, arguing she has no previous criminal background, is not a flight risk and the boys weren’t physically harmed. The judge denied the request. Beard is accused of assaulting the boys while she was coach of the freshman boys and girls soccer teams, from late 2015 to early this year. Prosecutors say more charges are possible and the case remains under investigation. Beard’s case is due back in court May 9.

A landlord who offers free accommodation in return for sex has insisted he is not doing anything illegal. The man, whose identity was concealed, said he did not see anything wrong with a “friends with benefits” arrangement with his tenants as long as both parties are aware of what they are signing up to. During the appearance on ITV’s This Morning, the man, who was previously married and has children, said he was strict about the age of those who came to live with him and said he did not respond to 15, 16 and 17-year-olds who got in contact with him. The interview followed a This Morning investigation which claimed 250,000 women were being offered free or discounted rent in exchange for sexual favours in the UK. The home owner, who said he had already had three long-term arrangements, said: “I’m very forward and honest and I don’t tell lies. I have been married and I have a family. But I find that modern day relationships do not work and if they do they only work for a short period of time. “Most females lie. The same as most males do,” he said. “They are working to an agenda whereas I don’t, I’m very honest, I’m very upfront.” The landlord, who has young daughter, said “there are a lot of 15, 16 and 17-year-olds who contact me on a regular basis” but said he was not interested. He said his children knew about his renting arrangements, that he was “looking for fun” and was “very privileged” and that he worked very hard. He said he spends three, four or five days with someone before he decides whether they are suitable to live with, but there is no physical contact during this time. “More than a fully-stocked fridge, I offer them a life. I have had three long-term partners that have all had their own businesses, their own family, they are still in touch with me. They still all talk to me. I’m not a pervert ... It’s an arranged relationship.” The man, who said he was offering tenants an opportunity to improve their life and was not looking for someone vulnerable, insisted he had a “fantastic life” and he just wanted to “share it”. ITV Presenter Holly Willoughby suggested that part of the so-called arrangement involves breaking the law. She said: “But when someone offers accommodation in return for sex … they are causing another person to have sex in return for payment, a breach of the sexual offence act provides a maximum sentence of seven years.” But the man insisted he was “doing nothing wrong”. “It’s an arrangement between two adult human beings. I’m not looking for a sixteen-year-old, an eighteen-year-old, I want someone of my own age. I’m not looking for somebody that’s vulnerable, and if somebody is vulnerable, I wouldn’t be interested.’” Last year then Justice Secretary, David Lidington, said rent-for-sex offers may breach the Sexual Offences Act. “An offence is committed when a person offers accommodation in return for sex, as they are inciting/causing another person to have sex with them in return for ‘payment’”, he told Hove MP Peter Kyle in a letter. Viewers have condemned the landlord for his comments and arrangements on Twitter. “If he thinks he’s doing nothing wrong, why isn’t he showing his face? People his own age? Laughable!” said one woman on Twitter. “This is AWFUL. The women do it because they are desperate and these men are preying on that and using their power. Sick. #ThisMorning,” added another. “Says he’s not looking for vulnerable people but is advertising that he can offer them a whole life, not just an apartment. Sounds like he’s trying to appeal to people who are struggling to me,” chimed in one more. Rent-for-sex adverts have appeared on websites like Craigslist for a number of years. A BBC Three documentary in February saw an undercover reporter discover huge amounts of online adverts for rooms across the UK that come at a sexual rather than financial cost. Housing charity Shelter has said the adverts were “expressly targeting” homeless women and seeking to exploit the UK’s housing crisis. It said: “This isn’t just in bad taste or ‘creepy’. It is a dangerous attempt to establish deeply exploitative relationships off the back of homelessness.” Campaigners say renting rooms for sexual favours is seen as a growing issue and a consequence of a housing situation where young people are forced to pay extortionate amounts to find somewhere to live. The problem has become particularly pronounced in university towns where young women are targeted by rogue landlords.

UPDATE @ 2:30 p.m.: Madeline Marx, the former Kettering Fairmont substitute teacher who pleaded guilty to sex charges involving students, was sentenced to five years of community control sanctions for each of two convictions of sexual battery, but will avoid prison. Marx was also labeled as a Tier III sex offender, requiring her to register her address every 90 days for the rest of her life. Marx was ordered to undergo sexual offender counseling, and is not to have contact with any of the victims. Marx is also not to enter into any Kettering City Schools facilities. FIRST REPORT Kettering Fairmont substitute teacher Madeline J. Marx is scheduled to be sentenced today on sexual battery charges in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Marx, 24, pleaded and was found guilty of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with two students and was arrested last November. She is to appear today in front of Judge Steven Dankof. A 17-year-old student told police he was given oral sex by a teacher July 19 in the parking lot of Big Lots on Wilmington Pike, according to the complaint, affidavit and statement of facts filed in court. A 16-year-old boy told police he had intercourse with a substitute teacher Sept. 21 in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Smithville Road, according to court documents. Marx was removed from Fairmont’s building Nov. 8 by police. Marx admitted to having sexual relationships with multiple students, according to court documents. An affidavit said Marx also confessed to sending several nude pictures via Snapchat and Instagram. A prosecutor’s office press release indicated Marx also substitute taught in Oakwood. School officials in Oakwood sent parents a letter saying that they did not know of any victims in their school district. State records indicated Marx has a four-year teaching license as a K-12 education intervention specialist. Marx graduated in 2012 from Chaminade Julienne High School in Dayton and graduated from the University of Dayton in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in education, according to CJ and UD officials. According to her UD transcript included in her personnel file, Marx withdrew from a fall 2013 class on sexual ethics.

The prosecution of a renowned paleontologist for allegedly having sex with a high-school student on Orcas Island turned into an ordeal of deceit, sex and betrayal that left nobody involved unscathed. “This all fell like a ton of bricks on my head,” Gerald Grellet-Tinner says. FRIDAY HARBOR — A tall man with an imposing head of wavy blond hair, a wide smile and a French accent, Gerald Grellet-Tinner was a sort of rock star among paleontologists. A one-time scuba trainer for the French Foreign Legion, Grellet-Tinner was a published post-Ph.D.-level researcher credited with discovering how a species of dinosaur incubated eggs in volcanic vents, and a gem expert who had worked with the Department of Homeland Security on terrorist money-laundering issues in the wake of 9/11. He conducted research for the University of Chicago and taught at UCLA before moving to Orcas Island in 2014. That was before the then-60-year-old decided to teach science at Orcas Island High School in 2015 while caring for his ailing son. And before he met his student lab assistant, 19-year-old Antonia (not her real name), and before his life was taken apart when he was accused of having sex with her. It is a crime in Washington state for a teacher to have sex with any student younger than 21. Who’s involved Gerald Grellet-Tinner, paleontologist and former science teacher at Orcas High School. “Antonia,” (not her real name), former student at Orcas High School. Stephen Parker, former San Juan County sheriff’s deputy. Ron Krebs, sheriff of San Juan County and Parker’s former boss. Randall Gaylord, San Juan County prosecutor. Richard Weyrich, Skagit County prosecutor. Nick Power, Grellet-Tinner’s civil-rights attorney. Robert Butler, Grellet-Tinner’s criminal defense attorney. Christine Miller, San Juan County victim advocate. Donald Eaton, San Juan County Superior Court judge. Lori Sigman, Skagit County sheriff’s deputy. Brent Johnson, San Juan County undersheriff. Grellet-Tinner was arrested, jailed, convicted by a jury of two felonies and almost sent to prison as a sex offender before a judge threw the case out, citing a miscarriage of justice. The reason? While Grellet-Tinner sat in jail, facing possible prison, the San Juan County sheriff’s detective who was trying to put him there was sexually involved with Antonia himself, according to investigators. The ordeal of sex and deception — which includes allegations of witness tampering, bribery and threats — has doused any spark of justice for anyone involved: Grellet-Tinner, Antonia or the community. Nobody involved was left unscathed, including the detective. Grellet-Tinner’s life has been left in tatters. He lost custody of his son — whose fragile health was the reason he moved to Orcas Island — and his reputation was sullied, maybe ruined. He was fired from his teaching job and is, he says, unemployable and on food stamps. Grellet-Tinner denies he ever touched the young woman. He has filed a $10 million claim against San Juan County, its prosecutor and the Sheriff’s Office alleging a variety of civil-rights violations, including wrongful arrest and wrongful prosecution. “This all fell like a ton of bricks on my head,” Grellet-Tinner said in an interview. No criminal charges were filed against the detective, Stephen Parker, although investigators believe he committed perjury and probably witness tampering. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office found he had committed significant misconduct following two investigations, and has sought to have his law-enforcement credentials revoked. Parker, who has denied wrongdoing, resigned from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and moved about as far away from Friday Harbor as possible in the continental United States — Fort Myers, Florida. He also denies having sex with Antonia and says he’s talking to a lawyer about suing the county sheriff and prosecutor for slander. A multiagency investigation overseen by Skagit County concluded Parker, a 46-year-old veteran lawman from Montana, and Antonia, a single mother and undocumented immigrant, had carried on a secret relationship for months. The investigation concluded they met for sex at least five times while Grellet-Tinner sat in the San Juan County Jail. Attempts to contact Antonia were not successful. The Seattle Times generally does not identify alleged victims of abuse. Nick Power, Grellet-Tinner’s civil-rights attorney, believes Antonia traded sex with the detective in exchange for obtaining a crime victim’s visa so she and her family could stay in the U.S. legally. Prosecutors confirmed they had sought a so-called “U Visa” for Antonia. Main Street arrest According to police and court documents, an investigation into Grellet-Tinner was begun after Antonia — who had missed a year of school to have a child — mentioned to another teacher that she had been sexually involved with Grellet-Tinner. Two weeks later, Parker publicly arrested Grellet-Tinner on Main Street in the Orcas Island town of Eastsound in October 2015 and booked him into jail. He was charged with two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor under a Washington law that prohibits a teacher from having a sexual relationship with any student younger than 21. Antonia was 19 years old when Grellet-Tinner allegedly had two consensual sexual encounters with her at his house on Orcas Island, according to the charges. Based on Parker’s investigation, which included DNA evidence provided by the student and her tearful testimony, Grellet-Tinner was convicted after a three-week trial in June 2016. He was facing 17 months in prison when Antonia told a victim advocate in the San Juan County Prosecutor’s Office that she’d been secretly seeing the detective, Parker, for months. When Parker found out, he approached the victim advocate, Christine Miller, two days later outside her office. Parker denied the relationship and said Antonia was upset because he had stopped paying attention to her after the trial. “You know,” an angry Parker told Miller, “she seduces people and she set (Grellet-Tinner) up.” Parker called Antonia “hypersexual,” Miller would later recount in an interview with detectives. The student recanted that story within days — under pressure from the detective, according to her later statements — and an initial investigation by a Skagit County sheriff’s deputy concluded the allegations were “not sustained” since both the student and Parker denied anything had happened between them. Parker went so far as to sign a denial under threat of perjury. However, the Skagit County sheriff’s deputy, Lori Sigman, had doubts. Her report to the San Juan County prosecutor’s and sheriff’s offices concluded with a section titled “Curious Things,” including the fact that Parker and Antonia seemed to be particularly aware of the other’s activities. Sigman found it “astonishing” that Parker and the student had exchanged 69 emails. San Juan County Sheriff Ron Krebs now says he wishes he’d opened a wider investigation at that point. Later, Sigman would join a more thorough investigation conducted by a multiagency team of Skagit County detectives, which would find that Parker and the student “used aliases and alternative means of communications” to stay in touch. Moreover, they exchanged more than 137 telephone calls on Parker’s county-issued phone. “Unfair conviction” Sigman completed her initial investigation — the one with the “Curious Things” section — on Aug. 23, 2016, just two days before Grellet-Tinner’s initial sentencing date, according to records. However, San Juan County Prosecutor Randall Gaylord didn’t provide the report to the court and Grellet-Tinner’s criminal defense attorney, Robert Butler, until Sept. 14, two days before the revised sentencing date. “The state is clinging to an unfair conviction, based almost entirely on a witness they know is a liar,” said Butler, referring to the student. San Juan County Superior Court Judge Donald Eaton agreed, and granted Grellet-Tinner a new trial based on Parker’s statement that Antonia “seduces people” and “set Tinner up.” In the interim, Grellet-Tinner was released from jail. Three days after the judge ordered a new trial, the state appealed. The following day, Gaylord, Sigman and another prosecutor met with Antonia, who changed her story again. Over the next four hours, she detailed a relationship with the detective that began days after Grellet-Tinner’s arrest and involved at least five sexual encounters, including trysts at the Sheriff’s Office, at an Orcas Island resort and in the back seat of Parker’s patrol car. She had recanted the first time, she told them, because Parker had found out about her conversation with the victim advocate through his boss, Sheriff Krebs. Investigative documents showed Parker called the student a dozen times that day. She told the investigators that Parker told her she had to “fix it,” and offered money to help with bills, but she took the offer to be attempts to pay her hush money. San Juan County Undersheriff Brent Johnson told Sheriff Krebs he thought those calls “looked like a crime,” according to an interview he gave to detectives. Parker was placed on administrative leave with pay on Sept. 26, 2016, and would never return to work. However, the prosecution of Grellet-Tinner — now minus its investigator and with a tainted key witness — would drag out seven more months — a delay Grellet-Tinner’s attorneys said was nothing more than punishment for a crime prosecutors could not prove. In March, the judge concluded the violations to Grellet-Tinner’s rights were insurmountable and he dismissed the case as a “miscarriage of justice.” Gaylord, the San Juan County prosecutor, asked his counterpart in Skagit County, Richard Weyrich, to look at possible charges against Parker. “We considered a few criminal charges,” Weyrich wrote in a letter dated Dec. 23, 2017. “We first looked at a sex crime” based on evidence “that a few portions of the sexual encounters were not completely consensual … We also looked at witness tampering.” The investigation raised disturbing questions about whether all of their sexual encounters were consensual, considering Parker’s status and position of authority. But Weyrich concluded none of the charges could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. He said his office did not look at perhaps the easiest charge to prove: perjury, since Parker signed a sworn statement saying he had not had a relationship with the student. Weyrich said Gaylord, the San Juan County prosecutor, should have at least reviewed that charge and believes it should have been filed. Gaylord said his office had a conflict — the reason Weyrich was called in the first place — and could not review any of the case against Parker. Gaylord said several people in his office, including himself, were interviewed during the investigation and were potential witnesses, precluding him from being involved. “This is disappointing news,” Gaylord said earlier this month of the decision not to charge Parker with perjury. “If there was a crime Parker could have been charged with, he should have been charged with it.” Parker, reached by phone in the Gulf of Mexico where he is working on an oil rig, said he was targeted by Gaylord and the sheriff. “I did not have sex with (the student),” he said in an interview. “Did I get too close to their family? There were six people in a one-bedroom apartment. I tried to help.” He reiterated his claim that he believes Antonia “trapped” Grellet-Tinner and then retaliated against Parker after he stopped paying attention to her after the trial. Power, Grellet-Tinner’s civil-rights attorney, also believes his client was trapped by Antonia — with Parker’s help. He says that during Grellet-Tinner’s prosecution, Parker and Gaylord, the prosecutor, were helping Antonia obtain a special “U Visa” from the Department of Homeland Security. The visa is intended to allow undocumented crime victims and their immediate families to stay in the country legally if they’re willing to assist in the investigation or prosecution of a crime. “Basically [Antonia] slept with Parker in exchange for a U Visa,” Power said. “And the two of them manufactured these allegations against Grellet-Tinner so she was eligible.” Parker denied that was what happened. Gaylord said he signed the paperwork for the visa but does not know if it ever was issued. “I don’t think anybody feels good about any part of what happened here,” Gaylord said. Grellet-Tinner, meantime, continues to live on Orcas Island in the home he bought in 2012 near Eastsound. People whisper, he said. One woman called him a pedophile while he was waiting in line at the store. He’s involved in a custody battle over his son, attempting to undo the damage done. “But that’s the problem,” he said. “You can’t.”

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. A college student carefully considers which fraternity houses to avoid when she’s going out with her roommates. An engaged 30-something grapples with behavior she might have brushed off previously — even from her fiancé. A divorced man calls every woman he's ever had romantic or sexual contact with to ask whether he's ever crossed a line. A new sense of hyper-awareness has infiltrated sex, dating, and hookup culture since #MeToo took off on social media last fall — and from college campuses to divorced singles, it’s changing the game. It’s a sort of “once you see something, you can’t un-see it” attitude, says Mark Krassner, a 34-year-old entrepreneur. “All of a sudden it was like this very stark truth that was sort of in the background before.” Ayla Bussel, 19, says she now dates “very cautiously” and is generally more alert when she’s out with her college friends. “We never leave our drinks unattended. We know the shortcut on our phones to call 911.” Alison Kinney, 43, a writer in Brooklyn, says she’s never been shy about confronting men on their harassment, but what’s different now is that “men know that they’re going to be held accountable.” Related Since last October, when a wave of Hollywood actresses began coming forward with sexual assault allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein, more and more women have shared their own accounts of sexual mistreatment at the hands of men in various industries. According to an October poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, this public reckoning has changed the way both men and women view these issues — nearly half of the women surveyed said they felt more encouraged to speak out about their own experiences. And 49 percent of men surveyed claimed that women’s MeToo stories had caused them to rethink their own behaviors around sex and dating. To get a firmer grasp on what it’s like to date and have sex in this fraught new era, we checked in with women and men of various ages and locations about their experiences. We learned that though more and more people are talking about these issues, sex today seems more complicated than ever, regardless of whether you’re having it as a cautious college freshman or a recently separated 40-something. Here are the perspectives of six people on how the #MeToo momentum has played out in their dating lives as they attempt to navigate the cloudy waters of consent. Ayla Bussel, 19, Oregon State University undergrad A political science major, Ayla Bussel is well-versed in the evolving conversation around #MeToo. “It is long overdue,” she writes via email. Bussel identifies as a “strong feminist” who regularly dissects her dating life, as well as issues like campus assault and sexual harassment, with her three roommates. Yet she doesn’t sense a commensurate commitment to women’s welfare from the men she dates. “They don’t seem to understand the importance of consent,” she explains. Most of the men she discusses these issues with are “unreceptive,” she says. On campus, Bussel sees this as “an extreme lack of respect for women and their choices.” Ayla Bussel Leah Nash / for NBC News Like many women, Bussel says she and her friends have experienced various forms of sexual violence. “I have numerous friends who have been harassed, sexually assaulted and raped.” Despite increased awareness of sexual assault in the wake of #MeToo, Bussel says she’s become less trusting of men: “I have had some pretty scary experiences with men in college … and I have been coerced and pressured numerous times.” But with a renewed personal dedication to activism, Bussel is hopeful about the future, provided that men — on-campus and off — start involving themselves more tenaciously in these conversations. Karen B.K. Chan, a sex educator in Toronto, shares Bussel’s hope, saying: “To move forward we need conversations in which men say, ‘I wonder what I’ve done in my life that may have put someone in danger.’ I want to recruit men to be part of the change.” Bussel believes said change will require men in positions of power (such as “actors, rappers and athletes that younger men look up to”) to start speaking up for high school and college-age men to start truly getting it. Daniel Boscaljon, 41, adjunct professor in Iowa City Currently dating after his marriage ended three years ago, Daniel Boscaljon says he’s long considered respect to be the crux of his relationships: “Women would look at me strangely because I would be very communicative each step of the way, asking for permission for any kiss or touch: ’Is it OK if I hold your hand? Would you like me to do this?’” “When women react to it like I'm doing something special, that scares me. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back,” he says. He clarifies that he considers these overtures “bottom-drawer respect.” Daniel Boscaljon Scott Morgan / for NBC News Living in a college town among friends who tend to share his views, Boscaljon, a humanities instructor in the Iowa City area, admits he’s rather insulated. “The people that are part of my life presuppose dignity and respect as foundational in every one of their relationships. I'd never really seen somebody groped or harassed,” he says. For this reason, he was shocked when #MeToo escalated as it did. “It wasn't until I started reading all of the stories that I realized how awful most men are. It [took] me out of that bubble, exposed how raw and horrifying it was.” The MeToo dialogue encouraged Boscaljon to review his own sexual history and reach out to everyone he’d been with in the past. “I did an exhaustive list of everybody that I'd ever had romantic or sexual contact with,” he says. He recalls asking them, "Hey, if I did something wrong, let me know.” No one called him out on anything, he claims. While he welcomes the heightened cultural dialogue around these issues, Boscaljon is “incredibly pessimistic” about the MeToo momentum prompting long-term change. “It's a problem that goes way deeper than dating, or gender, or power dynamics,” he says. “Fewer and fewer people know how to even ask questions of each other, much less listen, much less give. There's no feel-good example anywhere of what authentic, loving, caring, dating situations should even be like.” Melanie Breault, 29, nonprofit communications professional Melanie Breault, who lives in Brooklyn, is currently dating a few men and doesn’t consider herself completely heterosexual. “I’ve always been frustrated with the [male] entitlement piece,” she says. “There are moments where you get so goddamned tired of saying the same things to dudes who are never going to get it.” Breault still considers herself somewhat lucky when it comes to her experiences with men. “I’ve had a lot of more ‘aware’ men in my life who I have been able to have good, fun, exciting sexual experiences with that don’t make me feel uncomfortable,” she says. She remembers one man who communicated about consent in a way that felt especially healthy. The first time they slept together, “he took off his belt and went to put it around my hands, but first he asked, ‘Is this OK?’” Melanie Breault Christopher Gregory / for NBC News Still, she acknowledges that in casual dating situations, it can be tough to figure out “what you're both comfortable with, and [navigate] the power dynamics that exist in heterosexual relationships.” For example, she recalls one “borderline assault” with a “liberal bro type” who relentlessly pressured her into having sex with him: “It was one of those grey areas; I told him I didn't want to do anything, but I was staying over at his place and he kept pushing me until I just said yes." One of the challenges, as the MeToo movement’s founder, Tarana Burke, noted in a January interview, is that many American women have been conditioned to be people-pleasers. “Socially we’re trained out of knowing our own sexual desires,” said Chan, the sex educator, who says she regularly works with groups of young people who aren’t setting clear boundaries because they “don’t want to hurt someone's feelings.” Part of the problem, Breault said, is what she grew up learning from peers in her rural Connecticut town. “My peers — not my parents — taught me all kinds of bull----, like that if you don't want to have sex with [a guy,] you still have to get him off.” Until early adulthood, “I thought I had to do that to protect myself,” she says. “Why is the responsibility always on the woman?” Alea Adigweme, 33, writer and graduate student at the University of Iowa Alea Adigweme, of Iowa City, identifies as a “cis queer woman engaged to a man” and says she’s still trying to parse the ways that the revelations around MeToo have affected her relationship with her fiancé. “As somebody who's in graduate school in a media studies program, who thinks a lot about gender, race and sexuality, it's always been a part of [our] conversations,” she acknowledges. But she notes that, especially given her history of trauma — she was drugged and raped in 2013 — having a male partner in today’s climate bears its challenges. “I can't fault him for being socialized as a man in the United States,” she says. But “it’s impossible not to feel the reverberations in one's personal relationship, especially if one is in a personal relationship with a man.” Alea Adigweme Scott Morgan / for NBC News The current cultural spotlight on these issues has also caused Adigweme to “re-contextualize” behavior that she might have brushed off previously, both in and out of her relationship. “I have had varying types of negative experiences with men who’ve decided they deserved access to my body,” she says. “Having this conversation constantly in the news definitely brings up all of the old s--- that you think you’ve already dealt with.” She and her fiancé discussed the Aziz Ansari story when it broke, which helped start a conversation about “nice guys” who may not be legally crossing the line into abuse, but “are still doing things that feel like violation.”

Photo Stormy Daniels (second from right) and colleagues at the Adult Video News Awards in 2012. Credit Ethan Miller/Getty Images Last January, I was waiting behind a velvet rope on a red carpet at the Adult Video News Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Steps away from the slot machines, photographers and video crews lined up next to me. Adult film stars like Nina Hartley, Jessica Drake and even Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, paused and posed for the cameras. Except on this red carpet, unlike the hundreds I’ve stood on to cover film premieres, theater openings and fashion galas, begging everyone from Al Gore to Rihanna for a minute and a half of their time, the honorees at the AVN Awards weren’t being pulled away by publicists. Instead, the adult film stars wanted to talk. I was at the AVNs on assignment for a previous employer, New York Magazine. At the time, I was writing about topics like sexual violence, consent, Title IX and the anti-rape movement on college campuses. The theory that adult film was shaping modern sexuality came up often in conversation. But, in the same breath, pornography was often dismissed as a subject that was too big, unwieldy, taboo and icky to tackle. But as I started reporting on adult film, I approached it as a beat like any other, and I found that performers wanted to talk. They understood their significance in American culture, even if no one else did. Whatever you think about adult film, it is one of the most consumed forms of media in the world. Pornhub, the popular pornography website, draws 80 million visitors a day. Exact figures for the size of the industry are scarce, but experts put total sales around a billion dollars a year. Plus, studies show that adult film has become a form of sex education for young people around the world. Continue reading the main story It is also, now, a regular subject in the news. A top adult film star, Jessica Drake, is one of the women who has accused President Donald J. Trump of sexual assault (he has denied the allegations). And of course, Stormy Daniels, whom I profiled with two colleagues, Matt Flegenheimer and Rebecca R. Ruiz, in a front-page story yesterday, is suing Mr. Trump, with whom she claimed she had a consensual affair, in order to be released from a nondisclosure agreement signed shortly before the 2016 election. But gradually, the subject of adult film is getting a closer look. In 2014, scholars founded the academic journal “Porn Studies.” In 2015, the actress Rashida Jones produced a documentary, “Hot Girls Wanted,” on the amateur porn scene in South Florida. The film later became a Netflix series of the same name and remains a major subject of conversation in adult film circles. Recently, a New York Times Magazine cover story, “What Teenagers Are Learning From Online Porn,” explored how much pornography teens consume and what effects it is having on their personal lives. Still, the industry remains shrouded in mystery, and very little has been written about the companies who make adult film. For example: Who owns them? When were they founded? How do they make money? Is it true that one company owns most of the content produced on the web? (Yes — MindGeek.) How hard was it for Ms. Clifford to become a top adult film performer and director? To learn as much as possible, I traveled to industry conferences like XBIZ Miami, AVN in Las Vegas and Exxxotica New Jersey to meet industry leaders and understand their careers. I interviewed dozens of performers, agents, lawyers, producers, webcam models, website hosts and even executives from billing companies about how their jobs have evolved with changing technology. I discovered issues that exist within the industry that the mainstream media avoids. Sexual assault and the #MeToo movement have come to adult film sets, with major accusations of sexual assault levied against prominent performers. Workers are organizing and demanding rights through a newly established union. In addition to exploitation within the industry, adult film performers say their work makes it difficult to get basic services like bank accounts. As her lawsuit against Mr. Trump proceeds, it seems Ms. Clifford will remain in the public eye for some time to come — and with that may come a shift that finally puts this powerful business into focus.

Stormy Daniels enters federal court in Manhattan, April 16, 2018. By Lucas Jackson/Reuters. It wasn’t so long ago that the sort of person who made their livelihood by starring in a film called Sexbots: Programmed for Pleasure, or who staged a nationwide strip-club tour under the banner “Make America Horny Again,” would have had some serious credibility issues. Yet ever since she emerged as a fetching national figure, Stephanie Clifford, the adult-film actress and exotic dancer known as Stormy Daniels, has resoundingly appeared more credible than the president. It’s the result, certainly, of Trump’s own complications with honesty, or “white lies” as Hope Hicks once called them, which brings to mind the novelist Mary McCarthy’s bon mot about the dramatist Lillian Hellman: “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” And it also has something to do with Clifford’s sangfroid as a canny, press-savvy entrepreneur and entertainer. Fellow performers and friends have praised her fearlessness and candor. She seemed preternaturally collected during her much-hyped appearance on 60 Minutes. Indeed, after federal agents raided the office and hotel room of Michael Cohen, who offered Clifford $130,000 in hush money, it is the president who has seemed ruffled and the porn star who seems demure. One presumes they will both be watching her appearance on The View on Tuesday. But Clifford’s credibility also owes to a less obvious transformation that took place during the 1990s, when the culture, if inadvertently, was beginning to normalize porn. Long considered a medium that degraded women, exploited actors, and de-valued sexual intimacy, pornography began gaining mainstream traction in the 1980s. It became inexpensive and ubiquitous thanks to videotapes, cable, satellite, pay-per-view, and CD-ROMs, developing into a multi-billion-dollar industry. The infamous sex tape of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee (a private video stolen from their Malibu home and then dispensed across the digital ether) is considered by many to have been a watershed in driving first-time browsers to the fledgling Internet. So-called pornos lost much of their stigma: the corner Blockbuster stocked them, they were a safe-sex alternative in the shadow of the AIDS pandemic, and portable camcorders allowed frisky amateurs to roll their own. After the introduction of the World Wide Web, in 1991, a new boom followed: online porn, which opened the kimono to every age, demo, geographic region, and kink. And with a culturally progressive president occupying the White House, porn prosecutions—which had been on the rise under Ronald Reagan—virtually dried up. “There wasn’t one [major] pornography conviction in the U.S. during the entire eight years Clinton was in office,” says the former smut publisher (now high-end art-book editor) Dian Hanson. At the same time, baby boomers were coming of age, and many of them, children of the counterculture, considered porn a form of pop-culture camp. The guy and gal next door suddenly realized that they, too, could make a career for a while by getting down and dirty in front of a video camera. Hard-core actors such as Jenna Jameson, Jeff Stryker, and Ron Jeremy were becoming household names. Porn’s tropes invaded gangsta rap and music videos. Porn’s legends were depicted in splashy Hollywood features: between them, The People vs. Larry Flynt and Boogie Nights would land five Oscar nominations. The 90s was also a period of peak erotic indulgence and adult entertainment. Massage parlors and “spas”—fronts for sexual favors—set up shop in suburban strip malls. Several thousand gentleman’s clubs, many of them decidedly upscale, operated across the heartland. The stories and struggles of exotic dancers, adult-film performers, escorts, and sex workers—who were often socially and economically disadvantaged to begin with—surfaced in the press and on the screen. Americans everywhere knew the narratives of countless other Stormy Danielses—women and men who were their neighbors, their acquaintances, the characters in their favorite films. Which is another way of saying that Clifford’s stock-in-trade had become rather ho-hum—a career so common that it would not disqualify someone like her from comporting (or posing for pictures) with a future president—a man whose name until recently graced Atlantic City’s Taj Mahal, once home to a strip club. All of this occurred against the backdrop of the tabloidization of the news. In the 80s and 90s, news items that involved infidelity, crime, violence, or graphic footage were referred to, among America’s editors and news directors, as sexy. The 24/7 news wars—first waged in 1996 when MSNBC and Fox News were launched as rivals to CNN—helped amplify salacious stories that in earlier years would have been pushed to the margins. Meanwhile, TV newsmagazines and supermarket tabloids were turning the nocturnal exploits of public personalities into addictive serials. Jim Bakker/Jessica Hahn begat Gary Hart/Donna Rice begat Bill Clinton/Gennifer Flowers, ad infinitum. (In the current scandal, The National Enquirer has remained front and center, its parent company, American Media Inc., having bought and shelved the story of Karen McDougal, a onetime Playboy model who claims to have maintained a year-long relationship with the married president.) And now, of course, Clifford seems almost a conventional player in a Trump-era news cycle that has brought us Anthony Scaramucci, Don King, and the Mnuchins taking selfies at the U.S. Mint. During these crazy days, a scandal with a porn star is at least a crisis with precedent.

An actor who appeared in the smash hit Black Panther has been forced to confront his past after being exposed as a former gay adult film performer. Atlanta-based Patrick Shumba Mutukwa was touring his home country of Zambia talking about the film when images from an adult film he starred in when he was in his 20s began circulating online. In a statement put out by his publicist, Larissa Long of BlueRed Communications, Mutukwa took about as sex-negative a stance on his past as possible, calling it “unsavory,” an “errored decision,” and “immature behavior.” Related: Students shocked to discover their math teacher is a “hot bear” adult film star And just try and follow this next bit of logic: He also deactivated all his social media accounts because “he knows there are children engaged with him that he knows should not witness the video.” Read the full statement below: Recently there was an unsavory video released of Shumba Mutukwa to the Zambian public from his 20s. He was a young man that made a choice not all may agree with however, it does not change who Mr. Mutukwa is as a man, philanthropist, or actor. Mr. Mutukwa has grown and learned from his past as we all do. Although he recognizes his errored decision he does own up to the immature behavior in his past. There is nothing more he can do but continue to use his celebrity to better the country of Zambia. He temporarily closed down his social media accounts only because he knows there are children engaged with him that he knows should not witness the video. He asks that people refrain from sharing the video on social media to look out for young eyes. Again, he was a young man himself and is not the same youthful person he was. His life is dedicated to bettering others and what he did in his past has nothing to do with what he’s accomplished and will continue to accomplish. He has strong pride in Zambia and works hard to make the country and its citizens proud. That is his path and he has proven well beyond a doubt that who he is today and will be in the future. The man you’ve grown to love, not the youth that makes immature decisions. For any questions or statements on this matter please contact Mr. Mutuka’s publicist Larissa Long. “Thank you for understanding we all make mistakes but know I will continue to bring pride to Zambia. My growth continues in everything I do from errors to successes.” -Shumba Related: ‘The Sun’ tastelessly outs nurse as gay adult film star, and readers are furious Mutukwa then posted a poem on his Facebook account called 99 Things. He’s also been posting regularly on Facebook since the news hit, making that bit about deactivating all social media accounts for the children even more of a head-scratcher.

Theo Ford. PIC: Mark Henderson Theo Ford playing a doctor for a role Theo Ford Promo pic for Naked Swords Paris Perfect Theo Ford. PIC: LUKEography Theo Ford. PIC: LUKEography Theo Ford Promo pic for Gay of Thrones Theo Ford. PIC: LUKEography Theo Ford. PIC: Mark Henderson Meet Theo Ford – the Irish star of adult film who says his wholesome Waterford upbringing nurtured his sexuality and inspired his 130-movie career in international porn. Theo, 29, travels the world on a French passport but he credits his teenage years spent in Waterford city for allowing him to safely explore his sexuality and instill the confidence needed to take on a successful career in X-rated film. Born to French parents in Nice, Theo and his sister spent their secondary years in Munster, as his father's work brought the family to Ireland. After a brief stint in Dublin City University, a 19-year-old Theo was signed to a French modelling agency in 2007 and moved to Paris. Theo Ford. PIC: LUKEography In 2013, the then 24-year-old was approached by an adult film producer who had come across his pictures. Since landing his first role, Theo has starred in 130 films and travelled the globe, settling in stints in Sydney, Los Angeles and New York. Theo Ford. PIC: LUKEography Speaking to Independent.ie, Theo said: “I grew up in Waterford in the most incredible environment thanks to the private Quaker school I attended. Waterford was such a safe environment to grow up in and explore my sexuality. “It was a boarding school but I was a day pupil as I lived just down the road. We had huge freedoms and I took my fair share of it, and then some. I was allowed to grow into myself in the most special ways and for that I will be eternally blessed. Even though I don’t limit myself to nationality I always say I’m Irish.” Theo Ford “When I moved to Paris I was signed to a modelling agency. I had professional pictures online and those caught the attention of a producer for a new studio. When he contacted me online I didn’t know what to think. I guess my deeply curious nature just wanted to hear him out. I had no idea what was to come.” “That first time on set, I was petrified. I’m not exactly sure what happened. I think I left my body half way through. Thankfully I kept filming and I became a true professional and a hard worker… pun intended. I love being on set now. I feel fulfilled. I know what I am doing.” Theo Ford playing a doctor for a role While unwilling to discuss income, Theo divulges that he is paid by scene, which can range from “a few hundred pounds to a few thousand” depending on the film’s budget and take between two hours and a whole day to film. And while his latest flick Paris Perfect, in which he plays an insatiable French butler, has been nominated in several categories at the Grabby Awards (“the Oscars of gay porn”), Theo sees the fun in some of the more quirky roles he’s taken on. Promo pic for Gay of Thrones “Most of the time I’m goofing around and making jokes. Mostly to the dismay of my producers. “I shot an incredible series for the studio MEN.COM, it was a parody of Game of Thrones called Gay of Thrones. I played the male version of Red Priestess Melisandre.” Promo pic for Naked Swords Paris Perfect Naturally, Theo says his career is “extremely physically demanding” and he works out daily, often with a trainer, to make sure his rock hard abs are a permanent fixture. But his mental health can be harder to keep in check. Theo Ford. PIC: LUKEography The star – who goes by an alias to protect his personal life – said he was devastated when his short-lived marriage to an American model ended in divorce in 2016. “When I moved to Sydney that was to please my husband at the time. We separated soon after moving there and I sent him back home to Los Angeles. “That left me deeply alone and truly scared. I cannot recollect a time where I felt so raw emotionally. On top of it all I was in a foreign land where my differences were not celebrated. Theo Ford. PIC: Mark Henderson “Thankfully my resilience has held me together. “You shed your soul on camera and that can be taxing so you really do need to feel empowered and in control of yourself. “I have been filming much less which is essential to build myself back up after the tough couple of years I have had.” While he often tackles his career with his tongue in cheek, Theo is very serious when it comes to sexual health and refuses to work with studios who don’t prioritise safety. HIV-negative Theo has been open about taking pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily drug which dramatically reduces the risk of a contracting the infection, and says it has made the adult film world a much safer professional space. “For me it is essential to be in control of my own health. “There are some studios who do not care at all about testing models. For me that is simply heinous and simply a gross negligence. “Some studios will either lie or not care so they can shoot the scene they want. With regular testing, PrEP and condoms the industry is mainly a safe environment to be in which I am grateful for.” The star has amassed almost 120k fans on Twitter and Instagram and says a hugely positive aspect of his career has been to help educate younger LGBTQ youth. “I have amazing fans. I would never be here without them. They send me so much love and support especially through social media. They are so loving and respectful that I can only be thankful in return. “To me the most valuable part of my career is having a platform to promote education," said Theo who has also studied fashion design at Studio Berçot in Paris and creative writing at London City University in the past. “Education encompasses sexual health, diversity, acceptance, and tearing down misconceptions. “I was given a voice through my job to promote positivity and it’s simply about speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves; showing people you can be happy and successful no matter what path you want to take.” The sculpted star, who now bases himself in London, said he’s lucky to have been surrounded by family who are supportive of his career. “My family knows. They find it somewhat interesting. My sister is my biggest supporter. She is smart enough to see my career for what it is. “I make my own way in life so they are happy I am accomplished and proud to own who I am and what I do.” Theo’s job might be a far cry from the standard nine to five, but his aspirations are closer to earth. “I’d love to learn a fourth language if my brain can cope and I would like to get married again for sure and start a family with the man I love and continue my travels.” Theo says his future travels will certainly take him back home to Waterford which he has mentally made a priority. “I had a family weekend last October in Waterford which was very pleasant. I do need to make it a priority to come back on a more regular basis. “There’s amazing places to film in Ireland after all!”

She says her past career choice has made her “fearless.” Even if you don’t know the name Jessie Andrews, there’s a strong possibility someone around you does. To one person, she might be described as a former porn star—her original claim to fame—or the model who used to appear in American Apparel ads back in the day. Maybe she’s that cool girl they follow on Instagram, with thousands of followers, note-worthy friends, and an enviable feed. But for fashion lovers, Andrews is someone to watch: A designer, CEO, and overall business women, who founded and runs a growing list of brands like Bagatiba, Basic Swim, Jeu Illimite, and Petiue. Andrews talks about her small empire so casually that it might take you a moment to realize just how brilliant she is. With no prior experience in the fashion world, she’s managed to get her pieces on the likes of Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Kaia Gerber, and a long list of “It girls,” and she’s only been at it for a total of six years. Even more impressive, Andrews is basically a one-woman show: She designs, organizes, packs, and even ships her stuff herself—it was only recently that she hired another person to help her out. Plus, her success is based on merit alone. Jessie is quick to admit that she kept identity hidden at first, simply because she knew the stigma associated with her porn career. So what made her pursue fashion? How did she get her start? What have been the most valuable lessons she’s learned and what’s next for this multi-talented human? We found out when Andrews visited out office for a flawless photoshoot and an eye-opening chat. Were you into fashion as a child? “I was a tomboy and didn’t really get into fashion until I was older. I grew up in Miami, and went to a public school, and we had uniforms. The [only] individuality that you could have were, like, your shoes and the color coordination. You wore Converse or Vans, and either white, black, khaki, or navy blue. And you wore a white polo shirt and Dickies. Or a skirt if you wanted, but I always wore pants.” What did you originally want to be when you grew up? “When I was young, I was like, ‘Chef... firefighter…’ You get all these careers pushed on you. But in high school, I remember thinking, ‘I hate school, and I never want to go to college.’ They don’t give you the option to be an entrepreneur—they say you have to go to college, become an architect, get a PhD in this or that. There’s nothing that says, ‘You can own your own business. You can make a living without having to do one of these long, waited-out careers, like a doctor or a dentist.’ I think that’s all part of a bigger thing—saying you have to get married, saying you have to go to college, that you have to open the retirement fund. We’re programmed to do these things, but there’s no rule book that says you have to, and I think career choice is also one of those things.” Do you remember the first thing you designed? “I really got into design around 19 or 20, when I started Bagatiba in 2012. I found one of those amazing finger bracelets in a store—where a ring is attached to a bracelet—and I was like, ‘Wow, this thing is beautiful.’ It was a couple hundred dollars, and I’d never wore jewelry before because I hated taking it on and off, so I didn’t know how much jewelry cost. I thought, ‘Who’s going to buy that? There must be other girls who want the same piece, but not for a couple hundred dollars.’ I had a guy friend who made men’s jewelry, and he took me to the place where I still make my jewelry [and they made it for me]. I was like, ‘That was so easy!’ Now they make most of my stuff. I’m like, ‘Here’s this design. Can you do 10 pieces for me?’” You’ve said in the past that your background in porn made you fearless. Can you elaborate on that? “Porn is a career where you’re judged on every single thing you do, from your looks, to your body, to your mentality, to the way you can act. I think learning that at a young age has just helped me become who I am today, and not fear being judged. I’ve read the worst things [about myself] on the Internet, I’ve taken the worst photos, so there’s nothing that I fear. Going into something new, nobody can say anything or do anything that will make me be like, ‘Oh, no! I’m going to have a bad day!’” You’ve had a few different careers in your life, so what made you pursue designing? Was it just more fulfilling? “Porn and DJing were careers that I knew weren’t going to have longevity. I wanted to be able to build a future for myself, so I had given them a time cap. When I felt that I did as much as I could in that career, I was like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ Designing is fulfilling, but I think owning your own brand and learning every different aspect of a business is what keeps me fulfilled and occupied. In the morning, I’m going to the sample maker, in the afternoon I’m going to find buttons, at 1pm I have a marketing meeting with a beauty company—there are so many different little avenues that keep me busy. I know that when I’m like, 50 or 60, I could still sit here on my email like, ‘Hey, what do you guys think about this?’ My mind is what’s going to keep me going. If I break a hand, it’s okay. I’m still going to be able to work.” How does lifestyle come into play with your brand? “I think my market is girls who are very consistent, rather than the girl who’s [into] every trend and wants everything that Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid are wearing every week. That’s not my kind of style. I like to wear the same things, the same kind of pattern, but different variations, mixing, matching. I can remember wearing the same summer dress five years ago. Sometime I look at brands and I’m like, ‘Every collection could be a new girl,’ and you lose your customers from that. The French, laidback girl is not gonna want to be the I.AM.GIA girl next season, and vice versa. “As I get older, I imagine I’ll design more contemporary pieces. Even with my jewelry design, I’ve gone more minimalistic and then abstract sometimes, but I still keep the core, layered necklaces. The same with Jeu Illimite—I’ll do a flare pant and then I’ll do summer dresses, but I still keep the core aesthetic, and that core girl that I want to portray. She’s a very natural, easygoing girl.” Would you say you’re more of an independent worker? “Definitely. I’ve never really been a relationship kind of person. I spent a good five years alone building all the brands and businesses, and I think that’s really contributed to how successful they are. The brands were like my significant other—I’d wake up and do everything for the brand. I believe in the saying, ‘If you want something done right, you need to do it yourself.’ Or, you need to be a very good delegator and teacher. I’ve taught [my assistant] certain things that I want her to handle, but there are still things like production, and billing, and taxes, and communicating with magazines and stylists [that I do]. If you were doing business with someone, wouldn’t you rather talk to the CEO than somebody who’s under them? That’s how I think. I’d much rather work with the person at the top, who knows every avenue, than the tenth person down, who’s lost some information along the way and could tell me something wrong.” What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from running your own businesses? “When you say you’re going to do something, you have to do it. If you put it off, it just creates so much mess. When I need to do something, I write it down. Even if it’s just a tiny, little thought, I’m like, ‘I have to do this. I have to send this email. I have to mail this out. I have to stop by the cleaner.’ I’m just very adamant about doing things when I say I’m going to do them, because I want other people to do the same. If I’m waiting five days for an invoice, I’m like, ‘Why do I need to remember in five days to remind you again? I just want to remind you once, and then you do it, and that’s done, and then the problem is solved.’” Do you have plans to do anything else, or branch off into another space? “With Virgil [Abloh] being appointed to Louis Vuitton, it’s exciting to see somebody with no prior experience in fashion prove that you can make a brand [like Off-White] from nothing and be competitive with other brands. You don’t have to be a fashion student to create a big brand, and you don’t have to have education and experience to be appointed to a big brand. It’s really exciting, because it opens up the future. Maybe when I’m 30—just as an example—I can be appointed to something like that. Maybe the message I use with branding and building a business can be applied to a bigger brand, because I think that’s what those big brands are looking towards. That could be the goal for the future. And also just to keep evolving my brands and reinventing the way that business is done; reinventing scaling, because I think there’s a problem with scaling in the world. You always think you need an investor and more money, but I think if you grow smaller, you grow smarter. Then, I’m doing a suncare, skincare line that launches later in the summer. After that, that should be it. But I always say that, and there’s always one more thing. [laughs]” What’s something that you wish people asked you about more often? “Innovating. People probably don’t know that a lot of the things that I create now are multi-wear and multi-use. Like, I’ll create an earring that can be worn two different ways; I’ll create a clip on a bikini that you can take on and off when you want to tan, so you don’t have the marks on you. And a dress or a romper that you can tie six different ways. I really love American Apparel for that—they had those dresses that you could tie all the crazy different ways. I hate the fashion of wearing one thing once and throwing it away, so I really try to make everything I do a multi-use product. I think at the end of the day, everybody’s doing the same hoops and the same necklaces and stuff, so it’s how you innovate those products.”

YOUTUBE playlists filled with child-friendly videos AND hardcore porn are putting kids at risk of seeing XXX clips online, The Sun can reveal. Pervy YouTube users are creating twisted playlists that start off with videos of colouring, cartoons and video games – but quickly descend into hardcore pornography. The Sun / YouTube Playlists start off with videos of children – but eventually switch to XXX videos A spokesperson from the NSPCC slammed YouTube over the fiasco, saying it risks giving children "a distorted view of sex, body image and healthy relationships". Last week, we revealed that YouTube was hosting XXX videos that had racked up millions of views. But some sickos are taking advantage of the YouTube's inability to keep smut off the video-sharing site. The Sun found at least nine different YouTube porn playlists that began with child-friendly videos. One playlist began with several clips about colouring in pictures, and eventually led to a video of an oral sex scene culminating in a man ejaculating on a woman's face – with genitals in full view. A censored version of one of the explicit sex scenes found on YouTube in a playlist containing videos for children Several other videos including explicit sex scenes, including clear footage of vaginas, breasts and penises. One particularly twisted clip featured women locked in cages and forced to have oral and vaginal sex with men. In some scenes, the women were held at gunpoint during intercourse, and were even being whipped. Women in the clip were physically injured and several graphic scenes involved blood. Google-owned YouTube's nudity and sexual content policy clearly prohibits this sort of content from being uploaded. "YouTube is not for pornography or sexually explicit content," the tech giant explains. "If this describes your video, even if it's a video of yourself, don't post it on YouTube. "If a video is intended to be sexually provocative, it is less likely to be acceptable for YouTube. "Sexually explicit content like pornography is not allowed." But the pornographic videos seen by The Sun were clearly intended to be erotic, and should not be seen by children. An anonymous Sun reader told us how they had been aware of these playlists for at least a year. "These sick people are using thumbnails for videos that are being directed towards luring kids to watch their videos," the concerned YouTube user told The Sun. "Then the playlist loads porn videos – so they watch a few kids vids and then the porn movie loads." YouTube by the numbers The facts... The first YouTube video was uploaded in April 2005 More than 1.3billion people use YouTube around the world Over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute More than 5billion videos are watch on YouTube each day YouTube is an American company, but 80% of its views come from outside the US More than half of YouTube views are from mobile devices – like phones or tablets Eight out of 10 18-49 year olds watch YouTube The situation for children on YouTube is worrying. Some adult-themed videos are placed behind an 18+ age restriction block. But YouTube doesn't actually check to make sure that users who say they're older than 18 actually that age. That means children can sign up to YouTube with a fake date of birth and access any video – including hardcore porn that's made it through YouTube's checks. Speaking to The Sun, an NSPCC spokesperson said: "Pornography gives children a distorted view of sex, body image and healthy relationships and in our research we found that nearly half of children who’ve seen pornography first stumbled on it by accident. “These videos, apparently hidden in seemingly child-friendly playlists, are a clear example of YouTube breaching its own guidelines. "Social networks and sites must prioritise child protection and we need the Government to step in and end the Wild West of the Web. "That includes a requirement for automatic safe accounts for under 18s, that should protect them from pornographic and inappropriate content.” According to a recent NSPCC report, 46% of children who've seen porn first saw it by accident. And nearly two-thirds of 15-16-year-olds have seen pornography. YouTube declined to comment on this story, but The Sun understands that the offending playlists have now been removed. Earlier this month, The Sun made YouTube aware of explicit porn playlists containing dozens of videos. After we exposed the shocking clips, YouTube took down a number of the offending videos. In a statement given at the time, a YouTube spokesperson said: "We do not allow pornography on YouTube. "We do allow videos with artistic or educational value but we apply an age restriction where appropriate." Our report following another Sun revelation that YouTube was showing pornographic ads on some videos. The raunchy advertisements directed users to webcam sex sites where punters pay for XXX performances live on camera. Following that article, a YouTube spokesperson told The Sun: "We have clear policies against ads featuring graphic adult content. "When we become aware of an ad that violates our policies, we immediately remove it and take appropriate action, including, and up to, suspending the responsible account." ORE-INSPIRING Discovery of £360bn rare metal on tiny Pacific island could change the world SKY EYE Bin your phone's rubbish weather app – Dark Sky tells you EXACTLY where it'll rain GOOD CALL Apple tipped to launch its biggest iPhone EVER – and it could cost under £400 faking it WhatsApp hoax that claims dodgy video will wipe your phone isn't a total fake HOT STUFF Using your iPhone in hot weather could 'permanently' ruin it's battery life And in March, a separate The Sun Tech report revealed how YouTube was pushing a rogue ad asking users to "order steroids". Anabolic steroids are a dangerous way to build muscle mass very quickly, and are controlled as Class C substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 in the UK. One concerned parent told us his kids had to watch the full 49-second steroids ad – which promised "fast results" with "no side effects" – before being able to see a video of kittens. We also recently revealed how YouTube's special app for children had video guides on how to make an air rifle. The YouTube Kids app also featured clips starring disgraced TV paedos Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris. Two days later, we showed how the YouTube Kids app had diet videos – despite being aimed at under-13s. Campaigners told how they feared youngsters viewing the clips could suffer eating disorders, body image problems and depression. Would you let your children on YouTube unsupervised? And do you think Google needs to do more to keep children safe on the site? Let us know in the comments!

CHIPPEWA FALLS — A 50-year-old Chippewa Falls woman accused of possessing child pornography and being party to soliciting a child for prostitution was convicted Friday of mental harm to a child and possession of methamphetamine. Nancy M. Johnson, 890 Pumphouse Road, pleaded no contest in Chippewa County Court to both counts, which are felonies. Judge James Isaacson ordered a pre-sentence investigation by the state Department of Corrections and set a sentencing date for July 16. “The state will not ask for prison if the (pre-sentence investigation) doesn’t recommend a prison sentence,” defense attorney Rich White told Isaacson in explaining a plea deal. Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell said as terms of the plea agreement, he also will not ask for a longer sentence — of any kind — than recommended by the pre-sentence investigation. According to the criminal complaint: A Chippewa Falls police officer obtained a search warrant in October to obtain Johnson’s cell phone. He found videos of a young girl, perhaps between age 4 and 6, and a young boy, likely between 8 and 10 years old. In one video, the girl was having sex with the young male, while an adult male and adult female touched her during intercourse. The officer also found a text message exchange between Johnson and an adult male, where she describes the girl’s physical attributes, and the man asks “you want an amount” (of money)? She wrote back that “nothing is off limits” and saying she thought it would be fun for the girl to join them for sexual intercourse. Johnson also was charged with three counts of theft and one count of misappropriating an ID, but those counts were read-in and dismissed. Johnson remains free on a cash bond.

“I wish that it wasn’t what all my interviews were about.” Tasha Reign is cheerful and patient, but she’s frustrated. I’m on the phone with Reign, an adult performer (porn star, porn actress, sex worker—many in the industry are catholic about the terms they use) and the chairperson of Adult Performer Advocacy Committee, better known by its acronym APAC, asking about the five porn actresses who died recently within weeks of each other. I wish the media would cover the adult industry in times of goodness and happiness... instead of just when there are suicides and dark times. She keeps going. “I also wish that the media would cover the adult industry in times of goodness and happiness. When performers are being the artists that they are, and doing well and creating content and unique things and thriving, instead of just when there are suicides and dark times. I think that’s actually a huge part of the issue in and of itself.” Her frustration is understandable. The deaths of Shyla Stylez, August Ames, Olivia Nova, Yurizan Beltran, and Olivia Lua all occurred between November, 2017 and January, 2018. The tragic cluster got national media attention from all sorts of outlets, including places which only cover the industry when something outrageous happens—or when talking about the president. There was no direct connection between the deaths, which happened for a variety of reasons ranging from suicide to sepsis to overdose. “I would love if there were one clear solution for why we’ve lost the five performers in the past few months,” says Mike Stabile, the communications director for the Free Speech Coalition, an industry advocacy group. “I don’t think there is. If there were, it would be so much easier.” Similarly, the mononymed Ruby, the vice president of the Adult Performers Actors Guild (APAG), a performers’ union, points out that the deaths mirror rising rates nationally of suicide and drug addiction. “They were bound to reflect in our industry,” she comments via email. What Stabile, Reign, Ruby, and other performers and advocates are trying to do is take on a number of issues that affect their sex worker compatriots. They want to make a stigmatized and sometimes economically precarious job safer. And, as with any profession—and certainly this cinematic variation on the oldest one—the way to improve things lies first and foremost in listening to the people who do it. Suicide, as many of the people I talked to in the industry pointed out, is sadly common in many artistic communities. Mia Li, APAC’s president and an adult performer and cam model, noted that she’s seen more than her share of suicides in the peer groups of artists she knows. Image via Getty/Chris Hondros One thing artistic people of all kinds have in common? They’re frequently freelancers, living from short-term job to short-term job. What has come to be called the “gig economy” has workers of all sorts in its clutches, but as with most labor issues, sex workers have been on the leading edge. And the financial stresses of surviving check-to-check can weigh on people who already have to run what amounts to an entire small business by themselves. “There’s a lot of financial stress,” Li tells me. “It’s hard to predict what your next month, what your next week will look like. What do you do when you do need to take that self care day? What do you do if you get into an accident? Those are things that really challenge us because it’s hard to predict our income since our income is so hinged on our ability to perform.” And compensation for that performing is on a downward trajectory. Pay for filming movies has gone down since the introduction of widespread internet piracy and its frequent companion, YouTube-style sites like Pornhub (frequently referred to collectively as “tube sites”). Scenes that used to get performers between $1,500 and $5,000 now pay as low as $600, according to APAG Secretary Kelly Pierce. Not only pay, but the quality of work—and the quality of the performers’ experience—has suffered as well, according to Ruby. “It’s now about clicks and shock value rather than art,” she writes. “It’s hurt the performers in the industry, because it has driven rates down and expectations of what will be shown up.” Attendees take photos of adult film actress Kissa Sins at the Jules Jordan Video booth at the 2018 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 24, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) One thing that has remained constant in the porn world is the stigma. “Once that line is crossed where another person on camera is touching your genitals, or you’re touching theirs, that is a line that can’t be taken back,” Nina Hartley, a veteran performer who has been in movies since the mid-1980s, explains. Tasha Reign remembers first expressing interest in being in adult films, and having a makeup artist friend take her to a set to see what it was all about. She saw Selena Rose shoot a scene, and was hooked. (“I was like, ‘I’m sold! That’s what I want to do for work,’” Reign says excitedly when relaying the story to me.) And then a male performer on set offered to take her out to eat after hearing she was interested in joining his ranks. “When he took me to dinner, he was like, ‘Please don’t do this job. People will reject you and treat you so differently. I don’t think you understand,’” Reign recalls. “And he tried to explain it, but there’s just no way to explain what it’s like to wake up and have your entire community basically turn their backs on you because they think that what you do is morally wrong or there’s something wrong with you. It’s a horrible feeling.” Siouxsie Q. James, APAC secretary and host of the Whorecast, finds herself in the position of giving similar warnings to new talent. “I tell people when they enter the industry, ‘If you are on the internet in any capacity as a sex working person, you are now a whore forever.’ And I say that with all the love in my heart, but with all the reality in my heart. Porn is forever. You want to go work in a strip club for a couple of months, keep your face off the internet. Work your shift, make your money, go home. There's a possibility there. But with porn, you have that scarlet letter forever, and it can and it will affect your life, because the stigma associated with our industry is so fierce and so cruel.” That stigma—that being sexual in public is wrong—spills out into every aspect of society. It can get you fired. It can cause you to be shunned by those closest to you. It can make it harder to report sexual harassment or assault, whether on the job or otherwise. It can even make it tough to find a doctor or a therapist. James informs me bluntly that something as simple as routine doctor visits can be difficult for sex workers. “It was such a slap in the face,” she remembers about attitudes held by medical professionals. “I had medical providers tell me to get a different job, because I came in and had a cold or something. How traumatic is it, in each of our lives, when we go to see our gynecologist, and we talk about what we do? It sucks every time.” Even finding a therapist can be tough, she continues. “I've had mental health providers ask me on the first day if my job is a form of self-harm. I'm like, ‘I'm here to talk about my mother. The job's fine.’” “I've had mental health providers ask me on the first day if my job is a form of self-harm. I'm like, ‘I'm here to talk about my mother. The job's fine.’” “There's this trigger point for so many people in our community of not having safe access to health care,” James sums up. “Be it mental health, or addiction resources, or even just going to the gynecologist. There's a gap. There's a real, tangible gap there right now.” To Scarlett Sin, a “professional dominant” who has a psychology degree and a Master of Social Work and serves as FSC’s new Social Work and Health Systems Specialist, the issues with doctors and therapists start even before they begin practicing. “Those problems start out from the programs themselves where people come from,” she tells me. “There really is no focus on what sex work is and isn’t. There’s still the victim narrative of sex workers and assigning fault on why someone might become a sex worker. So that already taints how a mental health professional might approach a sex worker. Pair that with all the other stigmatization, it becomes really difficult for someone who is a sex worker to find a professional. I’m not just necessarily talking about a mental health professional, but any professional.” Adult film actress/director Stormy Daniels attends the 2018 Adult Video News Awards at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 27, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images) Despite the obstacles, many performers love the work they do, and the freedom it provides them. But sex workers are finding that they are not immune from the country’s changing political climate. In 2016, the GOP added an amendment to its official platform declaring pornography a “public health crisis” and a “menace” that is “destroying the life [sic] of millions.” And the party’s victorious presidential candidate, who has tied himself in knots in order to win the fealty of the religious right, shows no signs of challenging his party’s stance on porn, despite his own alleged dalliances with those in the business. Like the many groups with which their population overlaps—LGBTQ folks, people of color, immigrants—sex workers find themselves in the crosshairs over the past year. “Sex workers are a marginalized community,” Mike Stabile reminds me. “A lot of the people in the community identify as queer. It’s a wide variety of races. I think that in the past year, politically, we have felt under assault. I think that a lot of people who live in marginalized communities have felt devalued or that their existence is at risk. There’s definitely a sense, for a lot of people, that things are maybe not changing for the better for them.” Scarlett Sin looks at the idea of increasing marginalization under Trump in a slightly different way. “The way I would phrase the question is: Are there added stressors to people that are already facing stigmatization because of their involvement in sex work?” she clarifies. “If you are a person of color, if you are a trans person, if you are undocumented, if you are a woman—there are so many factors that play in so many communities that I can say with some level of confidence feel under attack.You’re definitely seeing a lot of that trickle into folks in this industry as well. We are not impervious to that kind of bigotry and violence.” Webcam model Kati3kat accepts the award for Favorite Cam Girl during the 2018 Adult Video News Awards at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 27, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) But despite all of the difficulties, pretty much everyone I talked to is hopeful and actively involved in serious efforts to make things better. Kelly Pierce tells me that APAG is in the midst of creating a suicide prevention line and an online support group, trying to fund a health center, creating a checklist for performers and producers, setting up health care, and more. Tasha mentions APAC’s Bill of Rights. Siouxsie says the organization is helping performers with taxes, and is working on a list of sex-positive doctors and therapists. “I'm optimistic about the future,” she says. “The adult film performer community knows its power. And now we know how to organize.” And things on the business side are looking up, too. Camming—broadcasting yourself online live to a paying audience—has been dominating the adult business over the past five years, not least because the resulting content is much more difficult to pirate than movies. At the most recent AVN Adult Entertainment Expo (the industry’s most famous trade show) this past January, the big booths traditionally taken up by the biggest film companies like Vivid Entertainment instead belonged to companies that provided camming platforms. To Nina Hartley, it makes perfect sense. She breaks down the math for me. “All any individual cam performer needs is 100 clients in the whole world to give her 50 bucks a month, each. Now, the further you are away from traditional beauty standards, the harder it might be to find these 100 people. But when you do, they’ll never leave. Once a fetishist finds their thing, they’re incredibly loyal.” Image via Getty/Ollie Millington And the women (and men) still making films are taking more control of their careers than ever before. You no longer need the backing of the studio or a giant crew to make a movie—and that means that performers have more involvement in the business side of the adult business than ever before. In fact, between camming and the ability to make movies without involving a studio thanks to smartphones, the porn world is undergoing something of a Marxist revolution. More than one person I interviewed for this story talked about performers “seizing the means of production” as if they had just finished reading Das Kapital. “Performers are also producers, they’re also casting agents, they’re also the marketing directors, they’re also social media mavens,” says Scarlett Sin. “[They] literally have to wear a dozen different hats.” “I'm just not an adult film performer. I am the CEO of a multi media marketing business,” seconds Siouxsie Q. James. “I'm writing the copy. I'm the CFO. I'm also the talent. I'm also the talent coordinator. I'm also the booker. I'm also the producer. Sometimes I'm the videographer.” Nina Hartley tells me the multi-tasking necessary now to make a career is actually leading to performers sticking around longer, and in turn to building the kind of community necessary to resist the difficulties the world throws at them. “We have people coming to stay,” she says. “People who come in are a little more organized; they understand what they’re doing a little better than they did in the past because they grew up in a porn world, they understood what is was about better, and they’re entrepreneurial, they’re aggressive, they’re ambitious, they’re adventuresome young people. They feel more of a community than they did before because they’re staying, and that’s really great.” Image via Getty/Gabriel Bouys But community within the business itself can only go so far. Alana Evans, APAG’s Vice President, ends our conversation with a crucial message on what her industry needs from a wider world that needs its product while shunning and stigmatizing the people who create it. “While the world sees us falling into crisis, there are those of us here who are coming together as quickly as we can to help the people that we care about, which is all of our performers within the industry,” she closes. “And having support and love from the outside world without the hate and judgment is really the biggest thing that we can ask for.” It’s a sentiment James seconds. having support and love from the outside world without the hate and judgment is really the biggest thing that we can ask for. “Humanize us in your interactions with your peers,” she suggests. “When someone comes out to you as a sex worker, support them and be nice. I've had activists compare the situation to being gay in the ‘80s. You didn't think that you knew someone who was gay. But now most of us know several gay people, even if they're not out to us yet. “It's the same with sex work. You think you may not know a sex worker, but you probably do. And if you display that you're a nice, safe person about sex work, I bet you'll know a lot more sex workers pretty soon.”

PA Davide Buccheri created fake pornographic photos of Ms Baker and posted them online, a court heard Davide Buccheri, 25, allegedly took his revenge to discredit Rebecca Baker after she rebuffed his "unwanted romantic advances". The fund manager's assistant is accused of carrying out a campaign of harassment over seven months when they both worked at leading investment firm M&G in London. Prosecutors claimed yesterday he first targeted Miss Baker when she joined the company as an intern in September 2016. Advances She agreed to go for a coffee with him but refused to give him her phone number, Hendon magistrates court in north-west London heard. The defendant uploaded images of Miss Baker into galleries of pornographic females similar to Miss Baker Prosecutor Aimee Emby told the court Buccheri then allegedly sent her messages on the internal email system. They ranged from "gushy" to "threatening," said Miss Baker. After she rejected his advances, he allegedly copied photos of her from social media pages. Using the alias "Flying Gerbil", he uploaded them to an adult website alongside images of porn stars between April 15 and 21 last year, it was claimed. He then alerted M&G's human resources department using an internal whistleblowing system. STEVE REIGATE Prosecutors claimed Davide Buccheri first targeted Ms Baker when she joined the company as an intern Miss Baker told the court she was left "devastated and embarrassed" when she heard her photos had appeared on the website. She said his messages to her had at first been "friendly and I felt obliged to keep it that way". The 22-year-old added: "I felt bad for him in that I did not have his interest. I had made it quite clear that I wanted to maintain a professional relationship. "He sent me a long, gushy email. He gave me his mobile number despite me not giving him mine. I felt uncomfortable." Another message told how "he was disappointed that I had broken his trust and I was lucky that he had been nice because things could have gone badly for me", she added. Buccheri, an Italian who lived in London at the time but has since returned to Bologna, denies harassment without violence. Prosecutor Aimee Emby told the court yesterday: "Between April 15 and 21, last year, the course of the harassment took a distinct turn. PA Davide Buccheri outside court yesterday "The defendant uploaded images of Miss Baker into galleries of pornographic females similar to Miss Baker. "They were given names, which on at least one occasion had the name Becca in the title. "The defendant contacted the human resources department reporting her for inappropriate conduct. "He reported her again, reporting the existence of pornographic images. This was done to cause her upset and harassment." Miss Emby claimed Buccheri set out to cause the Durham University graduate serious distress between September 2016 and May last year. The trial continues.

An online world where people can have virtual sex with 3D versions of 700 real-life porn stars now exists. Berlin-based company Me.mento 3D has launched a digital platform known as 'vrXcity,' where users can take part in simulated sexual encounters with their favourite adult movie actresses. The company says it is set to revolutionise the porn industry when it is launched this summer. Participants wear VR goggles and remote controls which appear as hands on the screen that can touch and grope the adult virtual actresses. Berlin-based company Me.mento 3D has launched a digital platform known as 'vrXcity'(Image: CEN/Redbux) There are 700 adult movie actresses that have already been scanned into the database(Image: CEN/Redbux) Participants wear VR goggles and remote controls which appear as hands on the screen that can touch and grope the virtual porn stars

Harriet SugarCookie talks to Harmony 2.0 Harriet Sugarcookie, 22, runs her own adult movie company and has won a raft of awards for her videos. The cam girl and model, who lives in London, has been raking in up to £150,000 a year with tens of thousands of adoring fans. But Brits are struggling to get a break in porn and many have flocked to the US . Harriet told Daily Star Online: “I have heard a lot of complaints from UK porn stars that there is not as much work in the UK as there used to be. HARRIET SUGARCOOKIE/ INSTAGRAM THRIVING: Harriet Sugarcookie has been raking in hundreds of thousands a year “But with the UK Government’s constant anti-porn measures it’s not a surprise that companies that are mobile like mine take their business elsewhere.” Theresa May’s Government announced in June 2017 that people wishing to access porn sites would have to provide age verification. Matt Hancock, the minister of state for digital and culture, said the block would be “fully in place” by April 2018. Brit porn star Harriet SugarCookie’s SEXIEST selfies XXX adult actress Harriet SugarCookie is the ultimate geeky glamourpuss Harriet SugarCookie Harriet SugarCookie poses in a barely-there robe and little else Harriet Sugarcookie's tips on taking the perfect sexy snap “There is not as much work in the UK as there used to be” Harriet Sugarcookie But there are fears such a system will create a huge database of people viewing porn – and their habits. Harriet decided to move her production company to Hungary and now has greater freedom with her work. She added: “It’s harder in the UK because we don’t have as big an industry as America. I know when I first came to the AVN Awards I felt a part of something, part of a real industry which I hadn’t in the UK before. The porn stars we have lost Since early 2017 we have sadly seen the tragic deaths of several porn stars. Instagram Poignant: August Ames' final Instagram post with her cat Kevin Famous webcam babe Harriet Sugarcookie on life in porn “Things feel more professional in America and even in other parts of Europe.” Daily Star Online previously revealed outrageous pictures from this year’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. Held since 1998, porn fans seek autographs, photo opportunities, and memorabilia of their idols.

Research shows that basically everyone with access to cellular service has sent an explicit message to someone in their lifetime. And it starts early, given that the average age a kid who gets a cell phone for the first time is 10 and a half years old, according to national data. A study published this month found that sexting is “becoming a normative component of teen sexual behavior and development,” as reported by the New York Times. Still, stories pop up all the time about teen “sexting scandals” or people being prosecuted for sending nudes. So is sexting legal or are we missing something? Sexting can mean a lot of things to different people. Some people sext using innuendo and emoji only, while others rely on perfectly lighted nudes to turn their partner on from far away. If you’re just talking about all the hot things you want to do to your partner, you’re in the clear, legally speaking. But if you’re sending actual photos, it’s an entirely different story in some circumstances. When adults sext, it’s usually (hopefully) consensual and therefore legal. Unless the pics are later distributed against someone’s consent, at which point they are subject to revenge porn laws, but let’s hold off on that for now. The trickiest thing is regulating teen sexting, which is, as previously mentioned, prevalent. Sexting among minors, even when totally consensual, is technically legal, but is often prosecuted using child pornography laws. It’s a tricky legal and ethical grey area, and to complicate matters, it’s often the young woman who bears the brunt of the punishment, which can have lasting effects. Again, there are some states that have specific teen sexting laws, and they usually involve some language about creating and sharing explicit images. The laws vary in severity. For example, according to Net Nanny, in Florida, “for the first offense, any minor caught sending, possessing or creating nude images of minors can receive a non-criminal violation, subject to a $60 fine or 8 hours of community service in addition to training or instructional classes about the dangers of sexting.” In Connecticut, “minors caught sexting will be charged with a misdemeanor, as of November 1, 2010. These individuals could face up to one year in prison in addition to a fine of $2,000.” In California, the state is attempting to protect minors for sexting and the law might be less draconian. Net Nanny explains, “California currently charges anyone who creates, distributes or possesses sexually explicit images of a minor under child pornography laws. A bill was recently proposed to reduce the punishment of any first time sexting offenders who are minors, with the punishment being community service and mandatory counseling.” The laws are supposed to protect minors from people who would exploit them. Obviously, child pornography and sexual abuse is abhorrent and should be prosecuted to the fullest. So, too, should people who sext with minors, much like they should be for engaging in any sexual activity with them. Because of these laws, though, teens who sext consensually with each other can get in a lot of trouble, even though what they’re doing is actually just normal, developmentally appropriate sexual behavior and isn’t at all like making or sharing child pornography. What we should be concerned about is revenge porn. Take the case of Jane Doe in Minnesota, who in January was charged with felony distribution of child pornography. Jane Doe sent an explicit Snapchat of herself to a boy in her high school who then made a copy, without her permission, and shared it with his classmates. Jane Doe, if convicted or even takes a guilty plea for a lesser charge, faces up to ten years on the sex offender registry. Just for sending what the American Civil Liberties Union called an “explicit selfie.” Child pornography laws are supposed to protect minors from being exploited or victimized, but she wasn’t victimized or exploited when she took the picture. When teens are charged with child porn laws for their sexts, they’re essentially being called the perpetrator and the victim of their crime. That just doesn’t make any sense. But when Jane Doe’s picture was copied without her consent, she was a victim of revenge porn. There are 38 states that have revenge porn laws. Minnesota, where Jane Doe is being prosecuted, has one. According to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, someone can be charged for the “nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images.” It’s a misdemeanor unless it involves “financial loss, intent to profit” or it was done with the “intent to harass,” or was posted to an actual porn site. Minnesota’s revenge porn laws are pretty tight. If you’re convicted of it, even as a misdemeanor, it “qualifies as a prior qualified domestic violence-related offense” and enhances later penalties for future domestic violence, stalking, and assault charges. There are a lot of arguments about revenge porn laws as well as using child pornography laws to prosecute teen sexting. Some maintain that blanket revenge porn laws violate free speech. For sure, we can make those laws better. There are others that think no one under a certain age should be sexting at all. But much like you can’t prevent teens from making out in their parents’ basements, you can’t stop kids from sexting, especially since they’re already doing it. So when teens are caught sexting, they usually go right to child pornography laws, which often means prosecuting the girl who sent a nude to her boyfriend. Most of the stories in which teens are charged with child pornography distribution involve revenge porn. Research shows that young women and LGBTQ identifying people are more likely to be threatened with revenge porn than young men, which means that when their nude selfies go viral, they’re at risk of being prosecuted for distributing child porn. Because rape culture is an epidemic in our legal system, that means blaming the woman for taking a nude selfie instead of targeting the boy for sending it to the group chat. Kind of like how we punish teen girls for wearing tank tops in class because the boys won’t stop being distracted by their bodies or ask girls why they got drunk at homecoming when they report sexual assault. If you’re an adult, please, sext away with other consenting adults. But we need to make sure we’re educating teens about sexting, consent, and the dangers of cyber bullying and revenge porn. Because what can start as a fun game with your first ever “real” boyfriend can possibly result in long-lasting legal ramifications for the selfie taker. It’s not fair, but it’s how it is right now. And of course, we have to look for more ways to hold boys accountable for their actions, too.

Report shows 'self-generated' content increased from 349 cases in January 2017 to 1,717 this January Internet Watch Foundation said children are mirroring what society is doing Figures also revealed there are more sites than ever before hosting child abuse By Emily Kent Smith Media And Technology Reporter For The Daily Mail Published: 02:01 BST, 18 April 2018 | Updated: 22:17 BST, 18 April 2018 Nearly a third of reported child abuse images are now selfies, a report by a leading charity has revealed. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which produced the report, revealed that the number of 'self-generated' content has risen from 349 cases in January 2017 to 1,717 this January, reports the Daily Telegraph. The Deputy CEO of the IWF, Fred Langford said: ‘Children are reading about their favourite stars sending sexy pictures, posing naked, so they are just mirroring what society is doing at the moment. New research has revealed that nearly one in three child abuse images are taken by the youngsters themselves before they end up on adult websites 'What they are seeing online is much more available, it is opening their eyes to what is out there at a much earlier age…’ ‘It does make certain children much more pliable, the longer they are online and the sorts of groups they are in, they may be more susceptible to the grooming than those children who have brought up that level of resilience,’ he added. Figures released today also show that there are more sites hosting child abuse than ever before - soaring by 37 per cent in the last year - with the NSPCC calling on Culture Secretary Matt Hancock to ‘step in and end the Wild West of the web’. The IWF said paedophiles were going to more extreme lengths to view content - with the charity locked in an ‘arms race’ against abusers. Analysis revealed that the number of disguised websites, which are harder for authorities to track, had rocketed by 86 per cent. The deputy head of the IWF warned the fact that young people were being exposed to more graphic content online could play into the hands of child abusers. Children’s charity the NSPCC said that the dark web and the use of disguised websites were ‘fuelling’ child abuse and allowing predators to offend at a ‘mass scale’. Disguised websites can only be accessed if a specific online pathway is followed. For example, a person would be directed to a hidden page from a forum discussing child abuse. But if another web user, who has not been on a child abuse site previously, clicks on the page, they could come up with legitimate adult content instead. The problem is booming with the rise of technology and a ‘comprehensive strategy’ required to stop ‘offenders in their tracks’, the NSPCC has said. A spokesman said: ‘Social networks must ensure that they prioritise child protection and we need the Culture Secretary, Matt Hancock, to step in and end the Wild West of the Web.’ The IWF found 78,589 URLs featuring disturbing content last year - a 37 per cent rise compared to 2017. The number of child sexual abuse websites had also exploded by 112 per cent. The figure had soared partly because its staff had become better at finding the horrific content, the charity said. Every seven minutes, the IWF finds footage of a child being sexually abused. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which produced the report, said there are more sites hosting child abuse than ever before - soaring by 37 per cent in the last year - with the NSPCC calling on Culture Secretary Matt Hancock to ‘step in and end the Wild West of the web’ Fresh imagery was being regularly produced in addition to the historic content being shared again and again. Alarmingly, the charity is also finding more videos of children aged 11 to 15 who create footage of themselves on a webcam and then share it online. ‘The amount of content that is out there is always growing, it’s never going to reduce,’ the IWF’s deputy CEO Mr Langford said. Around a third of the material uncovered featured the most severe abuse - category A which includes the rape and sexual torture of children. People were ‘seeking out something just a little bit more extreme’, Mr Langford said, adding: ‘Once the demand is there, the supply follows.’ Writing in the report’s foreword, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said there was ‘clearly more we need to do’, while noting that there was ‘worrying rise’ of material hosted in Europe. Offenders were ‘exploit(ing) new vulnerabilities in the online environment to evade detection’, she said. ‘We will continue to work together in our efforts to rise to this challenge and to evolve with it as we look to ensure the UK’s response remains as strong as it can possibly be,’ she added. Her comments came as IWF’s research found that 65 per cent of child sex abuse imagery was being produced in Europe - with the Netherlands as the top host. Mr Langford, IWF’s deputy chief, said abusers were ‘goading’ each other on through the web to post more graphic content with more extreme images granting greater ‘kudos’. ‘In the same was as I suppose an international drug deal might say I’m shipping more drugs than you...These people have got that same sort of mentality…It becomes: “I’ve got more extreme content that you”,’ he told the Mail. Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Cambridge-based charity, said: ‘This year we’re seeing offenders getting smarter and finding new ways to abuse legitimate internet services.’ She said it was ‘concerning’ that more disguised websites were being used to evade the authorities. ‘We are making huge technological advances, which we’ll be announcing later in the year, but we also need to continue to work globally, in partnership, to fight this disturbing crime. This battle cannot be won in isolation,’ she added.

BONK BLOCKERS There's growing concern that the Government hasn't properly made Brits aware that a major online censorship scheme is about to roll out 23rd March 2018, 4:11 pm Updated: 23rd March 2018, 4:59 pm MOST Brits have no idea that the Government will soon start forcing users to hand over personal details to access online porn. A survey found that 66% of UK adults didn't realise a nationwide age-check scheme for watching XXX videos on the internet was rolling out in 2018. Getty - Contributor Some Brits will be surprised to learn that the Government is cracking down on their XXX habits The porn crackdown means that all adult material on the internet will be blocked by default. And Brits will only be able to get access if they sign up to an age-verification program that involves handing over identifying information – like a passport or credit card details. The BBFC, the UK's film regulator, will decide which websites count as smut, and will put them behind a huge censorship firewall later this year. And it turns out that the majority of Brits are clueless about the whole thing. Alamy The BBFC will decide which content should be blocked by default online in the UK "The lack of knowledge amongst the general public about the pending age verification requirements for adult content should be alarming, especially to the Government," said Stuart Lawley. Stuart is the CEO of AVSecure, the company that commissioned the survey – and one of the firms creating age verification software that'll give you access to smut in the UK. The porn block was originally supposed to be sent live in April this year, but a recent delay pushed the deadline back to December 2018. "The delay of the introduction of the Digital Economy Act allows us to ensure there will be a number of different age verification providers for consumers to choose from, and who users decide to go with will affect who has access to their personal data," explained Stuart. Camasutra VR unveils eerily lifelike virtual porn stars The Government's plan to block all porn by default in the UK has faced heavy criticism, unsurprisingly. Speaking to The Sun earlier this month, top lawyer Myles Jackman said that there are serious dangers. "The big risk is that the data from the user is not held securely, and that their privacy is violated when that data is hacked or breached," Jackman, who works for digital advocacy firm Open Rights Group, told us. He said that a breach is "ridiculously likely to happen", and will affect huge swathes of the UK population. "This is going to impact anyone who, casually or above, uses pornography for recreational purpose. ORE-INSPIRING Discovery of £360bn rare metal on tiny Pacific island could change the world SKY EYE Bin your phone's rubbish weather app – Dark Sky tells you EXACTLY where it'll rain SMUT SHOCK YouTube porn playlists full of sex videos are 'luring kids' with cartoon clips GOOD CALL Apple tipped to launch its biggest iPhone EVER – and it could cost under £400 faking it WhatsApp hoax that claims dodgy video will wipe your phone isn't a total fake HOT STUFF Using your iPhone in hot weather could 'permanently' ruin it's battery life "The imposition of age verification poses an enormous risk to your readers, in terms of their personal sexual interests being leaked onto the internet for anyone to see." He said that if a person's sexual interests were leaked, the risks could be severe: "There's blackmail, there's suicide."

Adult film star Natasha Nice prepares for trip to LA The tragic 31-year-old porn star died following an accidental drug overdose in December, according to a coroner's report. Her death was listed as being primarily cause by “hydrocodone toxicity” while she was at a home in Los Angeles. Yurizan’s pal Nick Melilla previously said her death had been a tragic accident, as she had taken one too many pills. He said: “The adult business is rampant with drugs – especially crystal meth, because it’s cheap – and pills. INSTAGRAM/ YURIZAN BELTRAN ADULT STAR: Yurizan Beltran died last year The porn stars we have lost Since early 2017 we have sadly seen the tragic deaths of several porn stars. 1 / 27 Instagram Poignant: August Ames' final Instagram post with her cat Kevin “Supposedly there was one or two pills left over. She died in her sleep, art was just that one too many. “A lot of people accidentally die.” Following her tragic death many adult performers paid tribute to the late star. Porn star Catalina Cruz said: “A sweet soul lost. Porn star Olivia Nova found dead aged 20 Porn star Olivia Nova, 20, rose to fame in the adult film industry in a matter of months 1 / 8 Twitter Nova's death comes two weeks after she tweeted she was spending the holidays alone “The adult business is rampant with drugs” Nick Melilla “You came across very genuine and kind to me when I first met you. “I am so sad. Sending love to everyone that was close to Yurizan Beltran.” The porn star was one of several who died in tragic circumstances in recent months. Industry favourite August Ames took her own life after becoming the victim of relentless online bullying. Related articles

A number of government webpages were hit by a redirect bug that sends unsuspecting users to hardcore porn sites with disturbing content like bestiality The Department of Justice's Amber Alert page, as well as Weather.gov were hit Porn bots may have hit government sites as a way to boost their search rankings By Annie Palmer Published: 22:58 BST, 18 April 2018 | Updated: 23:13 BST, 18 April 2018 Several government websites are mistakenly sending users to hardcore porn sites. The Department of Justice's Amber Alert webpage, as well as the Department of Commerce's Weather.gov and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) webpages both seem to have been hit by the redirect bug. In some cases, it redirects users to porn sites with names like 'schoolgirl porn' and 'girl v dog porn'. Pictured is a sample of the porn sites that unsuspecting users were redirected to when they visited government websites like the Amber Alert, NOAA and weather.gov webpages The issue seemed to be resolved on most websites as of Wednesday afternoon, after being spotted on Tuesday evening. The bug is particularly crass to have affected the Amber Alert website, as its an alert system used by law enforcement to help find abducted children. Porn bots most likely hacked the sites in order to help boost their rankings on Google's PageRank, according to Gizmodo, which first spotted the bug. Unverified redirect pages are a common problem across the web. PageRank is an algorithm developed by the tech giant that rates webpages based on how many times other sites link to a page. When a webpage rates higher on the PageRank system, it's more likely to appear closer to the top of Google search results. To an unsuspecting internet user, the bug looks convincingly real. To an unsuspecting internet user, the bug looks convincingly real. The Amber Alert page (pictured) displays a fake notification page saying that you're about to visit a third-party site When you visit the Amber Alert website, it would generate a fake notification page that says: 'You are now leaving a Department of Justice Web site. You are about to access: https://fxporn.pro/' The notification page even has the Department of Justice logo and the Amber Alert logo. Some of the sites affected by the redirect bug were still appearing in Google search results on Wednesday afternoon, but clicking on the link generates a '404' error page. As Gizmodo pointed out, the bug is particularly ironic given that FBI director Christopher Wray has called strong encryption on devices an 'urgent public safety issue'. Some of the sites affected by the redirect bug were still appearing in Google search results on Wednesday afternoon, but clicking on the link generates a '404' error page Pictured is a fake redirect page on the National Weather Service website that directs users to a site featuring an 'erotic movie' This is part of the bureau calls the 'going dark' problem, wherein its hard for law enforcement officials to unlock phones or other devices that have strong security and encryption. The bug shouldn't be considered a security flaw, but it could cause unknowing users to download malware or send them to scammy webpages as part of a phishing scam, Gizmodo said. The notification pages warn users that they're about to leave a government website, but even if the user doesn't click on the page, it'll automatically redirect you to the porn site. As of Wednesday afternoon, many of the malicious redirect links weren't working. Instead, they generated a 404 error page (pictured). WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON TYPES OF VIRUS FROM PORN? There are ten digital STIs that can harm your device when you're looking at adult content, according to computer security firm Kaspersky Lab. These are: 1. Trojans – They might masquerade as innocent programs, but they carry a harmful payload. 2. Drive-by downloads - Cybercriminals look for insecure web sites and plant a malicious script into the code on the pages. These take advantage of any unpatched applications on your computer and infect them automatically 3. Click-jacking – Click-jacking involves tricking someone into clicking on one object on a web page while they think they are clicking on another. Clickjacking can be used to install malware, gain access to a victim's online accounts or to enable their webcam. 4. Tinder bots – These are automatic programs designed to masquerade as real people on a dating site to lure users into clicking on them, with the aim of tricking the victim into disclosing confidential data. 5. Cat-Phishing - This is when cybercriminals pose on dating sites or chat rooms, encouraging people to click on links for live sex chat or adult images. 6. Ransomware - Cybercriminals use 'blockers' to stop the victim accessing their device, often telling them this is due to 'illegal pornographic content' being identified on their device. Anyone who has accessed porn online is probably less likely to take the matter up with law enforcement. 7. Worm - This is a program that replicates, but does not write its code to other files: instead, it installs itself once on a victim's device and then looks for a way to spread to other devices. 8. Pornware – This could be a legitimate program, but might be adware installed by another malicious program, designed to deliver inappropriate content to the victim's device. 9. Spyware - Software that enables an attacker to secretly obtain information about the victim's online activities and transmit it covertly from their device. 10. Fake Anti-virus - Fake anti-virus programs prey on people's fear of malicious software which they believe may have been installed whilst looking at porn. 'Anyone can use this page to redirect someone to another potentially malicious site,' Adriel Desautels, CEO of Netragard, which tests security at a variety of companies, told Gizmodo. 'For example, this could be used to redirect an unsuspecting victim to a site that deploys malware' 'It doesn't really put the DOJ at risk, but it puts people on the internet at risk and oddly seems to be helping the porn industry,' he added. It wouldn't be the first time that hackers have planted malware and other viruses on porn sites. A recent study by Moscow-based computer security firm Kaspersky Labs found that there are at least 27 variations of PC malware which specifically hunt for credentials to paid adult content websites. Attacks on users range from tracking key strokes and stealing passwords to 'click-jamming', which fools people into clicking on one links when they think they are clicking on another. Malware, ransomware and Trojans are all commonplace throughout adult sites. 3/10 adults contracted a digital virus after looking at porn

Porn performer Avey Moon was trying to send the lucky winner of her Chaturbate contest his prize—one of her videos, titled "POV Blowjob"—through her Google Drive account. But it wouldn’t send, and Google wasn’t telling her why. “I thought there was something wrong with my file and I got rather worried,” Moon told me in a Twitter message. “I had promised this guy his content and he was so good to me. I was panicked because I thought if I couldn't give him his prize, he would feel like he got ripped off and never come back again or worse, he could actually file a complaint with Chaturbate about me and they can take money from me.” She’s not alone. Six porn performers I talked to and more on social media said that they suddenly can't download adult content they keep on Google Drive. They also said they can't a share that content with other accounts or send to clients. In some cases, the adult content is disappearing from Drive without warning or explanation. The porn performers I talked to started sounding the alarm on Twitter last week. They said that Google Drive no longer seemed sex-trade friendly, detailing error messages and sharing cloud storage alternatives with each other. When I asked about sexual content being blocked on Drive, a spokesperson for Google directed me to the Drive policy page—specifically the section on sexually explicit material, which says, “Do not publish sexually explicit or pornographic images or videos.... Additionally, we do not allow content that drives traffic to commercial pornography.” Writing about porn and sex is permitted, the policy states, as long as it’s not accompanied by sexually explicit images or videos. According to Google, Drive uses a combination of automated systems and manual review to decide what’s in violation. “It's very oppressive. And it's making my job hellish." “I heard randomly that someone got one piece of their adult content flagged, that was stored on Google Drive,” adult performer Melody Kush told me in Twitter direct messages. She’s been using Google Drive for most of the last five and a half years she’s worked as a performer full-time, but started using it more heavily for work in the last three years. “I didn't think anything of it. Then I heard it again, different person. Then it happened to me.” She said she tried to send a video to a client that she’d successfully sent to one other person before, but this time, she received an error message, saying that the item may violate Google's Terms of Service, with a link to request a review. The video title contained the phrase “cum show,” which Kush suspected triggered the system. But unlike Kush and Moon, others have gotten this error on videos even when the title isn’t explicit. “It's just the content, which is the strange part,” adult performer Lilly Stone told me in a Twitter direct message. Her Drive account contains mostly adult content, but her images aren’t affected by this error—only videos, some of which have begun to disappear without warning or explanation. Read more: Google Docs Is Randomly Flagging Files for Violating its Terms of Service “It seems like all of our videos in Google Drive are getting flagged by some sort of automated system,” Stone said. “We're not even really getting notified of it, the only way we really found out was one of our customers told us he couldn't view or download the video we sent him.” Stone’s files aren’t removed from Drive, but when she tries to play the video or download it, she said Google gives her an error message: "Whoops! There was a problem playing this video” with an option to download the item, but the download link doesn’t work. Some sex workers are wondering if this has something to do with the impending vote on the SESTA-FOSTA bill, which is on the Senate floor for debate this week. Performer Hailey Heartless told me that she’s not sure if it’s a “blitz” that Google is doing, or if it’s just something many sex workers noticed at once, and got the conversation started—but she’s heard from dozens of people in the industry about the issue, after tweeting about her own experience. It could also be that Google is simply, suddenly, deciding to enforce its Terms of Service. The fact remains that Google Drive is either glitching out and impacting people’s livelihoods, or suddenly enforcing its Terms of Service without warning. Adult performer Ramona Flour told me in an email that she’s been using a paid version of Drive with 1 TB of storage, which costs $9.99 a month, for five years, but she just started getting error messages last week. “It's very oppressive. And it's making my job hellish,” Moon told me. “I'm still stressing about finding a way around this. I don't believe that Google should be allowed to dictate what you and another consenting adult send to each other through email.”

It doesn't meant they hate you! Making sure a woman isn’t scared to say no is easy if you allow her to feel like you’ll accept her decisions. You need to reassure her that you won’t be peeved if her needs or wants differ from yours. Make it clear that if she doesn’t want to have sex, you’re cool with that—and then actually be cool with that. “Just because someone doesn’t want to have sex with you, doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested in you,” Griffith said. “It doesn’t mean they hate you. It doesn’t mean that they don’t love you. It means that right then, they don’t want to have sex with you.” Pay attention to physical signs and body language, too. “Important non-verbal cues include mouth involvement. If you kiss someone and if they aren’t kissing you back, if they are not actively engaged in your kiss, if they tense up and start to pull away, those should all be things to indicate, ‘Hey, let’s chill out, let’s take a minute and reassess.” There’s a long history of violence against women from rejected men, so be aware that your partner may not be comfortable saying no outright. This is on you: If you are getting “I don’t knows” and “I’m not sures”, you need to make the decision to stop on your own. “I don’t know” does not equal yes. It means they do not know. Consent requires a yes, and “I don’t know” is not yes. In that case, added Griffith, “I think it would be best to back off physically. Put some space between you and the person. Ask them if they are okay. Ask them how you could make them more comfortable and then express your desires or needs and how you can make them comfortable, too.” Step 3. Don’t Try to Bargain Your boner is yours and yours alone Don’t use a bargaining chip like blue balls to attempt to sway someone to engage in physical intimacy with you. It’s lazy and corny! A great way to find physical relief after you agreeably and graciously accept a “no”is to jerk off when you part ways. “Your boner is not my problem,” Griffith lamented. Sex should not something that is done to women, it should be something women actively participate in. Step 4. Don’t Judge Someone Else’s Sexual Preferences Don't be that guy! Judgmental men make discussions around intimacy, and consent in particular, very difficult. “‘Stuck up bitch’. ‘All girls are prudes.’ ‘Girls that want to have sex are whores.’ ‘You can’t rape a whore.’ ‘Girls that don’t want to have sex are prudes,’” said Griffith. “It creates a weird binary where it’s hard to sort of toe this line and exist as a healthy sexual being and have these conversations up front.” While it may feel harmless, don’t neg as a form of flirting. It creates a toxic space for communication, which is a surefire way to get unclear answers on wants, desires, and consent. As Griffith laid it out: “Consent is about logic. It’s being careful based on what’s going on around you. If you can’t be concerned about how someone feels, think about going to jail. If that’s what motivates you not rape, I don’t respect you, but I’ll take it.”

Youtube PORN SHOCK: Adult webcam advert showed on popular streaming site's TRENDING videos Youtube has a clear policy on hardcore adult videos: it doesn't want them. The video-sharing platform has delisted and banned accounts in the past for sharing material it deemed pornographic: from depictions of women's nipples to the sharing of erotic artwork. Now, however, the website has been caught serving adverts for pornographic webcam sites that - with one click - would lead the viewer directly to hardcore porn. Originally, the story was reported by Motherboard who described the advert as: “a woman gyrating (not porn!) but features a link to something called ‘Hot Girl 2018' in the bottom left”. Clicking through the ad sent users to a landing page for cam site Camsoda, where they were presented with a large, high-resolution NSFW image. This has lead to some internet outrage - not least because Youtube has a dedicated section for children. Naturally, some internet users are wary that if ads like this can slip through the general ad network, then their kids may also be at risk. Worst apps for draining your smartphone data REVEALED Google, who owns Youtube, usually restricts adult ads. There are exceptions, however, which come in the form of “limited scenarios based on user search queries, user age, and local laws where the ad is being served". Specifically, though, “text, image, audio, or video of graphic sexual acts intended to arouse” is supposedly prohibited in all ads. The Youtube page for reporting ads that violate these policies says that “some ads may run on Google before our AdWords Specialists check them,” suggesting some advertisers have figured out ways to bypass the security measures and get their content on the page. Motherboard reports that the ad in question has been running since at least December, with reported sightings of the content apparently appearing on videos uploaded to gaming channels PewDiePie and Markiplier (which often attract younger audiences). “We have clear policies against ads featuring graphic adult content," YouTube replied in an emailed statement to Motherboard. "When we become aware of an ad that violates our policies, we immediately remove it and take appropriate action, including, and up to, suspending the responsible account.” On Twitter, the account was simply directing people affected to an AdWords troubleshooting page, which you can find here.

Reddit is “more engaging than porn” apparently – but we’re not so sure This morning, an article in The Next Web caught my eye – a piece by Simon Kemp, the founder of marketing strategy consultancy Kepios, and a consultant for We Are Social. That qualification is relevant, as he brings some interesting insights from We Are Social’s assessment of the state of the internet. The whole 50-card presentation is worth a browse, containing insights about everything from geographical site growth to the popularity of celebrities (who knew Mr Bean had more Facebook fans than Justin Bieber?), but by far the most interesting stat concerns Reddit. READ NEXT: This Reddit app wants to get enemies talking It seems the self-styled front page of the internet has earned phenomenal engagement. As well as leaping to become the sixth most visited site on the planet, it attracts an average time-per-day of 15 minutes and 47 seconds. That not only dwarfs Facebook (11:08), Twitter (06:23) and Wikipedia (04:14), but is also longer than porn sites Xvideos and Pornhub, according to Kemp. In other words, Reddit is more engaging than porn. But is it? Okay, there is a number of reasons to be slightly dubious about this. Firstly, just two sites make it into Alexa’s top 50 rankings – Xvideos (14:09) and Pornhub (08:26). The figures are (presumably) slightly different, because neither site made it into the top 20 that appear in the presentation above, but the other numbers are certainly comparable. Anyway, it may come as a shock to the puritanical amongst you, but there are more than two porn sites on the internet, and just these two have a whopping six-minute average time difference. It’s highly likely there are porn sites with higher dwell time on there; the less popular ones are more likely to have skewed averages, with lower numbers to start with. On top of which, we need to talk about the word “engagement”. Putting this delicately as I can – the nature of pornography is that it’s highly “engaging” for a few minutes and then mysteriously becomes less so. And that’s not even considering repeat “engagements”. Not to mention the fact Reddit contains quite a lot of porn in the mix as well. There is plenty of subreddits catering to all kinds of kinks and whims which aren’t enough to put Reddit in the “adult” category, but make its definition as a “social network” less hard and fast (stop giggling at the back). READ NEXT: Beyond Pornhub – The sex rebels reclaiming adult films Perhaps most importantly though, these metrics only give you a snapshot of things. The Alexa rankings – as I’ve written before – have historically been a bit flakey as they required the Alexa toolbar to be installed, heavily skewing things towards tech sites. It’s better now, but still not flawless. For proof of this, just look at the next slide on the deck from rival market analysis firm Similarweb: it gives Facebook an average visit length of 13:28 – about two minutes more than Alexa reckons the average person spends on it in a whole day... Still, that doesn’t mean that these metrics aren’t useful, as long as they’re consistent with themselves. In other words, Alexa data shows that Reddit has grown massively – and that is entirely consistent with what the company itself says: in November 2017 it self-reported 250 million average monthly active users, and now it’s showing 330 million. You don’t need a slightly spurious porn link to tell you that the front page of the internet is clearly doing something right.