Goodbye Porn: Why SISEA could end the era of online sex
Revenge porn, non-consensual sex, and child pornography are the plague of humanity. SISEA*, a new law in the making, could end it all.
But every medal has two sides.
Let’s play a game!
Imagine you are sixteen and you just got your first crush on a boy from your school.
Imagine he asks you to send him some short clips of you naked.
You do it, because you have a crush on him.
Imagine now, how you are walking down the hallway at school and all the other students’ eyes rest on you.
They giggle, they point at you. They have all seen you naked on Pornhub.
Your crush has shared those intimate videos meant for him and the whole world can look at you now.
Today, tomorrow, and in 10, 15 years.
What is thrown on the internet, stays on the internet. Imagine how you feel.
ERASE. NEW SETTING!
Imagine you are sixteen.
You are a young woman, growing up, learning about gender differences and inequalities between genders.
You worship your body and you know, you are the only one who owns it.
And you post a picture of yourself on Instagram, showing your naked breast, using the Hashtag #mybodymyright to protest gender inequality and discrimination.
You think that this is more than a hashtag, it’s your fundamental right to express yourself.
Immediately after posting your pictures, your account is blocked.
You try Twitter. They take your account offline, too.
Then you post a video describing everything on YouTube.
Takes 5 five minutes for them to stop your online existence there, by shutting down your account.
After a week, you are banned from all social media. For good.
Welcome to SISEA. The best or worst idea in 2021?
They want to end revenge porn, non-consensual sex, and child pornography:
the two senators Ben Sasse (Nebrasca) and Jeff Merkley (Oregon) have proposed the Stop Internet Sexual Exploitation Act (SISEA), that could turn the world of internet porn upside down.
It all started with reports on Pornhub, like the article published in the New York Times (CLICK HERE TO READ) on what SISEA is about and who would be affected, if the bill passes.
What is the purpose of SISEA?
Protecting victims of sexual exploitation and harassment online.
In order to achieve this, it makes internet companies more responsible for the content uploaded on online platforms.
Ben Sasse says: “For years, Pornhub and it’s parent company Mindgeek monetized rape, abuse, and child exploitation.
While these suit-wearing traffickers got rich, their victims have lived with the pain and fear (…) That must end now.
Our bill is aimed squarely at the monsters who profit from rape.”
What does the SISEA — Stop Internet Sexual Exploitation Act require?
1. Content-Killer-Hotline:
Online portals would have to establish a 24-hour hotline, which victims could call and ask to take down content.
The sites would have to take content down within two hours of a victim’s request.
2. Clip-blacklist:
Furthermore, SISEA would ban downloads and re-uploads of content that’s been taken down before due to a victim’s request.
3. Uploader verification:
SISEA would demand a video verification process.
This means that users who upload pornographic material to a public website would have to verify their identity and the identity of everyone involved.
4. Proof of consent:
To protect participants appearing in videos, uploaders would need to sign and submit a consent form, which would include all performers’ ages, names, the content the form applies to, and a statement on where it can be distributed.
5. No-show database:
Platforms would have to create a database of all individuals who don’t consent to having their images uploaded.
Before content would be posted, these platforms would have to “ensure that no individual who appears in the pornographic image is listed in the database.”.
Everyone who violates these standards would face severe financial penalties.
What are the benefits of SISEA passing and becoming law?
1. Free-will only:
Victims of revenge porn, rape porn, and other forms of non-consent porn will be protected.
Every person being in a video or photo showing them naked or whilst performing a sexual act will have agreed to that content spreading online.
2. Power to the performers:
Not porn platforms would decide what’s presented on the net, but the people.
Porn would become a grassroots movement, instead of the centralized, hierarchic big power game it is now.
3. Civilized porn for civilized societies:
SISEA would establish rules online to the ones being accepted offline in modern societies:
Equal rights, clear rules with hard consequences, if violated.
So, what’s the danger of SISEA becoming law?
1. Death of online sex:
If SISEA passes, internet porn could disappear entirely.
Since the law would not only affect future film or photo productions, but also everything produced in the past, the effort to collect “historical” consent forms would be unfeasible.
Instead of setting up this costly process, the majority of platforms would most likely shut down adult content entirely.
This is also true for other forms of visual erotic art, such as painting, drawing, and Fan art.
2. SISEA — End of Indie porn:
SISEA would impact indie sex workers, who make a living with their own productions, as well as all indie producers and platforms.
They would not be able to bear the financial burden of the SISEA regulations: Most small platforms would have to close.
This would have an extreme impact on already marginalized sex workers like transgender people, racial or sexual minorities — who have flocked to online platforms like OnlyFans because of the pandemic.
And more: Since sex workers would be forced to reveal their true identities, it could become difficult to do sex work as a part time job. Especially in countries where prostitution is illegal — which is the case in USA.
3. A new porn mafia:
Porn would probably become a part of the dark web.
Like the drug scene, porn production (again) would become a criminal underworld.
Content would be moved to servers in countries where protection is less strict, productions would follow.
Instead of giving porn participants more protection, SISEA would erase any possibility of control.
4. Diversity killer:
If SISEA passes it will affect the freedom of art and expression, reducing diversity in erotic film and photo production and distribution.
5. The allowance of some child pornography content to thrive:
As well-intentioned as the bill might be, there is a loophole which can open a dangerous precedent:
The actors involved in pornography must abide to state laws when it comes to age of consent.
And in some states, the age of consent is under 18 (like Nevada, where it is 16). So controversially, the bill could cause child pornography to flock to those places.
Conclusion: SISEA — Good intentions do not make good bills.
Most people support the basic goal of SISEA: To stop unfair, unethical and illegal actions in the porn industry.
Everyone wants to help protecting victims of rape.
But many fear that this cure will affect not only the disease, but kill the whole patient:
SISEA, if not adjusted in several sections, could lead to art censorship, to a new wave of conservatism, to a setback of emancipation.
In the end, women could find themselves back in a culture of repression, body shaming and censorship.
The problem: SISEA could affect not only the porn platforms in USA, but spread like a virus.
How SISEA would affect users outside of the USA
If the bill passes, the rules will be monitored by the US by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
The rules would thus apply to all commercial and non-commercial providers offering their services in the USA.
European platform operators would therefore have to implement the US rules or exclude US customers completely.
In addition, many US payment service providers such as MasterCard, Visa or even PayPal could refuse to implement their services for platforms unless they comply with US pornography laws.
This would also have a massive impact on platforms in Europe with pornographic content, such as our platform BERLINABLE.
The new internet sex bill does not only have an impact on websites with clearly pornographic content.
Platforms like Instagram have already reacted and changed their terms of service regarding “stripping content.”
Sex workers already notice an impact on their earnings. More are even going to follow when SISEA becomes law.
Indeed, it is tricky.
To break it down, we are facing a clash of interests: victims vs. professional sex workers.
It is undeniable that SISEA will protect victims, on the other hand it hinders sex workers’ and artist´s daily work.
A conflict of interest which does affect victims, sex workers, platform providers, artists, payment services, social media…but society in general.
Perhaps, we as a society need to have a deeper conversation about legal sex work, about child pornography consumption and production…
Because as we have seen in history, prohibition rarely works.
SISEA — What should we do?
We should go back to where SISEA started from: It´s basic intention. It is called “Stop Internet Sexual Exploitation Act.”
We all agree that sexual exploitation (online or offline) must end.
But we have to find ways to fight that don’t take us back to medieval times, destroying all progressive changes of the last 300 years.
Do you have any ideas, where SISEA should be adjusted to improve the law?
Read the original SISEA bill and start to think with us.
Get involved in politics!
Instead of leaving it up to elderly male lawmakers to find a good solution, we all should get involved here:
Bring in your own ideas.
Click here to contact the SISEA initiators:
Senator Ben Sasse
Senator Jeff Merkley
Or simply send your ideas to us:
sexandsociety@berlinable.com
We will forward them!
An article by Maria Romanska
for BERLINABLE
Originally published on https://berlinable.com/sisea
