A/HRC/56/48 20. The wide reach of pornography and its negative impact on shaping the sexual expectations of men and boys should not be underestimated. It is estimated that 28,258 users are watching pornography every second, and 35 per cent of all Internet downloads are related to pornography.89 A 2020 study by a digital marketing company noted that MindGeek’s Pornhub was the technology company with the third-greatest impact on society in the twentyfirst century.90 Globally, in 2018, the first exposure to pornography among males is at 12 years of age, on average.91 21. Pornography can lead to an increase in the sexual exploitation and prostitution of children.92 Girls are trapped into prostitution younger and younger, including some as young as 8 years of age.93 The regular exposure of children to pornography has also been linked to the quadrupling of underaged victims of sexual offences over the past decade, where the victims are mainly girls. 2. Exacerbation of racism 22. It is frequently observed that women in prostitution in rich countries are disproportionately from minority ethnic groups, while sexual act buyers are from majority groups, reinforcing the racist dynamics at work. In the United States of America, for example, Black, Latina, Indigenous and native women and girls are overrepresented in the prostitution system, and white men are overrepresented among sexual act buyers.94 Racist fetishization and stereotyping of women in prostitution by sexual act buyers is frequently observed and used as a criterion in the choice of prostituted women. For women and girls from certain minorities and Indigenous Peoples that are discriminated against, engaging in prostitution is normalized as being “part of their culture”95 and way of life. Prostituted women and girls from specific racial and ethnic backgrounds are frequently dehumanized and subjected to social and cultural stereotyping, and slurs. Prostitution also allows the sexualization of racism against certain ethnic or racial groups to flourish. 3. Undermining the equality of women and girls and their participation in society 23. The equal participation of women in society is impossible to achieve when prostitution is normalized and fundamentally based on an inequality between women and men.96 Women almost exclusively represent “the supply” in the prostitution system, while men represent almost exclusively the demand for prostitution. Prostitution therefore bears a deeply archaic and sexist vision of the role of women and of the relations between women and men, as women are reduced to receptacles for men’s sexual “needs”; as such, there has also been a strong correlation between men’s use of prostitution and rape. 97 The existence and normalization of prostitution is also a fundamental obstacle to sexuality based on equality. 24. Digital platforms facilitating pornography like Pornhub normalize and promote male domination over women and enforce patriarchal gender roles. One recent study found that 98 per cent of deepfake videos online were pornographic, and that 99 per cent of those targeted were women or girls.98 Many women and girls feel that pornography makes them feel uncomfortable and distressed by their “pornification” and sexualization.99 As men and boys feel a greater sense of entitlement due to consuming pornography, girls feel compelled to submit, and many women and girls feel conditioned to remodel their bodies surgically to 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 8 Taylor Tennis, “Porn and Human Trafficking”, The Exodus Road, 26 August 2021. United States, House Financial Services Committee Hearing, 2021. See https://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/. Submission by Uganda Youth Development Link. Joint submission by A. Villena-Moya et al. See for example Rights4Girls, “Racial and Gender Disparities in the Sex Trade”, 2024. Submission by Asociația eLiberare. Catharine A. MacKinnon, “Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality”, 2011. UNDP, UN Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific, 2013. See https://www.homesecurityheroes.com/state-of-deepfakes/. Miranda A. H. Horvath et al., Office of the Children’s Commissioner, 30 April 2013.