A/HRC/56/48 bring them into line with the profit-driven pornography aesthetic.100 Young women are groomed into sexual self-exploitation.101 “Pornified” visual landscape indoctrinates girls and women into a patriarchal mindset that the only way to be visible – in fact valuable – is to be sexually desired, “hot” and “pornified”.102 The media and some universities have played an important role in glamorizing prostitution and reinforced the objectification of women and girls.103 4. Consequences of digitally facilitated prostitution 25. Some 75 per cent of sex trafficking victims are now advertised online. Prostitution advertising websites are the most significant facilitators of sex trafficking. For example, a search by the police in Scotland of online advertisements of the sale of sexual acts identified 1,800 across four main websites in Scotland in a single day.104 Digital platforms rarely enforce prohibitions against trafficking, and non-consensual material or community guidelines.105 Just like buyers of prostitution, pornography users suspecting that women or girls have been trafficked will not report their concerns to law enforcement agencies.106 Criminal networks capitalize on the anonymity and accessibility of the Internet to recruit and exploit victims, especially minors. Despite its prevalence, legal systems often overlook or inadequately address online prostitution. Cross-border prostitution presents a complex challenge, with criminal networks exploiting differences in legislation between countries to traffic victims across borders.107 At the core of the pornography business model is the facilitation of video uploads by users.108 Given minimum regulation, it contains a high percentage of prostitution and trafficking victims, rape, sexual violence, non-consensual filming and sharing of images, deepfake material, and child sexual abuse material.109 Videos and images are then copied, shared and circulated without possibility of tracking or removing them online, even after the perpetrators are convicted. Moreover, adult pornography can act as the gateway to initially viewing and continuing to view sexualized images of children. Artificial intelligence-generated pornography is also used to create child sexual abuse material.110 In December 2023, after a federal investigation in the United States, Aylo Holdings (formerly MindGeek) admitted that it had profited from sex trafficking, agreed to pay a fine of $1.8 million in order to avoid criminal prosecution for profiting from sex trafficking videos on its site.111 OnlyFans also reportedly has accounts that indicate the individual is being trafficked, and plays the role of the pimp in a commercial exchange, while strives to increase the e-pimps in the supply chain.112 Virtual reality-generated pornography is becoming increasingly accessible and has grown massively, representing more than 10 per cent of the total virtual reality market.113 V. Perpetrators of violence 26. Different perpetrators of violence in the prostitution system have been gradually – even if unevenly – conceived of in international law. Sexual act buyers are the main perpetrators of violence, including femicide.114 Not only are they individually responsible for 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 Joint submission by Alyson Dearborn et al. A. P. Ruiz, “La creciente explotación de niñas y niños en medios digitales”, La Jornada, 2023. Submission by Culture Reframed. Joint submission by Autonomous Women’s Centre et al. Submission by Ash Regan. Submission by Collective Shout Australia. European Parliament, 2013/2103(INI). Submission by ENOMW. Brown Rudnick suit against MindGeek, 2021. CEASE, Expose Big Porn, 2021. Internet Watch Foundation, “How AI is being abused to create child sexual abuse imagery”, 2023. United States v. Aylo Holdings S.A.R.L., 23-CR-463 (BMC). M. Farley et al., Pornography Production Harm in Sweden, 2023. See also AHTII, Expert Analysis of Open Source Material relating to Child Sexual Abuse Material and Sex Trafficking occurring on OnlyFans.com, 2022. https://bedbible.com/vr-porn-industry-statistics/. UNODC, Global Study on Homicide, 2019. 9