“The “French Bukkake” case is still waiting for the Court of Appeal to rule on its referral to the Paris Criminal Court. On Tuesday, the director, Pascal OP, asked to be released from prison. But the judges decided otherwise.
In prison for 44 months, the director of the hard pornographic site, “French Bukkake” . Pascal OP, 62, appeared this Tuesday, May 7, before the Paris investigating chamber, to request his release. But the judges of the court of appeal decided to keep him behind bars.
Gray sweatshirt and white goatee, this little plump man should soon reach the end of the 48-month period authorized by law for his pre-trial detention. Incarcerated in October 2020 after his indictment, he was sent back, in July 2023, along with sixteen other people, producers, directors or actors, to the Paris criminal court, mainly for acts of “gang rape”, “pimping”. » and “organized gang trafficking in human beings”.”
“Xvideos, the most-visited pornographic website in the world, faces difficulties due to its content, which is being investigated by the police and card-payment companies. That is why we have looked into the business of the people behind the website, which is located near Prague’s Wenceslas Square. We started gathering testimonies of women who complained about the practices of another company of the same owners, Legal Porno, which focuses on filming extreme pornography. A number of women said they had left the studio injured.
We have found the complaints about the treatment by the production of Legal Porno on social networks but also on closed forums run by the owners of Xvideos. Other women who were contacted by Deník N and who were promised anonymity have confirmed these accounts. The women said they had suffered injuries during the filming of extreme practices. Many of them said they had had no idea what they would be filming.
Legal Porno specialises in the most hardcore pornography, for which clients pay well. However, sometimes such shooting represents an extraordinary strain on the bodies and psyche of the actresses. Some of them described to Deník N that they had left the set torn, bleeding and unable to control their bowel movements.
In most testimonies, the same motives are repeated over and over again. Before, and sometimes during, the shooting the women did not know what the producers planned to do with them. The women usually had to engage in very dangerous and complicated practices, for example several men having anal sex with a single woman at the same time.
In addition to publicly available statements, Deník N has obtained testimonies of three women who, independently of each other, shared their experiences with filming for Legal Porno. We do not disclose any details that might identify or endanger them.
Lidocaine against pain
The first witness the reporters spoke to still works in the pornographic industry. She did not leave it although her experience with Legal Porno was one of her first in the industry and, as she says, it has marked her forever. She speaks only very carefully about her experiences: “We had agreed that there would be one guy, but in the end there were three blacks,” says the actress. She says she took the work as she needed money quickly and knew that Legal Porno paid more than other productions.
The woman explained that although she was not raped, she did not feel comfortable because she saw from the beginning that the original agreement had not been kept. However, she needed the money. She describes a similarly difficult situation as other actresses – they feel pressured at the moment, it is often their first experience, they are already on the set where several people are waiting for them, and they cannot refuse once the crew is ready.
The filming process was also unexpected for the woman. Among other things, the actress claims that, without prior agreement, she was given local analgesics to relieve pain. „The worst was the ignorance; I was not prepared for it at all. I didn’t know that lidocaine could hurt me when they started putting it in my anus. They didn’t rape me, but I know very well how they behave, everyone knows how they behave,“ says the actress, adding that they pushed her to complete the scene.
“So they put lidocaine in my anus, it burned terribly, they wanted me to complete the shoot, I kept bleeding so they gave me more and more lidocaine as they wanted to finish it, but it still didn’t work, it hurt terribly,” she describes. She says not only the production but also herself wanted to complete the scene. The actress knew that if she were unable to do it, she would get no money. And that is what happened – because of great pain and strong bleeding she stopped the shooting and left empty-handed.
“They really wanted to complete the scene with me, but in the end they stopped when I said no,” the actress adds. “I did not complete the scene. Nobody paid me anything,” she said.
Lidocaine is used as a local anaesthetic, most often in dentistry. It may affect the heart rate. Its use in Legal Porno has been confirmed also by one of its directors, who uses the nickname Giorgio Grandi and who wrote about it in an official forum. He reacted to a blog post in which an actress described the practices used during shooting. “I use a gel that contains between 1% and 2.5% lidocaine,” wrote the director.
To the witness who talked to Deník N it never occurred to complain about this treatment. Also other actresses said that the entire industry knows that this production uses rough practices against women. According to the actresses, it is a public secret at which nobody should be surprised.
Another witness told the reporters about a similar experience. After the shooting, she even ended up in hospital. “I had to have an operation but I don’t want to come back to it. I will not tell you more about it,” another actress said.
A very trustworthy source from the pornographic industry described to Deník N that Legal Porno often uses girls that have no experience with shooting and do not know what their bodies can stand. “They get paid much more than at other productions. When you have a new girl or you have her exclusively, you earn more. Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, many new faces have appeared there,” said the source.
Legal Porno shoots not only in Krakovská Street in Prague, but also in other studios in the Czech Republic. Every day it launches around seven new videos. “There is not a month, or maybe a week, without a girl having a bad experience. Some agencies do not recommend Legal Porno and do not send girls there. After working for Legal Porno, the girls can’t work, can’t control their bowel movements and need to take a break from filming,” the source added.
The insider did not wish to disclose their name as the owners of Xvideos control a large part of the production in the Czech Republic. If the insider were blacklisted, it would ruin their business. However, Deník N knows their identity.
Public testimonies
Information about the practices at Legal Porno has appeared on social networks. Several famous people from the industry who have hundreds of thousands of followers have shared their bad experiences. For example, the actress using the stage name Veronica Avluv, who has 268 thousand followers, confided on Twitter in 2019 that she had been injured during a shooting.
“I’ve been nursing a serious prolapse injury from one shoot for Legal Porno. It was supposed to be one of 4. I’ve been dealing with blood and shit since the scene. Can’t believe they can sell my pain online but they can,” she wrote.
The porn actress Samantha Rone, who has 144 thousand followers, published her experience in 2016. “I wish I was mad about the money. I’m more mad that people can behave and treat other people like that,” the actress wrote.
Similar complaints can be found on the official forum of Legal Porno. “At the beginning, everything was O.K. The boys were kind and thoughtful. However, the more scenes I had shot, the more ruthless they became as people just want it rougher, rougher and rougher! In the end I bled so much I had to cancel shootings for other productions because I just could not shoot,” a porn actress wrote on the Legal Porno forum last year. Her account is official, it was authorised by the producers.
“In the morning before the last scene, I woke up in fear. I knew that it would be terrible and stupid and that it would be no good. It was just too much. But it was clear to me that no one cared,” she confided to anonymous fans of the Legal Porno production.
None of the girls informed the police about their experiences; at least none of them said so to Deník N. Most of the women said they doubted whether the police would do anything. It is therefore unclear whether the police has ever looked into the possible violence in front of cameras.
“The law prohibits us from providing information on specific persons and other entities,” Eva Kropáčová, spokesperson of the Prague Police, said.
The owners of Legal Porno at first refused to talk Deník N journalists and to answer any of their questions. Then one of the owners, Mr Pacaud, called a reporter. Mr Pacaud said he wanted to clear up certain things and promised to send a reply by email. Then came a reply from GTFLIX TV, but the authors of the reply forbade Deník N to publish the reply and accused its reporters of bias.
“The accusations are completely made up. For nearly nine years we have been victims of a massive disinformation campaign carried out by Pierre Woodman. It includes forging documents and paying models to make false accusations,” the owners of Legal Porno wrote in their reply. “Tomorrow we will consider filing an information with the Czech Police against you and your newspaper,” the company has threatened.
Ten girls speak on camera
The owners of Legal Porno did not mention the name of the world-famous producer Pierre Woodman by coincidence – they have had disputes for years. Woodman, who is active mainly in Hungary and the Czech Republic, has also pointed out to unfair practices of his competitors.
According to porn-industry insiders, Woodman does not have such a heated dispute with anyone other than the Pacaud siblings. Woodman, who was contacted by Deník N, handed over to the newspaper testimonies of ten actresses he says he has collected in recent years. All the women in the videos talk about their experiences with Legal Porno productions similarly as the actresses with whom Deník N spoke.
Deník N will not publish the videos, to protect the privacy of the women. However, the newspaper contacted some of them to verify whether their testimonies were manipulated. The women with whom the reporters spoke confirmed their original statements.
How did Woodman’s videos come about? The producer has said he shoots everything on camera, including interviews with job seekers. He does it to prevent any disputes or accusations. To Deník N he has provided the testimonies of ten girls who, when he asked them about their experiences in the industry, themselves started talking about Legal Porno.
One of the girls said that, in order to make the scenes, she drank a cocktail of painkillers. Another woman said that during the shooting she was bleeding from her anus but they did not stop the shooting anyway. They gave her a gel thanks to which she could continue and did not feel pain. She said she did not know at the time that it was a painkiller.
“They gave me anaesthetics, but it did not help at all. No one raised their voice at me, but when I was crying and said I couldn’t do it, someone came and gave me a shot of vodka to relax,” described one of the women.
According to lawyers contacted by Deník N, in this case – if it happened in this way – a thin line between shooting and rape may have been crossed.
“This creates a situation that cannot end otherwise than in a rape. During such shooting, the woman should not drink – it is clear how it will end. Rape consists also in someone misusing a woman’s helplessness, which can be caused also by drunkenness,” lawyer Tomáš Sokol assessed the situation.
Lawyer Lucie Hrdá sees it similarly. “In my opinion this is rape. When you misuse someone’s helplessness, you commit rape. In particular when you cause the helplessness, which is much more dangerous for the society,” Hrdá said. “Rape includes also expressing resistance during an act,” she added.
According to Sokol, local anaesthetics or alcohol may be used during pornographic shooting if the actress has consented to it and was in a state in which she was able to make such a decision. This means, for example, that she was not drunk.
One of the girls described how, during one of the practices, the actor used force to achieve what he wanted. When shooting anal sex, actresses have to prepare to avoid the intercourse being painful. “At times he held my ass and tried to force a [dildo] in it, so that it would be over fast. But I was already crying and said I did not want to do it, so I ended it,” described the witness.
Another woman alleged that people from Legal Porno forced the shooting of a scene. “They forced me to shoot double anal intercourse. I refused another scene,” said the woman. She said the producers tried to trick her by saying that they would only try a scene and would not film it. The scene was to include anal sex. “I said to them that even simple anal intercourse was painful for me. They told me it wouldn’t be on any video. So we tried it and I said it hurt terribly. I pushed them away and said it hurt. Then I watched previews on Legal Porno and the video was there,” the witness described her frustration.
Penalty for failing to complete a shoot
Other women on the videos say that people from Legal Porno pressured them to continue shooting. The producers allegedly threatened the actresses with penalties in the order of tens of thousand of Czech crowns. “I stopped working for them. A woman did not agree with the fact that I wanted to terminate the contract on the spot. The contract stipulated that when I stop [the shooting] early, I must pay a penalty of 70 thousand Czech crowns. Some girls before me left but did not have to pay anything,” a witness said.
The lawyer Sokol stresses that such practice would be unacceptable and the penalties would be unenforceable. “This is similar to someone agreeing in a contract to pour petrol over themselves and set themselves on fire, and paying a penalty if they did not do it. I believe that, in relation to pornography, such clause is null and void,” Sokol explains.
In some aspects, the situation at Legal Porno may be similar to the case of the porn production Czech Casting. In that case, the girls testified that the producers pressured them and threatened them with penalties if they failed to complete their work. The police then charged nine people with human trafficking, sexual coercion and rape. As in the case of Legal Porno, the girls said that before the shooting they did not know what awaited them.
War of two producers
It is important to bear in mind that Woodman is not unbiased in relation to the situation at Legal Porno. His legal dispute with the Pacauds has a personal dimension. Woodman claims that on the forum of Legal Porno they published pictures of his wife and of his daughter (that picture was allegedly taken when the daughter was a minor) and invited people to visit his daughter. Woodman says this is the reason why he has led a court dispute in France.
On the other hand, the Pacaud siblings, namely their company GTFLIX TV, say in their reply that Woodman has been carrying out a disinformation campaign against them and has been paying models to raise false accusations against them.
“Woodman must have taken an interest in your biased articles and we see that the way in which you are trying to obtain information may easily lead to false testimonies,” GTFLIX TV added.
However, not only Woodman is pointing his finger at Legal Porno. Also other people from the industry have described to Deník N that Legal Porno wants girls to engage in practices their bodies cannot cope with. In addition, the sources say, the actresses are often very young. According to sources who are familiar with the pornographic industry in the Czech Republic – we do not quote Woodman as an anonymous source in this article – there are cases when girls who have just turned 18 appear at a pornographic shooting where they are asked to be penetrated by several men and to engage in dangerous practices that may cause injuries.
“Sometimes they end up in hospital and often they are so traumatised that they quit the industry,” an insider told us under the promise of anonymity. A number of people from the pornographic industry have openly admitted that they are afraid to talk about the issues around Legal Porno. The reason is that the Pacauds control a large share of the pornographic market in the Czech Republic and in the world.
According to financial statements, the Pacauds’ revenues are in the hundreds of millions of Czech crowns. A proof of their wealth is a recent transaction in which they overpaid Pornhub and Larry Flynt, the owner of the Hustler brand, in an auction for the Penthouse magazine. The owners of Xvideos paid for it an equivalent of 250 million Czech crowns.
The most-visited pornographic website of Xvideos faces difficulties
The siblings Stephane Michael Pacaud and Malorie Deborah Pacaud own, through WGCZ, also the porn site Xvideos. According to the analytical website SimilarWeb, Xvideos is the most-visited pornographic website in the world. Of all the websites, it is the seventh most visited. Legal Porno is not as big, but it ranks among 500 most-visited pornographic websites in the world with nearly 20 million visits, the largest number of them being from the United States.
The reporters of Deník N have described how the system of Xvideos enables to upload any content with just an anonymous email address. That is how, without any supervision, it is possible to upload there illegal pornography depicting victims of violence, revenge porn, or minors. To report an illegal video is actually more difficult than to upload it. The matter is now being investigated by the police and by the Visa and Mastercard card-payment companies.
The situation is analogical to that of the Pornhub website, to which financial-services companies blocked payments after the New York Times wrote a month ago that Pornhub contained child pornography or videos depicting rape.
“Dennis Burkas (49), alias Dennis Black Magic, was convicted on Thursday of the rape of eight women.
The porn producer was given a prison sentence of seven years by the Tongeren criminal court and will be banned from his rights for a period of ten years.
According to the court, it is proven that Burkas pressured several women to have sex with him and distributed nude photos of several women. Burkas has also failed to learn lessons from his previous convictions, exhibits a far-reaching form of norm blurring and lacks respect for existing regulations. The possession of images of child sexual abuse was also proven, according to the court.
The judge ruled that Burkas (49) was indeed in a position of power vis-à-vis his victims, whom he put psychological pressure on, harassed and threatened. Burkas took nude photos and threatened to give them to their employer.
According to the court, he also saw the women as sexual objects of desire. When the verdict was pronounced, reference was made to a “total lack of awareness of norms” and a “cunning attitude”.
The file against Burkas was opened after model and OnlyFans star Nanoe Vaesen went to the police with a complaint against the man. He allegedly promised her to make a porn film in exchange for 20,000 euros. He would also put her in touch with other porn producers, but Vaesen had to prove herself sexually first. However, not much came of the promises made. Vaesen also told the police that there were other women who had been manipulated by Burkas in a similar way.
Burkas himself has always claimed that no false promises were ever made and that the women knew that it was agreed to have sex. The judge did not follow that reasoning, the porn producer was sentenced to seven years in prison and will be disbarred for a period of 10 years.
In addition, the man must also pay a fine of 500 euros, an amount that must be multiplied by a factor of eight, meaning he will ultimately have to pay 4,000 euros.
Burkas did not show up for the verdict, and his lawyer Mounir Souidi was also not present in court. He ordered the immediate arrest of Burkas.”
“Since the “French Bukkake” scandal shattered the pornography industry, a number of X-rated film production studios and broadcasters have made ethical commitments. However, our survey in collaboration with Capital shows that they are far from being respected everywhere.
In the study of his home in the south of France, the tripods and projectors of John B. Root, director and actor of pornographic films for 30 years, are covered in dust. He stopped shooting two years ago, disgusted by the legal cases that have tainted his professional sector. “It’s not porn that’s gone ‘#MeToo’. It was the police who made porn ‘#MeToo'”, he stormed when he met Radio France’s investigative unit.
A fake procuress
At the end of 2020, several press articles announced the arrest and indictment of four men for rape, procuring and trafficking in human beings, including the actor and director of X-rated videos, Pascal Ollitrault, alias Pascal OP. At the time, he was quite well known in the industry. He gave interviews on Dorcel TV and in the specialist press. At the time, he was the head of “French bukkake”. For ten years, until its closure in 2020, this site offered, for a fee, to view and take part in bukkake scenes, where dozens of men ejaculated on a single woman. Some screenshots from its Twitter account show hooded men in an arc in a shed, waiting for a woman to shoot the scene.
By looking into this man, the investigators uncovered a scheme he used to recruit female participants. In 2016, I was contacted on social networks by a young woman called Axelle Vercoutre,” explains a complainant, Amélia* (first name changed), in an interview with France Culture. She explained that she was an escort and that it was fun to sleep with strangers”. This virtual friend promised her easy money and discretion if she took part in an escorting evening and then in intimate videos. In financial difficulties, Amelia gave in to the temptation.
But behind this pseudonym, Axelle Vercoutre, hides a man. A flatterer who passes on the women’s details to Pascal OP. Dozens of complainants told the same story to the investigators. The shootings that followed went badly. Several complainants said they had not been warned about certain sexual practices they were about to undergo. They sometimes objected. Nor did they know the number of partners. They were only paid in cash if they signed contracts in which they ceded their image rights in all media, even though Pascal OP had promised them discreet distribution abroad. The police initially turned a blind eye. “I was flabbergasted to see that some of these women had lodged rape complaints as early as 2015 and that they had been told it was a commercial dispute”, says journalist Robin d’Angelo, who wrote Judy, Lola, Sofia et moi (Goutte d’Or, 2018), a book about the filming, two years before the affair broke.
Around fifty complainants
The Gendarmerie’s Paris research unit will finally be re-examining these complaints and viewing hours of footage. Videos in which women cry, complain and ask for the sexual act to be stopped. In extracts from the court file, to which Radio France’s investigative unit was able to gain access, text message exchanges between Pascal OP and other defendants show that he was rushing to shoot the scenes before the women discovered his subterfuge over a more exposed broadcast than planned. “For the sexual acts, everything was explained beforehand.I admit that I didn’t say everything for the broadcast.But not for the filming,” he explained to the examining magistrate during one of his hearings.
In the end, 17 defendants – actors, directors and producers of X-rated videos – will be indicted. This April 2024, the courts will have to decide whether the case should be referred to an assize court for acts of torture and barbarism, or to the criminal court for rape, aggravated procuring, human trafficking, money laundering and concealed work. “It would have been interesting to hear from other players in this industry, including the broadcasters, to really understand how it works,” says Dylan Slama, lawyer for one of the defendants.
Broadcasters caught up in the scandal
The scandal will also have consequences for distributors of pornographic content. This is the case for Union, Jacquie et Michel and even Dorcel. Defendants such as Pascal OP, Mat Hadix, Oliver Sweet and Rick Angel worked with them and supplied them with hundreds of videos. “We’re applying precautionary measures,” explains Grégory Dorcel, CEO of the company of the same name. In other words, some videos have been withdrawn from the catalogues. “This is a risk for us because we are contractually committed to distributing these videos, even though no legal decision has been taken”, says Dorcel’s boss.
A risk, but also a precaution, because broadcasting videos of rape is punishable under the Criminal Code (article 227-24). And the company cannot confirm that it has never had any in its offering. We have only broadcast videos in which Pascal OP is an actor,” explains Grégory Dorcel.None where he is a producer.As far as we know, he has only been implicated in shootings where he was in charge of production.
However, Radio France’s investigative unit found that Pascal OP shared his shoots with another producer, Mat Hadix, to get the participants to shoot as many scenes as possible in as little time as possible. The two men swapped roles, one acting for the other and vice versa. The broadcasters claim not to have been aware of this practice. “After the cases came to light, we took the initiative of removing the videos of the incriminated producers,” the editor of the Union website, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote to us. “We could not condone this behaviour, even though we are not aware of any complaints concerning a video that we broadcast”.
New “good practice” charters
Today, these companies are asserting that they have put good practices in place. Dorcel now has a six-person viewing committee. It also entrusted an actress-director, Liza Del Sierra, with the task of drafting an ethical charter, which was published in April 2021 (PDF file), with the help of a sociologist and a lawyer. “It implies respect for consent at all levels”, explains Liza Del Sierra. In particular, the charter requires independent producers who supply videos to Dorcel to hire an intimacy coordinator on set to obtain the free and informed consent of participants. It also requires a minimum salary of 400 euros per scene and the sending of a work plan with details of the sexual practices accepted or not, at least 14 days before filming. “We have to tick boxes on forms to say what we don’t want to do”, explains one actress.
These forms are being extended every year to include new practices, such as strangulation and the recent use of nylon. “We didn’t pay enough attention to those who didn’t want to make pornography their profession. As a result, we now have 50 women in court”, storms Liza Del Sierra. We’ve given ourselves until 2025 to ensure that 100% of the studios we distribute respect an equivalent charter,” says Grégory Dorcel. At the moment we have 39%”.
But some industry insiders have serious reservations about the effectiveness of these charters, which are mainly promoted by women directors and actresses, despite the fact that it is still men who produce the most films. “They are ‘feminist washing’.We know that women are presented as the director of the film even though they have no interest in the script, the camera or the shooting”, explains a professional who confessed to us that he had credited his partner as the director of his own X-rated film a few years ago at the request of his distributor. “They wrote this to clear their name, but it’s a bit late,” adds director John B. Root.
A privacy coordinator who is both judge and jury
Our survey shows that these charters do have their limits. For example, we met several privacy coordinators who were double-hatted, as they were also actresses on the shoots. “There aren’t many well-trained coordinators”, explains director Anoushka, and “it’s up to the production to pay them”, she adds. It’s impossible to specifically hire someone at 500 euros a day when you only have a budget of 45,000 euros, like that allocated by Canal Plus to make its latest X-rated film. “At Dorcel, they have their intimacy coordinator for their own production.But when you audit yourself, that’s not ideal either,” she adds. She and other directors are calling for productions to set up an independent fund to hire trusted third parties on location.
Actress Carolina Cherry also found that these charters are poorly applied when she shot twice for Dorcel productions last year in Budapest, Hungary, including with a Hungarian intimacy coordinator. “With 24 hours to go, they changed my programme, adding an anal scene.I discovered that this additional scene was broadcast on a label I didn’t know”. She complained to the group’s director of content. “They paid me for the extra scene.But someone younger or less comfortable would have let it happen without saying anything”. Grégory Dorcel claims to have no knowledge of this dispute. However, his communications department later told us that “on certain shoots, the same scene is sometimes shot in two versions: one with a traditional cinema camera and the other with a subjective camera”. A method of working that was eventually abandoned.
Other broadcasters such as Union do not impose privacy coordinators on the producers whose content they buy. But: “We systematically ask them to provide us with a video before and after filming, in which the actors and actresses confirm that the scenes that have just been filmed were done with their consent”, the editor-in-chief of the Union site wrote to us. “Consent isn’t just before and after the scene.It’s being asked all the time”, says Paloma Garcia Martens, an intimacy coordinator in audiovisual fiction and traditional cinema. In her view, the purpose of these videos is above all to protect the production, not to obtain free and informed consent. On a shoot,” she explains, “an intimacy coordinator needs to be able to say no to the director, while at the same time proposing solutions so that he can still carry out the scene he wants.
Jacquie et Michel in turmoil
The Arès group, which owns the Jacquie et Michel brand, was the first to draw up a guide to good practice. Just after Pascal OP’s indictment, it published a deontological (PDF file) and ethical charter applicable to all employees and content creators for their various labels: JM, JM Elite, Hot Vidéo and Colmax. The charter is designed to enable French producers to assure the Arès group that they have taken all necessary measures to ensure the full consent and protection of all parties involved, particularly women, in the production of works for its platforms.
We interviewed several participants in Jacquie et Michel shoots. None of them had received this charter at the time. “I was shocked by the behaviour of Eddy, one of the actors I was with on a shoot in 2021.We were supposed to do a fake photo, and he sat me right on his genitals,” she says. Eddy Blackone is an actor under investigation who has been cited in numerous testimonies in the French Bukkake case. Several of the women mentioned that he attempted to rape them off-camera in the shower after the scenes. In an exchange of text messages, a director who was also prosecuted, MatHadix, talks about him with Pascal OP: “Eddy: he does that to all the girls in the shower,” the file states. With bullshit like that, we could end up with a complaint for rape”.
The actor was finally arrested in October 2021, after having filmed with several professional productions, including that of Nikita Belluci, an actress and director who is now a spokesperson for an industry that wants to be more ethical. I’d been denouncing the practices of Pascal OP and others for a long time,” she explains, “but for Eddy, I’ve never heard anything. Eddy still has his actor’s file on the Jacquie et Michel website, but no one wished to respond to our requests. As for the actor’s lawyer, he is reserving his answers for the courts and points out that his client is presumed innocent.
Contentious videos still online
Despite these findings, in April 2022, at a Senate hearing before the Women’s Rights Delegation, Vincent Gey, Director of Operations for the Arès Group (which owns Jacquie et Michel) defended the seriousness of its charter. “Unannounced checks are carried out on film shoots”, he explains. “If the slightest breach is detected, our collaboration will be terminated”, he explains. He admits, however, that only one person is assigned to these checks, despite the fact that his company broadcasts over a thousand scenes a year.
Two months later, his boss, Michel Piron, the founder of Jacquie et Michel, was indicted for complicity in rape and trafficking in human beings as part of an organised gang, casting huge doubt on his company’s alleged good practices. Some of its broadcasters are distancing themselves. Canal Plus is suspending the Jacquie et Michel TV channel from June 2022. Last February, Colmax TV was also suspended. However, Michel Piron’s son, Thibault Piron, and his content director Germain Chicot set up a new company called Aramis. Now, in Canal Plus’s VOD offerings, we have identified several films shot for the Arès group in 2021 and now credited with the name Aramis.
When asked about a possible resumption of commercial relations with the creators of Jacquie et Michel, the Canal Plus communications department replied: “To the best of our knowledge, no more Jacquie et Michel content is present on the services published by the Canal+ Group (on-air channels and VOD offer)”. Since we contacted them, we have noticed that the films we had found on Canal+’s VOD service are no longer available.
But it shows that it is difficult for broadcasters to guarantee that good practice is being followed in a vague sector where the protagonists also operate under pseudonyms. “Today, new entities have been created.We’ve taken videos from Jacquie et Michel, but we’ve just cut the scene at the moment of the signature line.When we say: ‘Thank you, who?Thank you Jacquie et Michel!” concludes an industry professional.”
Alyssa Ahrabare from the French organisation Osez le féminisme explains how they managed to prosecute traffickers and pornographers in a historic French court case.
Next year in Paris, the owner of a porn site will be prosecuted. It is a historic case involving 40 victims and three organisations as civil parties (Osez le féminisme, Mouvement du Nid and Les Effronté-es). It is a victory for the women’s movement, and especially for us in the Osez le féminisme group, which has pursued the issue and is a civil party to the case. Osez le féminisme (“Dare to be feminist”) is an organisation that provides holistic support to over 40 victims in both cases, including legal assistance, psychological trauma therapy, and social support, with a team of 30 lawyers, two specialist psychologists and a social worker.
The prosecution covers a range of charges: rape, prostitution and human trafficking.1 The subject of the prosecution is the French website ‘French Bukkake’, owned by Pascal Ollitrault (known as Pascal OP), which posts extremely violent pornographic videos. According to a report by the Haut Conseil à l’égalité entre les femmes et les hommes (Equality Council), these cases are the norm rather than the exception, and the pornography industry benefits from widespread impunity to minimise “serious violations of human dignity”.2
The preliminary investigation was launched in 2020, and investigators soon discovered that many complaints had been filed across France for several years, but had not been followed up. In the course of their work, the investigators uncovered a system of sexual exploitation for the purpose of rape, and a judicial investigation was opened for ‘gang rape’, ‘aggravated trafficking in human beings’, ‘aggravated pimping’, ‘money laundering’, ‘concealed labour’ and ‘distribution of recordings of images relating to the execution of a deliberate attack on the integrity of a person’.
The survey revealed the grim reality of ‘Bukkake’ films. Paying subscribers were invited to participate in gang rapes based on a particularly dehumanising scenario: many men penetrated a woman (sometimes over 80 times in less than two hours) before collectively ejaculating on the victim, who was displayed on a pallet as a commodity. 500 men were identified in the investigation. Ordinary men, porn consumers who were invited to rape and torture women on camera. They have not yet been prosecuted.
The French Council for Gender Equality published a report this year on the criminality of the pornography industry, including the testimonies of victims.3
The investigation related to the “French Bukkake” case has revealed a well-organised strategy to capture victims. A man named Julien D. targeted women on social networks. He approached them under a fake female profile called “Axelle Vercoutre” and, using the myth of “happy and lucrative prostitution”, convinced them to try becoming “luxury escorts”. He then posed as a buyer, met the women and raped them. Raping victims in order to exert control over them is a common practice used by pimps and traffickers.
After the rapes, Julien D. encouraged the women to try being in pornographic films that would only be shown to limited audiences abroad. They were to go to a specified address where several days of horror ensued. The producer, Pascal OP, at first seemed nice, with the intention of forcing their consent and recording it. Subsequently, the complainants report that they were raped on camera, humiliated and tortured by filming degrading scenes. Hair analysis also shows that some of them were drugged without their knowledge.
Women were also deceived when they asked for videos posted online to be deleted.4) Victims report significant psychological difficulties after the filming. Some tried to take legal action as early as 2017, but the police did not act: warnings in Toulouse, Brignoles, Les Andelys and Reims (where Julien D. lived) were not followed up.5
At the end of the investigation in July 2023, seventeen people (producers, directors and actors) were charged with rape (often committed as part of a group), human trafficking, aggravated pimping, and hidden labour. and concealed labour.6) Several have been in preventive detention since 2020.
The trial will be held in summer 2024.7
As a result of the evidence highlighted by the investigation, the French Senate has produced a report entitled “L’Enfer du décor” (Hell behind the curtains).8
The findings clearly show that pornography is a system of violence against women. Subsequently, a resolution was signed by 255 senators (making it the most signed senate text of the French Fifth Republic) stating that the fight against pornographic violence should be prioritised. The resolution was unanimously adopted in a public session on 1 March 2023.
For the civil parties in the cases, every step of the way is a struggle. Plaintiffs do not always have the money to travel to Paris for interviews, hearings and expertise on the case. Many are traumatised and live in very precarious situations due to the physical and psychological effects of the violence they suffered. Moreover, the films are still available online. Despite countless attempts, it has proved impossible to have them deleted.
Many women are threatened or are recognised and harassed on the street. They experience both a social death and an ongoing fear that loved ones, families or colleagues will accidentally see the films. The difficulties they go through make it extremely difficult for more victims to come forward. This exposure highlights a failure of the justice system for women who are victims of violence.
Ultimately, the word pornography hides an organised global criminal system. In the videos we can see real people being subjected to humiliating and degrading acts, such as ejaculation on the face, spitting on the face, urinating or defecating on the victim.
This kind of violence is the norm: it’s what the industry calls ‘mainstream’ porn, with content showing extreme violence where women are bound, whipped, strangled to suffocation, beaten… Women are muzzled to force them to keep their mouths open and are orally penetrated without restriction. Women are given electric shocks. In any other context, this is considered torture. However, in this context, it means that international criminal networks that could be held accountable under the existing legal framework can get away with offences in the name of freedom of expression.
EU Member States, including France and Sweden, are using the “freedom of expression” argument to limit the potential protection of women and girls from online violence, particularly the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, in the proposed directive on violence against women and girls currently under discussion in the EU institutions.
The EU Council of Ministers, representing the “interests” of the Member States, has included amendments to Articles 7 to 10 of the proposed directive aimed at tackling online violence against women. These amendments significantly limit the criminalisation of non-consensual use of intimate images, stalking and expression of hatred online.
The condition of ‘serious harm’ to the victim was added, as was the condition that the offence be ‘public’, meaning that acts in private groups or forums and online pay sites will not be included. Finally, both the reasoning and legal text now state that criminalising these types of online sexual violence must be balanced with freedom of expression, academic considerations, art and science.
Freedom of expression is not an absolute right. The European Convention on Human Rights states that it can be restricted in a democratic society for legitimate purposes, such as protecting the rights and reputation of others. In the case of defamation lawsuits against survivors of sexual violence condemning the perpetrator, freedom of expression is not used as a shield. This highlights a very dangerous paradigm shift of both approach and culture.
Traditionally, the law only protects speech that is consistent with a humanistic social contract, not hate speech. In European legal culture, freedom of expression was traditionally a right that protected the weak against the strong. This right is now mobilised in the war against women.
Pornography is an attack on the fundamental rights of all women. Violence is a natural part of its economic function as the content must constantly “surprise and shock” the consumer.
Pornography has been condemned and fought in every wave of the fight for women’s rights. After the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s, feminist movements gave a voice to victims who testified about rape, kidnapping, violence and sexual trafficking. We have known this for decades. It is high time to fight. It is happening now. What we are seeing is a systematic, global violence that requires a global resistance.
As a general policy response, we call for the reaffirmation of the fundamental principles on which our society is based: the rejection of hatred and violence, and an explicit respect for human dignity. Unlimited freedom for pornocrats means trampling on the rights of the most vulnerable and discriminated against in our society.
In France, decision-makers, especially senators, have been crucial to the progress achieved so far. It takes courage to take a stand against something that has become so normalised. We expect Swedish decision-makers to be brave too. It is time for Sweden to stand on the right side of history in this matter as well.
Gregorian Bivolaru was arrested and then indicted in France. In total, 15 people were indicted, including six imprisoned, following this raid. They are suspected of being involved in large-scale sexual violence within an international yoga movement accused of sectarian excesses.
“Behind the promise of controlling erotic energies, the Atman yoga school, present in around thirty countries, is suspected of having pushed hundreds of young women into orgies or into non-consensual relations with their ‘spiritual leader'”, writes Libération , which co-signed with RFI a long investigation into this issue.
Gregorian Bivolaru, 71, of Romanian and Swedish nationality, has just been arrested in France. He is the founder of Misa, (Movement for Spiritual Integration towards the Absolute), an international group, presented as focused on the practice of yoga, a group known today as Atman.
Arrested in a house in Ivry-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, it was in his home that he allegedly practiced ” sexual initiations” of tantric yoga, a practice which promises to achieve ecstasy of the body and the mind.
He was indicted for four offenses: aggravated rape (in conjunction with several other rapes committed against other victims), kidnapping by an organized gang, human trafficking by an organized gang, abuse of vulnerability by the leader of a group pursuing activities that create, maintain, or exploit the psychological or physical subjection of participants. 14 other suspects were also indicted. Several women are among them.
In total, forty-one people were placed in police custody, among them reportedly “important leaders” of the sect in France, specifies a source close to the investigation. A gigantic dragnet led by the Caimades (assistance and intervention unit in matters of sectarian aberrations), the OCRVP (Central Office for the Repression of Violence against Persons), under the direction of a judge Parisian education. Some 175 police officers were mobilized for this large-scale operation.
In 2013, this “conspiracy theorist” was already convicted in absentia in Romania for rape of a minor. Accused of pedophilia and human trafficking – which he denies – he is wanted by Interpol for “trafficking in women”.
Women under influence
Twenty-six women, several of whom were under influence, were released during the arrests. These “victims, taken from the sect, were housed in cramped conditions and deplorable hygiene” , specifies the judicial source.
This intervention follows a report, at the end of July 2022, from Miviludes (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses) to the Public Prosecutor. This organization had received information from the Human Rights League reporting 12 reports from former members of Misa.
According to a judicial source, Misa, renamed Atman during its expansion outside Romania, taught tantra yoga, with the aim of “conditioning victims to accept sexual relations via mental manipulation techniques aimed at removing any notion of consent. Many women of different nationalities say they have been victims of the actions of the Misa organization and its leader.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation in July 2023, for various offenses including kidnapping in an organized gang, a crime punishable by 30 years in prison, abuse of vulnerability in an organized gang by member of a sect, rape or human trafficking humans in organized gangs.
Hundreds of followers
The Misa has many yoga schools and other branches. This group encouraged female victims “to accept sexual relations with the leader of the group” and/or to “engage in pornographic practices paid for in France and abroad”.
As early as 2008, Misa was excluded “from the International Yoga Federation and the European Yoga Alliance for its commercial practices deemed illicit”, recalled the judicial source, who also underlines that it has already been the subject of a procedure in Italy.
“It is difficult to quantify the number of followers” in France, but “it’s several hundred people” . According to the judicial source, “the investigations revealed a compartmentalized organization, following a usual procedure in matters of organized crime.”
An ashram that became a sexual prison
“The aim of the courses was to have people participate in sexual and/or physical activities (…) in conditions allowing at this stage to characterize the offense of trafficking in human beings,” the same judicial source further specifies. “The people who stayed there denounced having been forced to pay for their stay for the women by engaging in sexual video chats, and for the men through manual labor,” she added.
“An ashram was clearly exclusively dedicated to satisfying the desires of the principal accused”, Gregorian Bivolaru, “women were taken there from other establishments, and placed on hold in a first accommodation” .
It’s an “insane case, with a group resembling the mafia, pimping under supposedly philosophical trappings “, a source close to the case recently commented to AFP.
Donna M. Hughes Co-founder, Citizens Against Trafficking
Women used in the production of commercial pornography in the U.S. are often subjected to violence and coercion during filming. Often they protest and try to stop the filming or back-out before filming begins. Their protests are ignored or they are pressured by their agent or the director to continue. Their experiences of coercion and trickery often meet the criteria for sex trafficking.
Sex trafficking is a federal felony. Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act which involves force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person involved has not attained 18 years of age. Sex trafficking is punishable by up to 20 years in prison or life in prison if there are aggravating circumstances. Since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000, almost all federal sex trafficking cases have involved prostitution. The use of adult victims in the production of pornography has not been investigated. I believe this is an area that needs much more attention by activists and law enforcement.
In cases of sex trafficking involving minor victims there have been numerous accompanying charges for production of child pornography because the perpetrator has taken naked images of the victim. To be a federal crime, the perpetrator does not have to use the images for commercial purposes, nor is there a need to prove that force, fraud or coercion were used because the victims are minors.
For our purpose, we are interested in demonstrating that there is sex trafficking of adult women (over the age of 17) in the production of commercial pornography in the U.S.
I reviewed the testimonies of women used in the production of pornography to see if their experiences met the criteria for sex trafficking. Several of these testimonies came from the pornography industry. She is now working to assist other women to escape pornography and hold the sex industry accountable for the harm it does to women
Force or Coercion
If any force or coercion is used to compel a woman to engage in a sex act that is filmed for commercial purposes, that meets the legal criteria for violation of federal law. This interpretation of the TVPA was first used in a BDSM (bondage and sadomasochism) case in which the perpetrator, “slave master” Glenn Marcus filmed the torture of a victim and placed it on his subscription-based web site. The Supreme Court upheld the forced labor and sex trafficking conviction on May 24, 2010.
Most women entering the pornography industry don’t know what they will be subjected to. Like most victims of sex trafficking, they need money and are looking for opportunities. The agents, directors and producers take extreme advantage of these often naïve young women. Their first experience making commercial pornography is often brutal and traumatic. Madelyne knew nothing about the business or what was required, but was eager to make money because she was broke and in debt.
She was “terrified” when she arrived at the studio to shoot her first scene. She said, “I tried backing out and wanted to go home and not do porn at all.” She was reminded that she had signed a contract so she couldn’t back out. “I was threatened that if I did not do the scene I was going to get sued for lots of money.” “I experienced rough sex scenes and have been hit by male talent [pornography actors] and told them to stop but they wouldn’t stop until I started to cry and ruined the scene.”
She told the agent that she had “no limits” on what she would do. Later, she said she had no idea what that meant. She signed a one year contract.
Madelyn’s description of her experience qualifies as coercion. Even if a victim initially consents to sexual activity, she always has the option of withdrawing her consent and the activity should stop. If her wishes are ignored, sex trafficking is occurring.
Alexa wrote: “My first movie I was treated very rough by 3 guys. They pounded on me, gagged me with their penises, and tossed me around like I was a ball! I was sore, hurting and could barely walk. My insides burned and hurt so badly. I could barely pee and to try to have a bowel movement was out of the question.” 7
Sierra Sinn wrote: “My first scene was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was very scary. It was a very rough scene. My agent didn’t let me know ahead of time… I did it and I was crying and they didn’t stop. It was really violent. He was hitting me. It hurt. It scared me more than anything. They wouldn’t stop. They just kept rolling.”8
Both Alexa and Sierra Sinn’s experience describe the use of force in the production of pornography. If the women protested or asked the actors or directors to stop and they did not, this qualifies as force and is sex trafficking.
Preying on Drug Use or Addiction is a Form of “Non-violent and Psychological Coercion” The William Wiberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 added a new type of coercion that can be used in sex trafficking cases. Preying on a victim’s drug use or addiction (whether pre-existing or created by the trafficker) will, in and of itself, form the basis for convicting traffickers under the TVPA.
Many testimonies of women used in the production of commercial pornography describe their drug and alcohol addictions and how the pornographers manipulate them. When Madelyne wanted to back out of doing her first pornography scene, in addition to being threatened, “I ended up taking shots of vodka to get through it. …Porn producers provided alcohol and drugs for me.”
Madelyne added: “As I did more and more scenes I abused prescription pills which were given to me—anything I wanted–by several Doctors in the San Fernando Valley. I was given Vicodin, Xanax, Norcos, Prozac and Zoloft. The doctors knew I did porn but still gave me any prescription pills I wanted. All I had to do was tell them I needed them to get through hardcore scenes. … In preparation for a scene in which multiple men ejaculated on Madelyne’s face, which she didn’t want to do, “One of the crew members offered me vodka and beer.”
“My agent forced me to use a driver because he knew I was always wasted. About 75% of the women who make porn have to have drivers because they’re addicted to drugs and alcohol.” 10 When Madelyne could not longer perform in porn scenes because “No one wanted to hire me because of my drug and alcohol problem was out of control,” her agent suggested she go into prostitution and stripping. Madelyne suggested that the doctors might be receiving kick-backs from the pornography producers.
According to Alexa: “There was always alcohol and drugs readily available on the sets…. Whatever you wanted, they would or could get it. In fact, the set I worked on for two videos, the stars had their own ‘doctor’ with them! I would see the doctor giving out pills or giving … injections.”
As anti-sex trafficking activists, we should be pressing the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney in California to investigate the sex trafficking of women for the production of commercial pornography by preying on victims’ addictions.
Fraud If a person is compelled to engage in a commercial sex act (which includes the filming of commercial pornography) through fraud she is a victim of sex trafficking. Using fraud means tricking someone into doing something she didn’t anticipate. Madelyne wrote: “The worst scene I ever did was during my first couple weeks in the business. The agent who handled all my bookings called me the day before the scene and said it would be similar to a solo masturbation scene. Then he added that there would also be about 10-15 guys masturbating to me and ejaculating on my body. In the pornography industry this type of scene is known as a ‘Bukakke.’
He said it would be quick and easy money. When I arrived I saw a massively long line of men outside the studio. I recognized very few of them….most of them were strangers I had never seen before.”Once inside the studio Madelyne learned that the men lined up outside had been recruited by an ad in the LA Weekly to come and ejaculate on a young porn actress’s face. She called her agent and protested, saying there were at least men waiting for the scene. “My agent told me that I had to do it and if I can’t, he would charge me and I would lose any other bookings I had because I would make his agency look bad.
These actions to compel this woman to make pornography constituted both fraud and psychological coercion.
Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking Online Petition on Sex Trafficking in the Pornography Industry
More anti-trafficking organizations and activists are investigating and raising awareness about sex trafficking in the production of commercial pornography. The Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking has launched an online petition urging FBI Director Robert S. Mueller and Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. to investigate the pornography industry for use of sex trafficking against women and girls in the production of pornography. (The full text of the petition is in the appendix.)
Women used in the production of pornography are victims of sexual violence and coercion. They deserve the attention and support of anti-trafficking activists and law enforcement. In your work to educate others about sex trafficking, remember to discuss sex trafficking in the production of pornography.
NATIONAL PETITION TO INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE LINK BETWEEN TRAFFICKING AND THE PORNOGRAPHY INDUSTRY
WHEREAS, Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking (FCAHT), through evidence uncovered during research and investigations, has identified potential sex trafficking victims inside the pornography industry.
FCAHT has found indicators that:
teen girls, boys and women are being recruited into the pornography industry with fraudulent promises of legitimate jobs at exaggerated pay rates;
once these victims are recruited and arrive at the trafficking destination, they are being held there by means of debt bondage, physical force and psychological coercion;
their pay for work performed is given directly to their “agent” or trafficker and these debts are deducted before any money, if any remains, is given to the victim;
the victims are given the “choice” to perform “privates”, which is illegal prostitution, to pay off their debt;
if the victim attempts to leave and/or speak out against the industry, they are physically and emotionally threatened to hold them captive and to keep them from seeking help with law enforcement agencies;
WHEREAS, the United States has identified the above actions to be indicators of sex trafficking which is illegal per the United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act and Reauthorizations of 2003, 2005 and 2008; WHEREAS, the pornography industry is a legal industry inside the United States and as such, must submit to the laws of the TVPA and Reauthorizations of 2003, 2005 and 2008; WHEREAS, spokespersons for the pornography industry have openly admitted in public forums that they do not follow the laws of the United States; WHEREAS, the pornography industry, in the United States alone, produces 89% of the entire world’s hardcore pornography websites with earnings between $2.8 – $13 billion a year, making it is one of the most profitable industries in the United States; WHEREAS, FCAHT takes the stance that these indicators should be evaluated for further awareness and possible action; THEREFORE, I add my name and voice to those of countless American citizens calling upon our United States Government to immediately join with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking in efforts to end the exploitation and trafficking of teen children and women in the pornography industry and stop modern-day slavery in the 21st century.
Specifically, I call on FBI Director Robert S. Mueller and Department of Justice Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. to:
Initiate an investigation of these indicators to determine if, in fact, sex trafficking is taking place inside the pornography industry and, if so found, to take possible legal action against the pornography industry per TVPA and Reauthorizations provisions.
Work with the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking to establish and enforce a human rights-based code of conduct, including zero tolerance for forced labor, servitude, debt bondage and illegal commercial sex acts within the pornography industry in America.
The French pornography industry systematically uses violence against women, according to a report presented Wednesday by four French Senators, after six months of auditions following several high-profile arrests of producers and directors.
The Senators want the issue to be taken seriously by the public, and for the government to make the fight against the “commodification of bodies” a political priority.
The aim of the report, which the authors titled ‘Porno: hell behind the scenes’, is to “alert the government and public opinion about violence perpetuated and spread by and in the pornography industry, as well as on the sexist, racist, homophobic and unequal representations that it generates.”
The four Senators, from four different political parties, started their mission in February after several porn actors, directors and producers linked to the video platform French Bukkake were arrested as part of a larger investigation opened in October 2020 into human trafficking, gang rape and pimping.
Three other men were arrested in Paris on Tuesday in connection with the probe.
Violence ‘not faked’ on screen
The Senators – Annick Billon, with the UDI centrist party, part of President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling coalition; Socialist Laurence Rossignol; Alexandra Borchio-Fontimp with the centre-right Les Republicains; and Communist Laurence Cohen – found that online pornography has become increasingly violent, and it is being seen by younger and younger people.
“Sexual, physical and verbal violence are massively widespread in porn,” write the authors, who say it is systemic. The violence is “not faked, but very real for the women being filmed.”
The report says the line between ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ pornography producers has been blurred with the advent of new platforms that allow people to upload their own videos.
The result, they say, is a free-for-all for producers, who often recruit economically and psychologically vulnerable young women to coerce them into doing acts on camera they might not otherwise agree to.
Some producers will force women to sign contacts ceding their image rights in perpetuity, forcing them to pay “between 3,000 and 5,000 euros, or ten times what they obtained to film the scene” in order to take them down.
And even then, once the images are out on other streaming platforms, they are “almost impossible to remove, preventing these women who were filmed to excersie their ‘right to be forgotten’”.
Of the report’s 23 recommendations, one is to impose on platforms the obligation to respond directly to removal requests from the people filmed, and not just from the owners of the videos.
Scepticism of ‘ethical’ pornography
The two major French pornography platforms, Dorcel and Jacquie et Michel, said in November 2020, after the first revelations of the investigations into the French Bukkakhe case, that they were willing to put in place ethics codes.
Others in the industry have talked about contracts detailing what sexual practices particapants are willing to do or not do.
But the Senators dismissed such proposals as window-dressing for a deeper problem of violence that needs to be addressed more systemically.
“Faced with the systemic extent of pornographic violence, and given the nature of sexual consent that can be reversed at any time, these ‘marketing’ measures do not convince the authors,” they write, adding that productions with more respectful practices are rare in the consumption of pornography today.
Protecting kids
Beyond violence on sets and onscreen, the Senators also focused on who is watching pornography and how it “normalises sexual violence of women”.
According to the report, two thirds of children 15-years-old and under, and one third of those under the age of 12 have been exposed to pornographic images, voluntarily or involuntarily, and each month, nearly a third of boys under the age of 15 visit a pornographic website.
Often the first introduction to sexuality for children, pornography “builds an eroticisation of violence and domination relations, which become norms,” the authors write, adding that it “multiplies and encourages sexist, racist and homophobic stereotypes”.
A large number of recommendations focus on the issue of age verification for pornographic websites, which has proven to be legally tricky, even as several French associations have filed lawsuits against the major platforms.
A law passed in July 2020 requires pornographic websites to put in place age controls, but the Arcom media watchdog in charge of enforcing it has been ignored by the major sites, including Pornhub, Tukif, Xhamster, Xvideos and Xnxx.
The Senators would like to see Arcom given more power to register infractions and impose “dissuasive” sanctions.
Currently, agents must first get a legal ruling to be able to order Internet service providers to block sites in France that do not put in place age limits.
Another focus for children should be better sex education in schools to address issues of pornography.
Since 2001, primary, middle and high schools are required to provide at least three sessions a year on relationships and sexuality, but the report highlights the fact that the law “is absolutely not applied.
Students often receive just a few science classes dedicated to teaching reproduction” at the end of middle school.
Parents have pushed back and schools have not put in place adequate programmes, but the Senators say it is important to teach about sex and relationships instead of letting children learn it from pornography.
Ban pornography?
Early on in the audition process for the report, the Senators met with members of feminist organisations that fight against pornography and prostitution.
France has generally had a rather abolitionist approach to prostitution, making pimping and solicitation illegal, but not banning it outright.
Throughout the audition process, the Senators drew links between prostitution and pornography, but do not go so far as calling for banning pornography.
However, they write: “wishing to open everyone’s eyes on the global system of violence against women, the authors question the existence itself of the pornography industry”.
And yet, with some 19 million people visiting French pornography sites each month, the public and political debate will not be so much on banning, but creating a framework in which productions come under more scrutiny, and distribution platforms take more responsibility for who sees what.
French prosecutors have indicated that they want 17 men to stand trial over allegations of rape and other crimes committed in the production of online pornography.
Accusations against the men include rape, gang rape, organised human trafficking and aggravated pimping, committed during video production for the French Bukkake platform, according to prosecution documents.
The prosecutors’ call for a trial comes almost a year after French police made several arrests as part of a wider investigation into violence and human trafficking in France’s pornography industry.
The accused include the top manager of the platform, his associate, a talent recruiter and around 10 porn actors, the source said.
Vulnerable women
It is now up to two judges in charge of the investigation to decide whether the trial goes ahead.
Prosecutors believe the recruiter lured young, economically vulnerable women into participating in the filming of the videos in the full knowledge that they would be subjected to “aggravated rape”, according to the document.
Investigators believe the women were told the videos would only be accessible on private Canadian websites.
In fact, the films were viewable in France and the producers demanded large sums of cash from the women to remove them – only for the images to continue to circulate online.
Prosecutors said alcohol and drugs were commonplace during the shoots.
Female actors told prosecutors that they had not been warned before going on set of the type of sexual acts expected of them.
“Sexual acts were performed on them without warning, without them being able to comprehend them, and therefore without being able to give their consent,” the document said.
This Wednesday, March 1st, the Senate voted a resolution calling for the fight against pornographic violence to be made a public policy priority. We welcome this awareness and this salutary vote and invite the government to finally act.
On September 28, 2022, the Delegation of Women’s Rights of the Senate published a report entitled: “Porn, the hell of the decor”. After months of hearings, the findings are clear. The pornographic industry is a pimp industry in the most total illegality, which commits sexist and sexual violence on an industrial scale.
Multiple lawsuits, all over the world, are multiplying. In France, the producers are under investigation for rape, aggravated pimping, human trafficking, or acts of torture and barbarism. Dozens of women are speaking out to demand justice. Pornhub is accused in the USA of knowingly distributing child pornography.
The pornographic industry, which represents 27% of online videos, broadcasts millions of sexist, racist, pedocriminal and homophobic videos. Women are humiliated, violated and tortured.
Following this report, Senators Annick BILLON, Alexandra BORCHIO FONTIMP, Laurence COHEN, and Laurence ROSSIGNOL have decided to propose an ambitious resolution asking the government to make the fight against pornographic violence a public policy priority.
The resolution states:
“that the exploitation and commodification of women’s bodies and sexuality have become an industry on an international scale that generates several billion euros in profits each year” ;
“that pornographic contents are today accessible to all and to all, without any control of the proof of majority of the Internet users, in violation of the penal code;
“that these contents convey sexist, racist and homophobic representations, constituting criminal offences”;
“that the broadcasters, platforms and social networks, knowingly ignore their responsibilities;
“that pornography is a place of learning about sexuality by default, which generates a distorted and violent vision of sexuality, traumas, early sexualization and the development of risky behaviors”;
“that the numerous illicit contents published are never completely removed, even after they have been reported”.
This resolution calls for a collective awareness and asks the government to act, starting with an interministerial plan to fight against pornographic violence, and in particular by reinforcing the means at the penal level.
This text was presented by more than 250 signatories, including 7 group presidents, gathering a record number of co-signatures in the Senate under the Fifth Republic, thus showing a strong transparent consensus on this central issue.
We welcome the Senate resolution, voted unanimously yesterday. We demand that the government, as well as the institutions that are supposed to regulate the digital world, finally become aware of the absolute priority of the fight against pornographic violence. Pornography is the school and the legitimization of sexist and sexual violence. We firmly denounce the reluctance and refusal to act of ARCOM, the CNIL and PHAROS. Their responsibility is great in the persistence of the impunity of the pornocriminal industry.
