When you search for porn on your phone, you’re thinking about one thing: Getting off. The ethics of how it came to be – and the people involved – is your least concern. And quite frankly, we get it. But with the porn industry being rife with exploitation it really is your business to know what you’re watching and potentially supporting.

Stats and data in relation to how we watch porn exist in excession (thanks to Pornhub and like which have viewer data on tap), but facts about the people who work in the industry are few and far between. What does exist is mostly country specific and is based on studies such as this one, which looks at 10,000 online profiles of porn stars to draw out key data about the industry’s participants. The problem with this is that a lot of people in porn aren’t porn stars at all. They could be students, unwilling participants and in the worst case scenarios, victims of sex trafficking.

So, just how we ask Who made my clothes? in the fashion industry and look for the Fairtrade symbol on chocolate bars in the supermarket, we should be seeking transparency and clarity around the people in the porn we watch and how it came to be.

Ms Naughty (not her real name, or is it?) is the co-founder of the Brisbane-based ethical porn production house Bright Desire. The award-winning production company says it creates feminists porn and is committed to offering ethical porn with a focus on consent, ethical production values and respecting the work and identities of its performers.

She says ethical porn is all about asking questions about how pornography is produced and also thinking about what it depicts.

“The ethical porn movement is very much focused on sex worker’s rights and making sure that porn performers are treated well when making porn,” she says.

“This means being transparent about how porn is produced, ensuring that people are paid properly and respected on set. It’s also about making consent a priority and ensuring that no-one is forced to do anything they didn’t sign up for.”

Another part of the movement has to do with the actual content and what’s being depicted in the productions.

“A lot of porn remains extremely sexist and racist,” Ms Naughty says.

“Ethical porn seeks to promote a much more respectful image of sex and sexuality. It remains a fantasy of course and nobody is saying you can’t depict certain acts or fetishes as long as it’s safe, sane and consensual. It’s more about having a conversation as to what basic assumptions lie behind what you’re depicting.

“Lately there’s been a big pushback against the racism of interracial scenes in mainstream porn, with attention called to how people of colour are often paid less by the big companies. It’s clearly not ethical for that to happen. So you could say that ethical porn ensures that kind of racism is not present.”

When the porn is free, who’s copping the bill?

I’ve you’ve ever watched porn (and most people have) it was probably on a site such as Redtube or Pornhub. In 2019, there were over 42 Billion visits to Pornhub – an average of 115 million visits per day. In the same year, 6.83 million videos were uploaded to the site – about 13 videos every minute.

But if you’re watching them for free, who’s paying the bills?

Ms Naughty says that with the rise of these tube sites piracy has exploded and everyone assumes porn should be free. But porn costs money to make: you have to pay performers, pay for location and equipment, edit the film and host it among many other costs.

“People just upload scenes they don’t own and the filmmakers and performers who actually make the porn films aren’t able to make money on their own films. Pornhub advertises next to that film and they get the profit. This means there’s less money to make more porn. Also, films are typically mislabeled with abusive titles and performers are slandered or misgendered,” she says.

When asked how smaller and more ethical producers can get into the market, Ms Naughty says it’s a conundrum, because the tube sites have monopolized the search results and traffic.

“Often small porn companies have to go into partnership with the tube sites and upload their own content to get any exposure. There’s a certain new women’s tube site that is touted as ethical but they demand partners upload scenes that are at least 15 minutes long. I’m a small producer, I can’t make that many films or give away that much content for free. The system really disadvantages small filmmakers and indie performers.”

How can people know what they’re watching is ethical or not?

Anyone can brand themselves as ethical but of course that’s no guarantee. It helps to do your research and find out if performers have recommended a site as being good to work for. It’s a matter of having a look online and seeing what others are saying. Or you can reach out to the site in question and ask.

“With Bright Desire, I’ve done my best to follow ethical principles when shooting porn and I’ve learned a few lessons along the way. I’ve created a statement of ethics and consent which is freely available on the tour of the site. I know of several other feminist porn sites who have posted their own ethics statement as a way of letting people know their principles,” Ms Naughty says.

“The thing you need to watch out for is whether a free scene is being used to promote the creator of that scene or whether it’s just there, posted for free by someone else. A hint might be seeing an ad for the site/movie next to the free content, or a trailer for the creator in the scene.

“If a watermark has been blurred out, it’s probably pirated and therefore not ethical. If the description lets you know where the free content came from and are encouraged to go ahead and pay for it, then it’s ethical.”

How Bright Desire is helping

Companies such as Bright Desire are helping to support artists and create and curate more wholesome porn that respects the people performing and watching.

“Bright Desire features all the films I’ve made over the past eleven years. I set out to create erotic videos that focused on female pleasure and showed real intimacy and joy. So much porn doesn’t show laughter or tenderness so I sought to include that as often as possible,” Ms Naughty says.

“At the start I wanted to mainly offer heterosexual content, real life couples, as mainstream straight porn was still so incredibly cliched and sexist with how it depicted women and female sexuality.

“Over time I’ve expanded my brief and worked with many different performers so I’ve got a lot of queer content as well now. The main idea is still to show connection and chemistry, no matter what kind of sex people are having. Real-life couples remain very popular with my members. I think everyone enjoys seeing people who are familiar with each other sharing pleasure.”

Having been in the industry for 20 years, Ms Naughty says she thinks we need ethical porn because things haven’t changed enough in that time.

“I still hear of performers having bad experiences on set. Thankfully there are now performer’s rights groups who are working together to create better outcomes for everyone,” she says.

“Personally, I want people to have a good time watching my porn. I want them not only to get off but also to feel they’ve shared in a common humanity.

“Sexuality is such an important part of us. It’s good to see other people having sex without judgement about how they look, what they do or who they are. You can learn, you can feel more confident with yourself and your body and you can feel more empathetic toward other people. It’s a holistic experience.”