Research indicates that consuming porn can normalize sexual objectification, which can have profound consequences in the ways porn consumers view and treat others.

Millions will gather for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, prompting renewed concerns about sex trafficking. Here’s what the research says about major sporting events, why trafficking is a year-round issue, and what pornography has to do with it.

For years, defenders of OnlyFans have repeated the same argument that, unlike pornography studios, they say, OnlyFans puts creators in control. There are no producers. No middlemen. No coercive contracts. No exploitation.

Just independent creators making content on their own terms. It’s a comforting narrative, if only it were true.

The New York Times released the fifth article in an ongoing series investigating child influencers and the troubling online world that sexualizes them, sometimes with the consent of their own parents, who seek money or fame. Entitled “The Men Who Use Instagram to Groom Child Influencers”, the authors describe snippets of child influencers’ stories, explaining how they were sexualized at young ages, sometimes as young as 11 or 12 years old, by men at least four times their age.

As exposure to sexually explicit content increases, there’s a call for more research about its effects

“Systems that facilitate and profit from the sexual exploitation of women and girls cannot merely be regulated at the margins; they must be fundamentally confronted,” they said. “A red line must be drawn.”

Their particular focus was on the Canadian company, Aylo Holdings, previously known as MindGeek, which operates multiple popular pornography sites, including Pornhub. They highlighted two cases of women in the U.S. who had suffered sexual abuse, including grooming and date rape, and whose abusers subsequently uploaded sexual content involving them to Pornhub without their consent.

Euphoria and other hit shows are making OnlyFans culture look normal, even empowering. But behind the glamorized storylines is a darker reality about exploitation, objectification, and the hidden costs of selling sexual content online.

A Coos Bay man pleaded guilty Tuesday to producing child sexual abuse videos and encouraging others to do so.