Heinz's 'Food Porn' Ads Fund Sex Trafficking
and Child Sexual Abuse Pornography
Haley Halverson
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com.
Source: M.P. King/Wisconsin State Journal via AP
The global companies Kraft Heinz and Unilever recently came under fire for advertising on Pornhub—a large, sexually exploitive, pornography site that normalizes themes of racism, incest, and violence against women.
Unilever ran an advertisement for its brand the Dollar Shave Club. The ad read: “If you use our bathroom products you won’t have to visit this site as much.”
Heinz ran an even larger campaign by taking over the homepage of the pornography website for an entire day and running a “#FoodPorn” campaign for its Devour frozen meal products.
Why does this matter?
When mainstream companies normalize or partner with the pornography industry they tacitly endorse and fund the sexually exploitive content and messages that the pornography industry produces.
Not only is pornography linked to a myriad of public health harms, including sexual dysfunctions and mental health problems, but it also frequently portrays and encourages sexual violence against women. For example, today on Pornhub’s landing page are sexually graphic videos with themes of “amateur teen” and “step” family members (a.k.a. incest themes) and women being “sexually broken” by men who use their bodies.
Research Shows that Pornography Teaches that Women Enjoy Sexual Violence:
Analysis of the 50 most popular pornographic videos found that 88% of scenes contained physical violence, and 49% contained verbal aggression. Eighty-seven percent of aggressive acts were perpetrated against women, and 95% of their responses were either neutral or expressions of pleasure. Another study, from 2018, found that 90% of teenage females in videos containing visible aggression displayed pleasure in response to that aggression.
Research Shows that Pornography Is Linked to Increased Sexual Violence
A 2015 meta-analysis of 22 studies from seven countries found that internationally the consumption of pornography was significantly associated with increases in verbal and physical aggression.
As if that weren’t enough, likely sex-trafficking victims and victims of child sexual abuse have recently been found on this “mainstream” pornography website.
Recently, a pornography company owner and director were charged by the federal government with sex trafficking 22 young women by force, fraud, and coercion. These young women state that the men lied to them by promising that if they made pornography with him it would only be sold overseas in limited quantities when in actuality the videos were uploaded to the Internet and ended up on Pornhub.
These women say they were “manipulated into signing contracts,” sometimes while “under the influence of alcohol” or “while being bullied by men in the hotel rooms where the scenes would take place,” Motherboard reported. They also state that their release agreements had missing terms, and staff members would rush them into signing the paperwork anyway.
Some of the videos posted on Pornhub were viewed more than 40 million times, and the channel featuring the videos became the 20th most popular channel on the site.
Pornhub finally pulled the videos off of the website after the federal charges were filed, though the site continues to eroticize sex trafficking with approximately 1173 current pornographic videos tagged with the keywords “sex trafficking.”
In addition to this, over 50 pornographic videos documenting the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl who had been missing for a year recently appeared on Pornhub.
The reality is that Pornhub has not (and never will), keep sex trafficking and child sexual abuse images off of its website. By speaking with sex trafficking survivors, and reviewing online forums where sex buyers talk to each other, it’s clear that many prostituted and sex trafficked persons regularly have videos of their sexual exploitation uploaded onto mainstream pornography sites, by sex buyers, pimps, or traffickers.
Is this the kind of industry that mainstream companies should get in bed with?
Luckily, Unilever has now committed to never advertise on Pornhub again. A spokesman said that some content on Pornhub that was revealed to them was “deeply troubling and we will ensure that none of our brands advertise on Pornhub again, or on any other porn site.”
This is a socially responsible response that recognizes the seriousness of their misstep and the harmful nature of the content their advertising decision normalized.
On the other hand, Kraft Heinz is justifying their ad choices.
Kraft Heinz’s director Nigel Dickie has stated that, “The DEVOUR frozen food brand, which is only sold in the US, had a one-day promotion solely as part of the brand’s Super Bowl activation. The brand was explicitly talking about #Foodporn, which has become a cultural phenomenon on Instagram.”
This statement is not merely apathetic to the sexually exploitive themes and content on Pornhub. It is a rationalization and a justification of a business deal that gave money to support a platform profiting off of sex trafficking, child abuse, and themes of incest, racism, and violence against women.
It’s time for Kraft Heinz to stop making excuses and to acknowledge the harms of partnering with the pornography industry. Anything less is an affront to their supposedly “family-friendly” brand and an insult to survivors of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
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Blount County, Ala., man sentenced for
human trafficking, child sex abuse
By WBRC Staff
BLOUNT CO., Ala. - A Blount County man is sentenced on four charges all involving abuse against a four-year-old girl.
Rama Raj Erramraju was sentenced to 30 years for facilitating travel of a child for immoral purposes, 30 years for human trafficking, 20 years for sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old, and ten years for enticing a child for immoral purposes.
Judge Steven King ordered that each of the sentences shall run concurrently.
Erramraju was also ordered to pay $3,500.00 in restitution plus court costs.
During the trial prosecutors Pamela L. Casey and Scott Gilliland presented evidence a St. Clair County woman brought a 4-year-old girl from Pell City to Oneonta on one or more occasions to perform sexual acts upon Erramraju (2nd story on link).
Witnesses testified the woman would leave a 7-year-old boy in the car to take care of two younger children while she took the 4-year-old victim into Erramraju’s room. One witness testified he went into Erramraju’s room and saw the woman and the girl in bed with Erramraju, and saw Erramraju hand the woman money.
District Attorney Pamela L. Casey said, “Sexual exploitation of children is an international problem. That does not mean it happens on the other side of the globe. It is a threat to children everywhere. It happens over the internet and it happens in our communities. This issue is very important to me and my office will continue to make prosecution of these sexual predators our top priority."
Des Moines, Ia., pedo's child sex abuse trial
set for December
DES MOINES — Trial has been set for a registered sex offender accused of trying to sexually assault boys he lured to a Des Moines elementary school playground.
The trial for 39-year-old Loren Lewis is set for Dec. 2. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree sexual abuse, two counts of enticing a minor under 13, and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse.
Police say Lewis lured an 11-year-old and 12-year-old boy to the playground on Aug. 3, and then told the boys to pull down their pants. Police say when they refused, Lewis assaulted one of the boys and attempted to perform sex acts on him.
Lewis was convicted in 1997 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. The victim in that crime was a 10-year-old boy.
Pa. man arrested for 6 yrs of child sexual abuse
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A Lititz man is accused of sexually abusing children in the Shippensburg area.
Michael Kauffman, 38, sexually and physically abused juvenile victims at multiple locations in Southampton, Shippensburg, and Hopewell Township between January 2011 and January 2017, state police in Carlisle said.
Kauffman is charged with rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary indecent sexual intercourse, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minors, unlawful contact with a minor, reckless endangering, simple assault and harassment.
He is in Cumberland County Prison in lieu of $250,000 cash bail.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 18.
'Never-ending': Child sexual abuse imagery
numbers more than double in NH & USA
By Hadley Barndollar Portsmouth Herald
The bedding sought by the search warrant, as seen in the videos and images, included a blue blanket with pink flowers — possibly roses — and a white pillowcase with a blue floral print.
The girl had been 8 years old, a student at a Seacoast elementary school. She was disabled. Her school’s resource officer identified her in the images when a federal agent sought assistance.
The abuser — a family member — was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison, on two counts of producing child sexual abuse images, though evidence included a total of 27 videos and 11 images.
A victim impact statement, read by a family member at the sentencing in federal court, called the offender “a despicable animal” who chose to go down a road of “darkness, deceit and pure evil.”
In Kik group chats, the man had told other users the girl enjoyed his abuse.
The judge presiding over the case said the evidence showed the man had also admitted to the abuse of another young girl, while unknowingly conversing with an undercover FBI agent in the Kik chat. The defense lawyer argued his client, too, had been abused as a young boy.
And, undoubtedly, did not get any counselling to deal with the effects.
According to a recent report by the New York Times, in 2018, tech companies reported more than 45 million online photos and videos of children being sexually abused — more than double what they found the previous year.
In New Hampshire, that increase is 110 percent over the last 365 days.
But law enforcement and experts say the alarming increases could be attributed to the fact there is heightened awareness and more widespread detection of child sexual abuse images — rather than a rise in the transmission or manufacturing of them. In that case, they’re catching more offenders, but the apprehension of one typically comes amidst the discovery of 10 others.
A recent paper published by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children stated the number of child sexual abuse images on the internet has “outpaced the capabilities of independent clearinghouse analysts and law enforcement to respond.” In 2017 alone, the agency received 9.6 million reports of child sexual abuse images, compared to roughly 10,000 reports per year when the agency started in 1998.
That is 1000 times as many as in 1998.
“It is never-ending,” said John Peracchi, commander of the N.H. Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, commonly known as ICAC. “The number of investigations we’ve had, the number of arrests we’ve had, all increased by more than 100 percent. We have search warrants backed up, ready to go.”
Recent local cases mentioned by ICAC lead forensic examiner detective Duane Jacques of the Portsmouth Police Department include a 16-year-old in Portsmouth producing “hardcore, violent child pornography” for the 70-year-old solicitor. A recent search warrant executed in Exeter led to the arrest of a man on 18 total charges, including manufacturing of child sexual abuse images and sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl.
Last month, a Barrington man pleaded guilty in federal court to production of child sexual abuse imagery, where according to court documents, in 2018, he produced visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct using a cellphone.
“I have open federal cases right now that would blow your mind,” Jacques said.
A 2018 study on the complex experience of child sexual abuse imagery survivors, conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, depicted for most of the 133 respondents, the images were part of long-term sexual abuse, often beginning when they were quite young. Fifty-two percent of respondents were victimized by family members.
There is much more to this story. It can be found on Sentinel Source.
Southern Utah man accused of sexually abusing
juvenile he was babysitting
BY REBECCA GREEN, Fox13
WASHINGTON, Utah — A man was arrested and faces child sex abuse charges after an incident that occurred while he was babysitting a juvenile last month.
A statement of probable cause indicates Lamar H. Woodbury, 65, was booked into jail on one count of sodomy on a child and one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
A relative told police Woodbury had entered a juvenile’s room as the child was sleeping and sexually abused the child in mid-October.
Woodbury is known to the victim, had access to the home and was babysitting the juvenile while the parents were away on a trip.
Moms, Dads, Carers
please don't let your children be babysit by men.
There are way too many stories like this on this blog.
The child is under the age of 14. Police did not disclose the age or gender of the alleged victim.
The relative told police Woodbury broke down and cried when confronted about the abuse recounted by the juvenile and said the man admitted to some abuse but not all of the acts described. The victim also recounted the abuse to police.
Woodbury agreed to turn himself into police through a meeting with his attorney and declined to provide any details to authorities about the incident. He was booked into jail and bail set at $50,000.
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