Disclaimer: Fight the New Drug is a non-religious and non-legislative awareness and education organization. Some of the issues discussed in the following article are legislatively-affiliated. Including links and discussions about these legislative matters does not constitute an endorsement by Fight the New Drug. Though our organization is non-legislative, we fully support the regulation of already illegal forms of pornography and sexual exploitation, including the fight against sex trafficking.
Every year, our friends at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, release the “Dirty Dozen List.”
The list highlights major companies and other organizations that are directly profiting from pornography and are contributing to sexual exploitation in society.
NCOSE explains how these major companies fuel sexual exploitation and then lists actions the public can take to persuade these “Dirty Dozen” companies to change their policies and practices.
Since its inception in 2013, the Dirty Dozen annual campaign has led to thousands of individuals calling on corporations, government agencies, and organizations to change their sexually exploitative policies and practices.
Each year, the “Dirty Dozen” list aims to encourage businesses to remove sexual exploitation from their bottom line, or remove it from their company culture overall.
Past successes include popular video-sharing platform TikTok updating its safety features after the “Dirty Dozen” list of 2020 exposed the lack of control parents could have over their child’s TikTok account. United Airlines also began training personnel on how to handle in-flight porn consumption from passengers, Hilton Hotels removed porn from their hotel rooms, Cosmopolitan put blinders over magazines in grocery stores, and Overstock.com removed porn from their website, all in response to this campaign.
One of the biggest “Dirty Dozen” successes in history was in the summer of 2014 when Google met with the NCOSE and responded to being on the list by making the huge decision of no longer allowing porn sites to advertise using Google AdWords.
Other successes include changes within Netflix, Verizon, Walmart, the US Department of Defense, and many more. Unfortunately, some companies have refused to step up despite being named in previous “Dirty Dozen” lists.
So let’s dive into the 2023 Dirty Dozen List. Here are a few heavy hitters that we’ve taken directly from NCOSE’s list who are reportedly contributing to sexual exploitation in the US right now. Click on the name of each company to hear directly from NCOSE.
OnlyFans
Jane Doe was on a seemingly pleasant date when her world got turned upside down. She was brutally raped by her date and another man. When she tried to leave, the two men stopped her and raped her repeatedly.
Her abuse was recorded and uploaded to OnlyFans. The perpetrator’s account was verified on the platform. Despite claims from the company that they have robust age and consent verification, they somehow failed to detect and remove a video that showed Jane screaming and crying while being gang-raped. What’s more, the company took a 20% cut of the money made from the compilation.
According to NCOSE, OnlyFans has faced increased scrutiny by police, policymakers, and the press for evidence of child sex abuse material (CSAM), sex trafficking, child online exploitation, harassment, doxing, cyberstalking and image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Despite the scrutiny and the fact that they’ve made the “Dirty Dozen” in the last couple of years, hardly anything has changed.
Reddit is another company that NCOSE has named for multiple years running. The mainstream discussion platform hosts over 2 million user-created “communities.” While some group discussions are entirely wholesome, too many include IBSA, hardcore porn, prostitution, CSAM, and almost certainly sex trafficking.
While the company has publicized new policies against non-consensually shared explicit material, it’s done very little. For example, NCOSE found loads of IBSA with some victims’ first and last names listed too.
Roblox
Roblox is an online game platform and game creation system that allows users to program and play games created by other users. Children under age 13 comprise the largest demographic of users on the platform, and it’s new to the “Dirty Dozen” list this year because Roblox has not embraced common sense child protection measures.
Countless children have been groomed, sexually abused, and exploited by predators they’ve met on Roblox, such as a 13-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl. Moreover, children are often exposed to highly sexualized content and themes through the platform. Kids can enter strip clubs, play games that revolve around sex, and even children’s avatars can be raped.
NCOSE urges Roblox to work to make its platform safe by default and design–to monitor a platform with more than 40 million games effectively.
Spotify
Spotify? Like, the music streaming platform? Yes, that Spotify. According to NCOSE, porn, and child predators operate on the platform. Porn (including content that normalizes sexual violence, CSAM, and incest) is easily found in the form of thumbnails and audio porn (recording of sex sounds or sexually explicit stories read aloud).
Despite Spotify’s claims that they prohibit sexually explicit content and that they have “designed [the platform] to be appropriate for listeners 13+ years of age,” loads of contrary evidence exists.
For the full 2023 Dirty Dozen List, visit NCOSE’s official website.
NCOSE has been compiling the “Dirty Dozen” list since 2013. Click below if you’re interested in seeing our write-up of previous years’ lists:
- 2022 Dirty Dozen List
- 2021 Dirty Dozen List
- 2020 Dirty Dozen List
- 2019 Dirty Dozen List
- 2018 Dirty Dozen List
- 2017 Dirty Dozen List
- 2016 Dirty Dozen List
- 2015 Dirty Dozen List
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