Despite clinging to the title of “World Capital of Porn” the San Fernando Valley is on the verge of losing the $97 billion porn industry, thanks to a 2016 ballot initiative on condoms, and aggressive workplace regulation enforcement.
About one out of seven porn movies worldwide are shot in the cities of Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando, Hidden Hills, and Calabasas. The industry generated about $13 billion last year and was considered so important to the California economy that the “Adult Entertainment” industry asked for, and almost received, a $5 billion government bailout during the financial crisis, along the lines of the bailout provided to auto manufacturers.
ExtremeTech documented earlier this year that adult websites capture 4.41 percent of all worldwide Internet web searches. Google is the top smut search, with 4.4 billion porn page views per month, followed by Reddit with 2.8 billion page views.
Adult sites generate the fourth-largest amount of Internet display ads, just behind gaming, gambling and shopping. One of the reasons porn generates so much paid advertising is that the traffic involves users that are intensively watching the videos. This compares to the 50 percent of Internet traffic that Bloomberg says advertisers pay for, but turn out to be computer “Bots” that electronically run up fake page views.
But the good times for “Porn Valley” may be coming to an end. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been waging a battle against unprotected sex on porn sets to “combat not only the spread of HIV, but of other sexually transmitted infections as well.” According to Adam Cohen, a consultant for the foundation, “Adult film performers deserve the same safety and health protections as the majority of Californians.”
The powerful LBGT-backed lobbying group convinced the City Council of Los Angeles to require condom use in all porn sex acts last year. But with only two thirds of the “Valley” incorporated into the City of L.A., productions just moved down the street.
AHF followed up this year by submitting 557,136 signatures—far more than the 365,880 signatures needed to qualify–for the “The California Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act.” The statewide proposition would expand the power of Cal/OSHA and local California public health departments to enforce mandatory condom use on adult film sets throughout the state.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla on November 5 projected 414,523 valid voter signatures were submitted, more than the 365,880 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. Barring some surprise, the initiative will be on the November 2016 ballot.
Coupled with strong support from Republicans that have staunchly opposed the industry for decades, Cal/OSHA is advancing its own regulatory ruling that would mirror the language in the initiative and the State Legislature is now set to conduct hearings that could lead to passing a law before the election.
The porn industry representatives have branded the condom movement as a “cultural, human rights, ethical, and public health disaster,” according to X-rated film star Conner Habib, who claims to have appeared in 200 gay porn scenes in the last seven years.
He told Slate that the industry is safe because in the “straight side of the industry, the standard is regularly scheduled, studio-mandated HIV testing; condoms are sometimes, but rarely, used in conjunction.” In the gay/queer industry, “the operating procedure general standard is condoms, but no testing in order to avoid the invasions of medical privacy testing would bring.”
But according to Cameron Adams, a former adult film performer who became infected in August 2013 while working in the industry and now is a leader of the AHF movement, “Porn producers tell the media that performers have a choice when it comes to condoms. What they don’t tell you is that if a performer wants a condom, they’re paid less. Sometimes, producers will fire you for asking. We’re replaceable.”
Adams said that while working in the industry for only a few months, she was required to pay $300 a month “out of my own pocket” to test for STDs. “They told me testing would keep me safe,” but she still got HIV.
If either the state initiative, legislative bill or OSHA regulatory requirements are passed, there is huge confidence that the courts will not oppose the move. Last December, the Ninth Circuit ruled that a Los Angeles ordinance requiring adult film actors to wear condoms during filming does not violate the First Amendment.
The court acknowledged that filming sex qualifies as constitutionally protected expression, the judges unanimously decided that the condom mandate imposed “only a de minimis effect on expression” and could be justified on health and safety grounds. The federal Appellate Court relied on the two relevant Supreme Court precedents of Erie v. Pap’s A.M. and Los Angeles v. Alameda Books in dismissing the free speech arguments of pornographers.
Although there are no statistics available, it is believed that the porn industry is already starting to migrate out of California to Nevada. Although filming porn in the “Silver State” is still technically illegal, the law is not being enforced.
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