Chatting with Candice Benji Nolot
Episode Run Time: 02:11:50
After a short hiatus, I am welcoming Benjamin “Benji” Nolot into the podcast. He is a filmmaker and the CEO and founder of “Exodus Cry”, a Christian social activist group focused on the issue of human trafficking. In this episode, Benji and I talk about what inspired him on his advocacy, the issue of porn and sex trafficking online, and how we can possibly regulate the porn, its consumers, and the entire industry.
00:00:00 00:03:34 Introducing Benji Nolot
00:05:58 Problematic Content on PornHub
00:10:20 Going After Sexual Exploitation on Social Media
00:13:16 Benji Being Caricaturized and the Predatory System of OnlyFans
00:21:34 OnlyFans’ Recruitment System, the Concept of Sexuality, and Cancel Culture\
00:31:20 Sexually-Exploitative Material and Men Taking Advantage of Webcam Girls
00:40:24 “The Accused” and Its Impact on Benji
00:52:53 The Issue of Consent and Sex Trafficking in the Porn Industry
00:58:29 Candice on Ethical Porn and Benji on the Solution to Sex Trafficking
01:10:21 Regulation and the Role of Consent When Money is Involved
01:19:45 The Porn Industry and its System of Exploitation
01:26:41 Benji’s Distinction Between Critique and His Activism on the Sex Industry
01:33:57 Honoring Their Truth and Destigmatizing Porn Stars
01:42:06 The Pressure on Candice and the Decentralization of the Porn Industry
01:50:14 Protecting Children From Porn and Having Better Sex Education
01:56:33 Body Autonomy and Parents Having Age-Appropriate Conversations with Children
02:04:18 Core Beliefs and the Meaning of Sex
Sexual exploitation on PornHub, and social media
There is a prevailing issue among online platforms regarding sexually exploitative material and Benji aims to go after all these apps and websites. In PornHub, there is a lack of moderation on their content and found throughout his research that PornHub operates like a criminal organization to which employees are also aware of. Benji also finds problems with OnlyFans; how its non-consensual content had also started appearing on the platform, and its recruitment and referral-based model which he finds similar to “pimping” culture especially since there is a large amount of money to be earned from.
How Benji ventured into the issue of sex trafficking and forming Exodus Cry
Benji was inspired to make the crackdown on sex trafficking as his main advocacy after growing up with mostly women in the household and seeing the film “The Accused” which was one of the first films that dealt with the issue of rape and victims of rape. He also felt more responsibility as a man to educate fellow men on sex trafficking, especially coming from his interviews with “webcam girls” where he found that men felt more entitled to demand toxic and exploitative acts from these women.
The Issue of Consent and Sex Trafficking in the Porn Industry
Benji found that the normalization of the use of coercion in recruiting talent for the porn industry was much more widespread. Even established agents and porn stars recognize that trafficking is common in the industry and has contributed to their rise to fame. As someone who is part of this industry, Candice sees it as entertainment and acknowledges the relationship society has with porn stars and alludes it to “The Scarlet Letter”, wherein starring in porn videos is like wearing an “A” on your chest, making it difficult for talents to reintegrate back into society. However, she recognizes the lack of conscious consent among talents and a better way for consumers to know that they are consuming “ethical” porn or porn that was made with conscious consent from both the producers and the talents. Both Benji and Candice agree on decentralization and that more power must be given to the content creators and performers rather than give higher-ups more control over the industry.
Candice and Benji on protecting and educating children and young adults on sex
Both Benji and Candice agree that the issue of sexual trafficking and exploitation goes beyond what they can handle, but one step to filter and ensure that young, impressionable people aren’t consuming inappropriate content is through paywall wherein a user must have a paid subscription and a government-issued ID to access these services. Another way is to conduct proper sex education or “age-appropriate porn” as Candice puts it from both schools and parents. A reality of life is that humans are sexual beings and sexuality is a part of our identity and it’s the adults’ responsibility for young people to not be steered into the wrong direction on what sex is or should be like and potentially falling into the trap of having wrong, abusive perceptions of sex.
