Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation · UK Human Rights Charity

Pornography harms
children. Women.
Men. Society.
We're fighting back.

CEASE is the UK charity working upstream - exposing and dismantling the commercial forces driving sexual exploitation, not just cleaning up the damage.

The Government has clear recommendations on the table. The only thing standing between them and the law is pressure from people like you.

Email your MP in 2 minutes → We give you the template. You bring the pressure.
As seen in
Content warning: references to sexual violence and child abuse Why this matters

The evidence is overwhelming.
These are the numbers.

Four numbers that explain why we do this work. They describe real children, women and men, in real places, right now.

Before secondary school

Before they understand what they're seeing.

The average UK child first sees pornography at 10 - before any lesson on relationships, consent or what intimacy is meant to be.

The content isn't neutral. Most of it shows aggression, coercion and the humiliation of women, framed as normal.

This doesn't happen to other people's children. It happens to all of them.

Source: CEASE / Children's Commissioner research
Children harming children

One third of child sexual abuse is now committed by other children.

In 2024, reports of sexual assault and rape where both children were under 18 rose by 40% in a single year.

This is what a childhood shaped by hardcore porn produces. It's not abstract - it's in our schools, our homes, our communities.

The children who do harm have usually been harmed first.

Source: CEASE research / National crime statistics, 2024
Men shaped by a culture

The Pelicot case didn't reveal 51 monsters. It revealed what's ordinary.

In France, 51 men were convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot. They were teachers, nurses, soldiers, firefighters. Most had no record. Many called it normal.

She insisted the trial be public. "Shame must change sides," she said. The shame belongs to a culture, not just to individuals.

We ask the harder question: what shaped these men - and how do we change it?

Source: Pelicot trial, France 2024 · BBC, Guardian, Le Monde
Girls, schools, today

Harassment has become so normal that children no longer notice it.

An Ofsted review found 90% of girls said sexist name-calling and unwanted explicit images happened "a lot" or "sometimes." Many called it just part of school.

Researchers and safeguarding bodies point to unrestricted access to hardcore porn as a major driver.

When this is ordinary, something has gone seriously wrong.

Source: Ofsted Review of Sexual Abuse in Schools, 2021
Why it keeps getting worse

The harm isn't a glitch.
It's the business model.

Porn is built to keep you watching, like a slot machine for the brain. But the brain gets used to it. The same thing stops giving the same buzz, so it pushes you toward content that is more extreme, more degrading, more violent, just to feel what you felt at the start. That isn't a mistake. That is how the product keeps making money.

01 / It pulls anyone in

Addiction doesn't care who you are.

Anyone can get hooked. People lose hours, lose focus, and lose the ability to be there for the people they love. They go looking for closeness and get pushed toward more extreme content instead. Shame keeps them quiet, so we refuse to shame them.

02 / It rewrites what sex is

The screen becomes the lesson.

When people learn about sex from porn, they start to think pressure and aggression are normal. Then they bring that into real relationships. The people on the receiving end, most often women and girls, are left dealing with harm that gets treated as ordinary.

03 / It reaches children

Kids get caught on both sides.

To keep people hooked, the industry needs more and more extreme material, including abuse and images of children. Kids see porn younger than ever. And children who get hurt often go on to hurt other children.

1,000% rise since the pandemic in videos of primary-school-aged children abusing themselves on camera

These are real people, in real places, right now. And the same three arguments are still used to say nothing needs to change.

You've heard the defences

Here's what they
quietly leave out.

We engage all three head-on. Not to shame anyone - shame helps no one - but because the evidence matters and these ideas deserve a real answer.

Argument 01
"It's just natural.
Everyone has needs."

Hunger is natural. We still don't let an industry engineer it for profit. People don't just want release - they want connection, closeness, to feel wanted. The industry targets those deeper needs, then profits from never meeting them.

Argument 02
"It's sex positive.
Don't shame people."

We're deeply pro-sex - the real kind, built on trust, desire and mutual care. That's not what the industry sells. It sells a performance: scripted, filmed, and sold back to you for profit. Being critical of a billion-pound industry isn't being against sex. It's being for the real thing.

Argument 03
"Consenting adults.
It's their choice."

Consent matters. It's just never enough on its own. We don't accept "they agreed" as a full defence in any other industry where power and vulnerability collide. And what happens in private doesn't stay private - it shapes what children grow up believing is normal.

What makes CEASE different

Everyone else treats the symptoms. We go upstream.

Hospitals treat injuries. Safeguarding teams protect children. Prosecutors pursue offenders - all vital. CEASE asks the question almost no one else does: what keeps producing this harm in the first place?

Upstream

We tackle the root cause

Others respond after the harm is done. We go after what causes it: the cultural and commercial systems that profit from exploitation.

Rigour

We lead with evidence, not opinion

Every claim is grounded in research. We cite our sources, publish openly, and hold ourselves to the standards we ask of others.

Coalition

We unite left and right

This isn't a partisan cause. We bring together people across political and ideological lines, because human dignity belongs to everyone.

What we actually do

Four ways we turn that into change.

Campaigning

We get people loud.

What: We build public pressure that cuts through the noise. Why: Politicians act when enough people speak up. How: We turn quiet worry into organised action that forces the conversation into the open.

Policy & public affairs

We help write the law.

What: We brief MPs and bring experts together in the Pornography Harms Coalition. Why: Good laws only happen when the people in power understand the harm. How: We hand them the evidence and the plan, then push until it becomes law.

Research & evidence

We make the proof undeniable.

What: We gather and sharpen the strongest proof in the field. Why: People can argue with opinions, but not with solid facts. How: We turn scattered data into one clear case that's hard to ignore.

Thought leadership

We change the story.

What: We change how society talks about porn, exploitation, dignity and what we owe each other. Why: Laws follow culture, so change the story and the rules follow. How: We give people the words and ideas to see the problem clearly.

Where we're fighting now

Our campaigns.

This is where pressure turns into change. Live campaigns, landmark research and the legislative fights that decide what happens next.

Live campaign

Implement the Pornography Review

The independent review set out what has to change. We're pushing the Government to act on every recommendation - and it starts with your MP.

Email your MP → Flagship report

Profits Before People

Our investigation into how the porn industry monetises sexual violence. The evidence base behind every campaign we run.

Read the report → Coalition we lead

The Not For Sale campaign

Co-leading the national push for a legal framework to end commercial sexual exploitation in England and Wales.

See the campaign → Global movement

Traffickinghub

Standing with the global movement holding Pornhub and its owners to account for profiting from trafficking and abuse.

Learn more →
The evidence behind everything we do

It doesn't sell freedom.
It sells harm at scale.

Our landmark report documents how the commercial porn industry profits from degradation, violence and exploitation - using the language of empowerment and free choice to dodge scrutiny.

The evidence isn't contested. This industry profits from harm, under rules no other sector would be allowed. That has to change.

84pages of evidence
Freeopen access
Read the full report →
We don't fight alone

The coalitions
we build and lead.

Lasting change is never won by one organisation. We convene survivors, experts, charities and campaigners into coalitions with the weight to move policy and shift culture.

An online community

Expose the Harm

A safe, anonymous space where people share how pornography has harmed them, their relationships, or someone they love.

Every story is testimony. Together they build something the industry can't argue with: proof, in people's own words, that the harm is real.

Share your story →
Policy coalition

Pornography Harms Coalition

The cross-sector alliance we convene to brief parliamentarians, shape legislation and hold the industry to the standards expected of any other harmful commodity.

Meet the coalition → Working group

OnlyFans Working Group

A focused group exposing how subscription platforms like OnlyFans profit from exploitation, and pressing for proper regulation and accountability.

See the work →
Campaigners standing together holding placards at a public demonstration
Survivors, experts and campaigners, standing together. This is what a movement looks like.
Why we have hope

We don't just fight what's wrong.
We're building what's right.

Change is already happening. Laws are shifting, more people are speaking up, and a healthier story about sex, love and respect is taking root. Here's the future we're working toward, and why we believe we'll get there.

Children smiling together outdoors
Why we have hope

Things are already changing.

Age checks are now law. MPs are listening. Survivors are being heard. Every win proves the same thing: when people push, the system moves.

Friends embracing warmly
What we're building

A culture of real connection.

A world where people are valued for who they are, not used for what they provide. Where sex means trust and care, not a transaction on a screen.

Young people spending time together outdoors
The future we see

Kids who grow up free.

A generation that learns about love from real relationships, not hardcore porn. Free to grow up without being shaped by an industry that profits from harm.

People valued for who they are. Not consumed for what they provide. This isn't a dream. It's a standard, and it's already within reach.
Why this matters

Children. Women. Men. Real people, in their own words.

"I see it in my classroom every day. Boys using language straight from porn, girls making themselves smaller. Nobody is teaching them a different story. That's what CEASE is doing."

A TeacherSecondary school, London

"I found out my son had been watching porn since he was eleven. I had no idea how to talk to him about it. CEASE gave me the language and the courage to have that conversation."

A FatherParent of a teenage son

"I didn't have language for it at the time. I just knew something felt wrong - like the way he saw me was shaped by something I couldn't see. CEASE helped me understand what had happened. And that I wasn't alone in it."

AnonymousShared anonymously with CEASE

"I didn't think I had a problem. That's how it works - nobody tells you there's a line, because the culture says there isn't one. CEASE helped me understand what I'd actually been looking for. It wasn't what the industry was selling."

AnonymousShared anonymously with CEASE
Join the movement

This only works if
people like you
get involved.

We don't just challenge what's wrong. We're building something better: a world where people are valued for who they are, not treated as products. That world is built by ordinary people making deliberate choices.

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