Adult film producers and distributors bemoan the institutional silence in the face of their proposals to limit access by minors
Online porn has also experienced its own particular pandemic in the middle of a pandemic. As you know, confinement, as well as friction, makes love. More than a year ago, the producers, editors and distributors of Spanish adult films gathered in Apeoga decided to launch their particular platform called Vivex.tv. That was in January. In March, the lock-in began and, from its hand, the closest thing to what could be considered, without much imagination, the G-spot of success. Remember that at that time many of the best-known websites dedicated to the subject had even opened their contents completely. Far from the figures of their counterparts (either in cinema for all or in the most popular websites in the field), now Vivex.tv boasts a thousand subscribers. The numbers are not outrageous, but they are in line with self-imposed limitations. “Our priority is to protect minors,” says Antonio Marcos, president of the association and himself a producer.
Indeed, Vivex.tv was the first of all the existing platforms to set up a system whereby only those of legal age could access it. The welcome page requires the copying of a series of ID card numbers in which the age is encoded. “There is no trace of this data. We don’t store it and it’s not associated with anything. It’s just an entry key,” Marcos points out to allay suspicions. Well, now the association regrets that no one has recognized their efforts and that they have not even been heard by the Ministry of Culture or any other organization. “If the Instituto del Cine (ICAA) arbitrates an age system for commercial cinema, why is it so unconcerned with something as sensitive as pornographic cinema?” asks Marcos.
For Marcos, a porn veteran whose credits include such emblematic titles as ‘Por un puñado de polvos’ (shot on the same set as Leone’s film), what is happening today, far from unprotecting a sector that wants to be regulated, protects another completely unregulated one. And he explains: “Sites like Pornhub or Onlyfans currently function as pimps 2.0. And no one seems to feel concerned about it beyond high-sounding statements”. The second of these theoretically allows, and as described by the producer, anyone to be an adult film star. “That’s the hook and it’s a lie,” he explains. “In reality, what it facilitates and actualizes is the lifelong business of prostitution where pimps take a percentage of the profits made from viewings,” he adds.
“On the other hand,” Marcos continues, “no one is unaware that the real business of these pages is the data obtained from users. And we are talking about very sensitive data. What kind of society do we aspire to if what is being traded is the spying on children and young people? And in the question he leaves what he wants to be the declaration of principles of his platform.
In Vivex.tv any sexual practice that has to do with the humiliation of women or “with brutal scenes” is forbidden, he points out. “We are aware that whenever pornography is talked about, it is globally rejected and we are all considered the same. And no. We have bylaws that do not admit any violence. We believe in freedom among adults,” he says, and gives an example of what he considers to be a tremendously unfair and shameful situation: “Not so long ago, Pornhub announced the withdrawal of content for including pederasty and humiliation. But nothing happened. It is still open. If we did something similar, we would be shut down immediately. And I would not be against it.
The nine production companies that are still standing after the successive crises suffered by this film genre beset by new technologies are represented in Apeoga. Theirs is an option that bets on the classic ways. They do not offer scenes to be consumed bulimically. The archive is made up of about 250 films that include the first pornographic scenes shot in Spain and produced by King Alfonso XIII. That and the films of Poli Diaz or La Veneno. “Here are many of us who started in the 90s because we thought it was fun to break with the stereotype that porn was only made outside,” he concludes. And from those… these muds.