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Home > Sex Tech > Mastercard’s Hardline Policy Poses a Risk to the Past and Future of Adult Content

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Home›Sex Tech›Mastercard’s Hardline Policy Poses a Risk to the Past and Future of Adult Content

Mastercard’s Hardline Policy Poses a Risk to the Past and Future of Adult Content

By Connor Leshner
July 14, 2021
372
0

The financial services company will begin enforcing its new rules in October.

Mastercard

Many adult content creators have been in a state of frustration and confusion after Mastercard announced its new policy for banks that process payments for pornographic merchants last April.

While these new regulations provide yet another incentive for the adult industry to trade in dollars for cryptocurrency, the fate of classic adult content made prior to 1995 remains in limbo.

This move also comes at a time when sex workers are already struggling to operate safely online because of the passage of SESTA/FOSTA in the United States. 

Mastercard’s hardline policy

In a June meeting reported by XBIZ, Mastercard’s Senior VP for Customer Engagement, John Verdeschi, stated that the company will begin to block card usage on websites that do not verify age, consent and the identity of all adult actors, beginning in October. 

Mastercard’s new policy will require that the banks they work with monitor their NSFW merchants and catalog all of their pornographic content, and have “clear, unambiguous and documented consent” from performers. 

If any website fails to conduct background checks across all their videos, Mastercard will not process payments from that website’s users and advertisers. It is unknown how many sites will be affected, but it is highly likely that many adult performers and industry workers will be greatly impacted.

Payment processors’ history with adult industry

Mastercard’s strict policy has become the norm for payment processors that work with the adult entertainment industry. 

Pornhub’s troubling lack of moderation against illegal activity landed the entire industry in hot water and led to multiple payment processors cutting ties with the platform.

Even before Pornhub’s lax moderation was exposed, PayPal had cut ties with the company completely. 

It is true that many online pornography websites could have done more to protect the rights and autonomy of the performers.

According to the story from XBIZ, Mastercard partnered with the organization Exodus Cry when writing the new regulations. Exodus Cry is a religious organization dedicated to abolishing sex work and pornography. 

These rules currently sound unclear, such as if the studios must verify ID, then send those verifications over to the websites like Pornhub or XVideos.

As well, there could also be a bottleneck of content, because each video would have to verify that the performers were of age, consenting, and their ID at the time the video was shot. If videos take weeks or months to come out because they must be manually verified, a lot of people may leave pornography, and some studios may not be able to make a profit if videos take too long to reach the market.

Sex workers are finding new ways to regain autonomy

Mastercard’s new policy exacerbates the difficulties that rules on payments, congressional crackdowns, and the stigma associated with sex work impose on sex workers.

This may be why some performers are moving into cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Using cryptocurrency allows sex workers to work independently of traditional payment processors like Mastercard. 

Image sources: Marco Verch Professional

Connor Leshner

Connor Leshner is a graduate student at the University of Victoria, studying how people connect both through and with technology. His work focuses on dating apps, sex technology, and relationships that break the status quo. Currently, he is researching how people may be interested in AI partners in the future, such as if people will want artificial friends, romance, or sex partners.

As an undergraduate at Arizona State University, Connor completed undergraduate degrees in Psychology, Sociology and a minor in Women & Gender Studies in 2018. He also graduated with honors, completing his thesis understanding how cosplay plays a role in relationship differences. For this thesis, he was awarded with his department’s award in applied social psychology, and his honor college’s gold standard research award.

As a graduate student, Connor has won awards for his research and excellence in presentation. He has given talks on speed-dating, hentai, and different groups such as bronies, furries, and anime fans. He has also written or co-written multiple papers, including papers comparing polyamory to dyadic relationships, how playing characters might affect one’s identity, and more.
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