Today I happened to notice on a porn site that I visit for um, research, that they have removed their “Teen” porn category, which I know existed not that long ago. What’s even more interesting is that searching on the site (which has thousands and thousands of porn videos) for the word “teen” results in 0 hits.
Of course, the implication with this word in porn has always been 18/19 year olds that are of legal age (and usually in actuality much older than they claim rather than younger). But I’m wondering whether this is a trend to stop using that word in porn in order for pornographers to distance themselves from any potential accusations/scrutiny/allegations of underage models. At least in the case of this particular site, it seems like the word has been very deliberately removed from their content. Is this a trend that’s been happening with other legitimate, legal porn sites as well?
Can’t tell if the OP’s quite right because I don’t look at that much porn any more, and in what I’ve seen lately I do not notice that great a change – but if that were so it would be the second time the teen angle is purged in American porn: first time was in the mid/late-80s under pressure from the Meese Justice Department on the right, the Dworkin/McKinnon followers on the left, and the Traci Lords fiasco for a topping flourish; there was a stop to casting roles as “high school” characters for years. Euro-Porn kept at it, though, and eventually in the later 90s the use of “teen” – meaning fresh 18-19 y/o talent – as a draw came back into the US market between the rise of “gonzo porn”, the GGW phenomenon, and the web. Of course, that exalted master of smut, Mr. Flynt, went for the gusto with the creation of a spinoff from the Hustler brand of magazines and strip-clubs, titled “Barely Legal”. THAT I still see in shrinkwrap at the airport newsstands.
I’ve seen porn sites that have renamed the category “18+ teens”.