The key element of the selected policy questions that will be addressed in this session are: 1. To discuss best practices to limit the use of digital technologies (namely, websites that host adult content) being used for harmful purposes (namely, for the dissemination of non-consensual content), and what values and norms should guide the development of these best practices (namely, an intersectional, sex-positive, and human-rights focused approach). 2. To uncover how measures taken by local, national, regional and international stakeholders to address non-consensual sexual content online can adversely affect the digital inclusion of marginalized groups such as sex workers. By failing to adhere to the principle of meaningful communty inclusion when developing programmes and policies affecting sex workers and other marginalised communities, policy makers risk infringing their human rights.
This session will build upon a planned Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue on Consent and Safety in Adult Content Distribution that will be held in September 2021, which will bring together industry professionals and impacted stakeholders in a public, expert-led seminar and open discussion on these issues. The outcome of the Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue will be a draft set of best practices that we will share at the 16th Internet Governance Forum in December.
The session will be divided into three segments: 1. The workshop organizers will begin the round table discussion with an introduction of the background behind the September 2021 Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue. Affected stakeholders will explain how sex workers and other marginalized groups have been systematically excluded from participation in decisions about the dissemination of sexual content online, in favor of a powerful coalition that includes the financial sector, the media, the government, and sex work prohibitionist groups. This segment of the session will reveal how this imbalanced process has led to the oppression of sex workers, while failing to draw upon the rich lived experience and knowledge of these excluded communities on the prevention of non-consensual content production and distribution. 2. In the next segment of the session, we will unveil a working draft of best practices on the distribution of consensual adult content as developed at the September 2021 Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue and through a subsequent online preparatory process ahead of the IGF. Perspectives on these best practices will be presented by representatives from the adult content industry, from sex workers, abuse survivors, and from sex-positive abuse prevention experts. 3. The last half hour of the workshop will be an open discussion to receive and discuss feedback on the draft best practices from attendees who represent the larger IGF stakeholder communities. The recommendations will inform the final set of best practices that will be completed through continued collaboration with our partners in the month following the IGF forum.
At each stage of the process, we plan to make significant progress towards the development of the final set of best practice principles that will be published and shared with the broader community.
