Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation · UK Charity

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

We expose the damage pornography does to children, women and men, and we campaign, research and advocate until something changes.

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

Email your MP in 2 minutes → CEASE provides the template. You provide the pressure.
As seen in
2026 Legislative Win
Stronger child protections passed in the Crime & Policing Bill
Profits Before People: 84 pages
Our landmark report on how the industry profits from harm
Government Review: complete
The recommendations are ready. MPs need to hear from their constituents.
Founded 2019 · Registered Charity
No. 1182823 · A national UK human rights charity
How we work

Five ways CEASE
is pushing for change.

We campaign, build the evidence and give society the tools to demand change.

01 / Campaigning
Making the harm impossible to ignore.

Public campaigns that cut through the noise and force the conversation. Our current campaign is pushing the Government to implement the Pornography Review recommendations, and that starts with your MP.

02 / Policy Work
Turning evidence into law.

Working with MPs, legal experts and policy makers to push for the legal changes that will make a lasting difference.

03 / CEASE Voices
Survivors at the centre.

A platform for survivors and everyone whose life has been shaped by the harms we fight. Their stories drive everything we do.

04 / Expose the Harm
Research that can't be ignored.

Rigorous evidence that shows exactly what the industry doesn't want you to see, including our flagship report, Profits Before People.

05 / Thought Leadership
Changing how society thinks.

Building the intellectual case for a culture where people are valued for who they are, not treated as products to be consumed.

The evidence is overwhelming.
These are the numbers.

Before secondary school begins

Before they understand what they're seeing.

The average age a child in the UK first encounters pornography is 10. That's before secondary school. Before they've had any education about relationships, consent or what sex is supposed to mean.

The content isn't neutral. In the majority of cases it depicts aggression, coercion and the humiliation of women, presenting all of that as completely normal.

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

Source: CEASE / Barnardo's research
Children harming children

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

In 2024, there was a 40% increase in reports of sexual assaults and rapes where both the victim and the perpetrator were under 18. One third of all child sexual abuse is carried out by other children.

This is what a generation raised on commercial sexual content looks like. The harms aren't abstract: they're playing out in our schools, our homes, our communities.

The children who do harm have also been harmed. This is what the sex industry produces.

Source: CEASE Foundational Research / National Crime Statistics 2024
Men shaped by pornography culture

The Gisèle Pelicot case didn't reveal 51 monsters. It revealed what ordinary culture produces.

In 2024, 51 men were convicted in France for the rape of Gisèle Pelicot. The defendants were not fringe figures. They were teachers, nurses, soldiers, firemen. Most had no prior convictions. Many described their behaviour as normal.

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

CEASE exists to ask the harder question: what shaped these men? And how do we change it?

Source: Pelicot trial, France, 2024 · covered by BBC, Guardian, Le Monde
Girls, schools, right now

Sexual harassment in schools has become so normal, children don't recognise it.

A government-commissioned Ofsted review in 2021 found that around 90% of girls said sexist name-calling and receiving unwanted explicit images or videos happened "a lot" or "sometimes." Many described it as just part of school life.

These aren't isolated incidents. Researchers, safeguarding professionals and public bodies are pointing to unrestricted access to hardcore pornography as a significant contributing factor.

When this is ordinary, something has gone seriously wrong.

Source: Ofsted Review of Sexual Abuse in Schools and Colleges, 2021

These numbers describe real people: children, women and men, in real places right now.
And yet the same arguments keep being used to say nothing should change.

Three things people say. Why they're wrong.

You've heard the defences.
Here's what they miss.

Three arguments are used to shut down serious conversation about pornography. CEASE engages with all three, not to shame anyone, but because the evidence matters and these ideas need answering.

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

Hunger is natural. We still regulate food. People don't just want physical release. They want connection, closeness and to feel valued. The industry targets those deeper needs, then profits from never satisfying them. That's not freedom. That's exploitation.

Argument 02
"It's self-expression.
Don't shame people."

We agree: shame helps no one. But there's a difference between shaming individuals and questioning an industry. The industry doesn't give people what they want. It shapes what they want, then charges for it. What feels like free choice is often just what the algorithm rewards.

Argument 03
"Consenting adults.
My choice."

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

What we're working toward
Sexuality understood through
trust, care, and
genuine human connection,
not transaction.

This isn't a utopia. It's a human standard: the one that existed before it was commodified and sold back to us. CEASE exists to help society find its way back to it.

What makes CEASE different

While others respond to symptoms, CEASE works upstream.

Hospitals treat injuries. Safeguarding teams protect children. Prosecution units pursue offenders, all vital work. CEASE asks the harder question: what keeps producing those harms in the first place?

Upstream

We tackle the root cause

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

Rigour

We lead with evidence, not opinion

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

Coalition

We unite left and right

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

Flagship Research

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

Our landmark report documents how the commercial pornography industry makes money from degradation, violence and exploitation, using the language of empowerment and free choice to avoid scrutiny.

The evidence is not contested. This industry profits from harm, and has been allowed to operate by rules no other sector would accept. That needs to change.

84pages of evidence
Freeopen access
Read the full report →
CEASE Voices

Children. Women. Men. All kinds of people. All kinds of harm.

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

A Teacher Secondary school, London

"I found out my son had been watching pornography 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 Father Parent 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. Finding CEASE helped me understand what had happened. And that I wasn't alone in it."

Anonymous Member of CEASE Voices

"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 me."

Anonymous CEASE Voices contributor
Join the movement

This only works if
people like you
get involved.

CEASE doesn't just challenge what's wrong. We work toward 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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