Los Angeles County Says No To Mandatory Condoms In Porn

Despite pressure from an HIV/AIDS activist group, Los Angeles County officials announced that they would not pursue legislation to legally require condoms in porn. Why? Well, mostly because the industry is just too difficult to regulate.

Setting aside the simple fact that the industry is pretty huge (with around 200 companies and over 1000 active performers), it's also near impossible to prove where a movie was shot—and, of course, an LA County regulation can only be enforced on a film that was made in LA County.

And let's not forget the fact that, even if LA County were to mandate condoms in porn production, there's no guarantee that companies would follow that mandate. Adult companies are, at the end of the day, profit-motivated businesses—and condom-free porn is, fundamentally, more profitable. If condoms are mandated in LA, or in California, they'll find a way to get around the mandate—whether that means shooting across state lines, or shooting in Europe. If it makes sense for their bottom line, it's what they'll ultimately do.

Really, the only effective way for the industry to be regulated is for the actual industry heads to decide that it's in their best interest, and work together to regulate themselves. That's why mandatory STI testing is the current, enforced standard—and that's the only way that mandatory condoms will be able to replace testing.

· Los Angeles County declines to force condom use in porn films (latimes.com)