Developed by UCLA graduate students under the supervision of RHIG faculty advisor Paula Tavrow, director of the Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health and an adjunct assistant professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health, the survey consists of 23 questions that seek to determine the level of knowledge and awareness, among consumers and members of the industry, of health and safety issues on adult film sets.
According to Natasha, one of the UCLA graduate students, “The purpose of this questionnaire is to gauge consumers' and industry people's knowledge and awareness about health issues in the adult film industry, to determine if seeing condoms on screen would make a difference to them, and to assess the extent to which they might be willing to pay for greater performer safety. The viewing habits and demographic information requested will assist us to determine if there are significant differences by age, gender, sexual orientation, residence and amount of porn viewed.”
The idea for the survey originated at an October 2006 Think Tank on Improving Safety of Performers in the Adult Film Industry, which was held on the UCLA campus with the approval of the Dean of the School of Public Health, and with the involvement of UCLA faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students.
It was funded with grants from the Infertility Project of the California Family Health Council and the Robert Woods Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. Several members of the adult industry also participated.
“One of the recommendations from the Think Tank was that research be conducted to begin to develop an information base on these issues,” Natasha said. “Participants stated that one of the difficulties in moving forward on improving performers' health and safety was lack of key information.
“For instance, no one knows whether consumers would be willing to view sex scenes with condoms, if they would prefer real to simulated sex scenes, or if they would be willing to pay more for adult films where safety standards were enforced.”
Survey results will be shared mainly with people who had participated in the Think Tank, which was attended by representatives from XBIZ, AVN, Hustler and AIM, as well as academics, legislators, students, performers, lawyers and health officials. Some of the graduate students also may write a paper on the results for publication or for use in a class.
“I believe that the data obtained will be valuable to anyone interested in improving the well-being of adult performers,” said Tavrow.