LogFAQs > #930836047

It was always mainstream. Most of you guys are too young to remember this, but it was big in the 80s too. It disappeared (along with several other fetishes) from about '87 to the coming of the internet. Why? Two words. Traci Lords. When the Traci Lords scandal broke the adult industry panicked. They feared a huge government crack down where they all went to jail as smut peddlers. So they decided to beat the government to the punch and self regulate (something the gaming industry would copy later.) They barred like a list of things. I don't remember everything, but they definitely barred incest and depictions of underage teens (actresses' characters use to say stuff like "I'm only 16." That shit got shut down hard.) BDSM got hit hard too but I don't remember what the restrictions were.

Anyway, that stuff didn't really resurface until the internet came along and small-time porn stars started selling videos directly on places like ******. They didn't really care (or probably know of) the adult industry's self-regulation. Once these girls started making enough to buy houses, the greater adult industry took notice. But they used "step" to get around the self-regulation.

Actually... certain things have been regulated by the adult industry for so long that I think some of these newer companies actually believe it's illegal. It's not. Most of the big companies are just worried that turning the clock back on that self-regulated list will trigger a crackdown by the government.