Pornography has a self imposed system of keeping ourselves as safe as possible while supplying the type of product that consumers demand. “Bizarre as the ritual is, it seems to work.” 

The tests that we voluntarily use are expensive. Because so many performers test so frequently through one of two companies, we are able to get bulk rates. Vivid switched to condom-only productions for a few years and had to switch back because profits dropped. We’ve already seen profits drop drastically across the entire industry due to pirating. When video clips and movies make less money, the budgets get smaller. Smaller budgets mean lower rates for the performers and fewer available roles. If income for performers continues to drop, voluntarily spending around $5,000 a year for testing in addition to the other costs of being prepared to work becomes less financially sustainable. 

There’s no law anywhere that requires adult performers to get tested, much less to get tested as frequently as we currently do. It is likely that performers will begin to test less frequently. Fewer tests being processed through those two companies that we currently use would likely result in the cost of testing being raised. The concern is a cycle of lower income causing less testing, less testing causing more expensive tests, and more expensive tests causing even less testing to the point where the adult industry is relying solely on condom use to protect against transmission of STIs.

Sex on a porn set is different than recreational sex. This article and this article explain some of the difference and why we believe condom use is less safe than the testing system we’ve been successfully using for years. Most sex involving one person’s penis in the vagina or anus of a partner lasts for three to thirteen minutes. On the set of a pornographic film, sex lasts for anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour and a half. Condoms tend to cause abrasions in the delicate tissue of a vagina or anus. These abrasions and tears can be painful, but more importantly they are open wounds in an orifice. As long as the condoms do not fail, this merely hurts and is an inconvenience. Condoms seem far more likely to fail when being used for an hour and a half than they are when being used for fifteen minutes. If a condom does fail in a situation where the orifice it is in has lots of open wounds, this increases the risk for transmission of an STI if one is present.

Also, condoms are not entirely effective even under normal conditions. There are plenty of STI’s that can be transmitted even with proper condom use.