PARIS—European adult production house Dorcel has released what it touts as "the first ethics charter for French adult-content production."
Along with 18 recommendations, the charter is the result of investigative work carried out from December 2020 to March 2021 by adult actress, director and producer Liza Del Sierra; sociologist Alexandre Duclos, Ph.D. in sociology, Ph.D. in philosophy and lecturer at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne; and Matthieu Cordelier, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property and digital law.
For four months, this working group, initiated and funded by Dorcel, conducted interviews, and collected and analyzed the expectations and recommendations made freely and anonymously by 31 people linked to the adult-content industry: actresses and actors, producers, broadcasters, directors and production assistants, photographers, make-up artists, as well as customers and the representative of an association linked to sex workers. All these participants were also invited to comment on the draft charter and to amend it.
Considering its initial purpose, the charter and its 18 appended recommendations respond to the main concerns expressed by the professionals interviewed throughout the study. These recommendations cover the areas of consent, physical and psychological health, legal framework, respect for human dignity, confidentiality and communication. It highlights the well-being and protection of each person working on the sets, according to their needs and their activity. Both tools are intended to bring substantial improvements in the quality of life at work for XXX-industry professionals in France and to promote increasingly ethical and accountable production.
“Dorcel has always been committed to the protection of minors and to a quality and accountable X-rated production," Dorcel Group head Grégory Dorcel stated. "However, we are aware that there is still room for improvement in the production methods used by our industry, including ourselves, so we initiated the development of this charter four months ago. We are very satisfied with the work accomplished by Liza Del Sierra, Alexandre Duclos and Matthieu Cordelier, and we are committed to implementing the principles of this charter and to respecting its values and ethics, for the well-being of everyone involved in our productions. We hope the conclusions of this work and the resulting recommendations will unite all the protagonists of the industry in France and abroad and thus contribute to a positive evolution in the adult-content production industry.“
In addition to the strict rules it already follows, Dorcel has committed to applying this charter to all its production shoots. The precise conditions of the implementation of this charter, which will benefit each professional involved in Dorcel productions, are being made publicly available for all to access.
Furthermore, Dorcel hopes to convince as many of its French and non-French content providers as possible to adopt this set of good practices.
The charter and the 18 detailed recommendations are available here.
