Mariah Rief, a survivor of sex trafficking, is in London to address Parliament on behalf of UK Feminista. The campaigning organisation is introducing a list of recommendations for the government regarding its new powers under the crime and policing act.
The proposed recommendations aim to compel pornography sites to implement fundamental protections. These include verifying that individuals featured in their content are adults and have consented to its publication.
Rief was 19 when she was sex trafficked in November 2016, after responding to a Craigslist advertisement for a “modelling shoot” at a Hilton hotel in San Diego. She met Theodore Gyi, the “photographer,” and was later coerced into appearing in pornographic abuse videos.
In 2022, Gyi was sentenced to four years for his role in coercing women. Ruben Andre Garcia, another individual involved, is serving 20 years, while the operation's ringleader, Michael Pratt, is serving 27 years. Their subscription channel, Girls Do Porn (GDP), operated between 2009 and 2020, releasing weekly videos and distributing content to sites like Pornhub.