CEASE is a UK human rights charity fighting to end sexual exploitation. We tackle root causes like pornography, prostitution, and profit-driven platforms. We also work to change the laws and culture that let commodified sex thrive.
It exploits vulnerability and normalises the idea that one person can be used for another’s gratification, operating as a wider commercial system that interconnects pornography and prostitution.
Increasingly amplified by digital platforms, this system has been brought into people’s lives earlier and on an unprecedented scale. These tech platforms shape demand and profit from sexual access, driving widespread consequences for the people used in the industry, the consumers, and our wider culture.
Children are seeing porn younger than any generation before them. The average age is eleven. The platforms escalate what they need to feel anything, teaches them that abuse is part of sex, and shows up as sexual violence between children themselves.
Escalating demand needs escalating supply, so the industry needs people who cannot say no. Trafficking, filmed child abuse and images shared without consent are not glitches in the model. They are the supply chain.
You cannot sell sex without first turning a person into a product. Do that at industrial scale, to a whole culture, and people stop being able to have intimate relationships at all; because it has taught everyone to see each other as something to use.
CEASE works upstream, addressing the systems that produce and sustain sexual exploitation. We challenge the companies that profit from it, the laws and policies that permit it, and the cultural ideas that normalise it. We are not a frontline support provider. Specialist organisations provide vital support to people who have been harmed; our role is to change the conditions that allow that harm to continue.
How we work →
WE EXPOSE THE TRUTH
We bring together evidence, analysis and lived experience to show how sexual exploitation works, who profits from it and who is harmed.
We change the law
We campaign for better laws and policies, working with parliamentarians, officials and regulators to turn evidence into practical change.
WE CORRECT THE STORY
We challenge the ideas that present the sex industry as harmless or liberating, and make the case for sexuality rooted in dignity, equality and genuine connection.
We build the movement
We bring together people with lived experience, specialists, organisations and supporters to build public and political support for change.
This is what has already changed because of your support.
CEASE strongly welcomes the Government's decisive action to raise the age of access to 16 for social media.
Working in the area of sexual abuse, harm and exploitation, there is no shortage of alarming statistics and bad news, so good news is both rare and welcome.
CEASE is really pleased to see the Government have taken onboard recommendations from Baroness Bertin’s Independent Pornography Review and tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing bill which will give it…
"I did not start CEASE because people do not care. I started it because caring alone changes nothing."
"This material does not satisfy a desire that was already there. It builds one, and then it charges for it."
The ones people put to us in rooms, inboxes and select committees. Here are the answers, unedited.
The opposite. We think sex is worth far more than what this industry has made of it. A good deal of our work is about what good actually looks like, not only what is wrong.
Neither. We work with feminists, faith groups, academics and artists. People who disagree on almost everything else agree on this.
Everyone. We work to end sexual exploitation for all, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, race, class, ability or belief, while being honest that young women, racial minorities and survivors of abuse carry far more of the risk.
CEASE takes no industry money and answers to no one but the evidence. That independence is paid for by people like you.
Be the first to know breaking news, urgent updates, and clear steps on when and how to take action.
Research, events, campaigning, or a room full of people who need to hear this. We will find the right fit.
You may have encountered it as a child, been affected by your own or someone else’s use, been exploited in its production, or experienced sexual pressure, harassment or abuse shaped by porn culture.Expose the Harm offers a protected way to share what happened, anonymously or under a name you choose. If you need support, we can also direct you to specialist services.
