This post was originally published in 2016. The details and events have been updated.

More often than porn consumers realize, sexual exploitation and porn can be one and the same.

One horrifying story we’ve come across in the dark world of sexual exploitation comes from Japan, where it was reported that a man sexually took advantage of dozens of women, aged teens through age 40, under the guise of a “medical sleep study.”

According to the CNN report, it claims authorities are saying the man behind this crime “has no medical training and the study was merely a ruse to isolate women, drug them, assault them and film the attacks.”

Related: Easily Accessible Rape Porn Is Causing Huge Problems For Junior Highers Everywhere

Authorities arrested 54-year-old Hideyuki Noguchi, after one of the women saw herself in a video. Police investigated and arrested Noguchi, who now faces charges of incapacitated rape in some three dozen cases.

Authorities say Noguchi has told them the number of victims is about 100.

So, with no medical training or certifications known, Noguchi took out ads to recruit women for a “sleep study” at a hotel, where the only criteria was that he needed to be able to check their blood pressure while they were asleep. What followed wasn’t a peaceful sleep—it was a drugged nightmare that was filmed for sexual entertainment.

Related: After A Woman In India Was Raped And Murdered, Her Name Trended On Porn Sites

It’s a sad fact that much of our society is blind to the link between porn and sexual violence. They think that the porn industry and sex trafficking industry are two completely separate issues, one being legitimate and the latter being an illegal activity that only happens in faraway countries. Not so.

Click here to see CNN’s video report and article here.

More Than Just One Man’s Crime

After the women agreed to meet up at various hotels of his choosing, the perpetrator reportedly drugged them to the point where they were in no state of mind to even be aware of what was going on. And that’s when the videotaping began.

CNN’s report claims that Noguchi made $100,000 dollars for selling his videotapes of his raping of unconscious and drugged women to porn sites that then circulated the videos. And why was he able to sell the footage to porn sites? Because there’s a demand for that sort of content.

Related: Pornhub Reportedly Profits From Nonconsensual Videos And Real Rape Tapes—Here Are The Latest Examples

The porn industry, of course, having no regulatory body to ensure ethical trade of consensual sex or consensual broadcast, was all too happy to provide these videos to anyone who had the right search terms. And it’s a society that seems to be growing more and more obsessed with the extremes of porn and sexual dominance each year as hundreds of millions of hours are spent consuming hardcore and abusive porn where the lines of consent are blurry, nonexistent, and, ultimately, ignored.

Related: “They Raped Me At Gunpoint”: True Stories From A Former Escort And Porn Performer

While some might say they pay for porn, what is sure is that porn sites paid for this man’s criminal actions, and was content to do so until one of the women, reportedly, saw herself in a video and raised the alarm.

More Connected Than Society Thinks

Science and research are showing that porn isn’t only harmful to those who watch it, it’s also harmful to those who create it. And in too many cases, it’s harmful to people who want nothing to do with it, but are forced into being a part of it.

Related: Why This Massively Popular Porn Site Doesn’t Care If Their Content Shows Rape

As the research on the harmful effects of porn is growing, the links to human rights violations are stacking up.

The porn industry is a sketchy industry to begin with, but it takes a really dangerous turn when porn involving sex trafficking victims is made and distributed globally online. Countless women, men, boys and girls have been tricked, forced, or coerced into commercial sex acts—this is, by definition, sex trafficking/slavery—and sometimes, their sexual exploitation or abuse has been recorded or photographed and the content ends up online. This happens more often than the average public would like to believe.

Related: Rape, Drugs, & Forced Porn: Here’s How Modeling Scams Lure Unsuspecting Victims

Luckily, Noguchi was caught. But the damage has been done for these dozens of women, whose recorded rapes are circulating on the internet, categorized as “entertainment” for anyone who runs across these videos.

Truthfully, in this digital age, there is no way for a consumer to tell if what they are watching was made illegally or if all parties are there willingly. No one’s sexual exploitation should be sexual entertainment.