Utter the word “incest” and most people will shudder, ill at the thought of being intimate with a family member. The fantasy of incest isn’t socially acceptable; it’s one of the extreme taboos, which could help explain why titles such as Forbidden Family Affairs, Mother Son Secrets and My New White Step-Daddy are topping the porn sales charts. Fictional incest porn, better known as fauxcest, is on the rise—a dark, dirty desire that’s certainly not for everyone.

Over a century ago, Sigmund Freud suggested most people have unconscious incestuous urges that need to be repressed. Though most of Freud’s theories have been discredited, if recent data on porn viewing habits is any indicator, he may have been onto something. Leading adult content providers GameLink.com reported a 178 percent average increase in the consumption of “family role-play porn,” while 1 in 10 purchases made by young adults on the site were for fauxcest titles.

Feminist pornographer Jacky St. James has embraced the controversial genre, calling it one of her favorites to direct. “It’s the one taboo that can’t really be explored in real life safely. This will be forbidden no matter what you do,” she says. “Because of that there is this allure of the untouchable, and what’s untouchable to us is often the most appealing.”

Thanks to tube sites and short attention spans, many XXX movies don’t bother incorporating narratives into the sex scenes. But with fauxcest, the narrative, however twisted, is more complex—the same scene featuring an older woman and younger guy goes from being about a hot neighbor to a mother and her stepson. Forbidden layers like these are also what some find appealing about the genre. “It’s inherently seductive because [a family member] is the ultimate forbidden person,” says St. James. “Depending on what the dynamic is, if the scenario is set up correctly, say it’s a stepfather then it’s also the taboo of going after your mom’s man. Then it’s not just a boyfriend, it’s a father figure, so there are all of these taboos on top of other taboos.”

Blonde starlet Nadia White, who’s performed dozens of incest role-play scenes, has noticed an increased demand for the genre, and says nearly all of the hardcore scenes she does in Florida are fauxcest these days. “Personally, it’s not one of my own kinks, but we are here to give the fans what they want to see,” says White. “My work is a way for people to indulge in kinks without having to participate themselves, so in a way I’m doing a public service.”

Pornographer JW Ties launched his Desperate Pleasures DVD line in April 2015 with Deflower Me Daddy. It’s now two years later and he’s been so successful with incest-themed porn that he’s on the verge of releasing his 200th DVD. “We tried it and our sales increased considerably,” he says.

Since becoming XXX content producers on Clips4Sale, one of the premier downloadable porn video clip sites, husband and wife team Olivia and Laz Fyre—collectively known as the “Lady Fyre Femdom” studio—are among the site’s top 15 notable studios. In the last two years, Lady Fyre has seen an increase in fauxcest requests, which Olivia (aka Lady Fyre) says now accounts for 35 percent of their content. “I get more requests for mother/son stories than anything else. Second is stepmother/stepson and third, other blood-related relatives,” says Lady Fyre.

For porn star Tanya Tate, the increased demand for incest-role play has led her to create the award-nominated series Lesbian Family Affair with Filly Films, featuring a variety of mommy/daughter scenes. Tate says there’s very little difference to her, whether she’s role-playing as “stepmom” or “mom,” yet to fans that distinction seems to matter—with a preference toward the latter. While Tate enjoys indulging her fans’ requests, there are some she refuses to indulge. “I’m having sex with an adult, who is there consenting but sometimes people really want to push that fantasy and I’m not okay with that,” says Tate. “If someone wants me to change the age of the role-play, I’m not going to do that.”

When Gia Paige entered the porn industry three years ago, the calls for incest-themed scenes didn’t come up as often. Now, she says it’s almost every scene she gets booked for. Gia noticed her fan base becoming stranger—in some of the most deplorable ways. “Some of my fans weren't nice anymore, they were creepy,” says Gia. “One fan told me that he and his wife conditioned their son his whole life until he was old enough to join them in bed. That really got to me. I almost felt like I was helping this kid get sexually abused.”

Horrified by some of the reprehensible feedback, Gia no longer feels comfortable performing fauxcest scenes and draws a hard line between making money and morality. “I won’t shoot any kind of incest scenes. I realize that’s cutting my work in half but I just don’t feel okay doing those scenes anymore. Not putting down anyone who does them or enjoys them, it’s just not something I want to play with anymore,” says Gia. “Technology is at everyone’s fingertips. I don’t want some kid seeing me on film coaxing my ‘stepbrother’ into fucking me and that kid thinking it’s okay to do that to his little sister or cousin. I shudder to think about it. But I do love porn and hope this trend dies. I just want to shoot good, clean porn again.”