Statement by Dawn Hawkins, NCOSE Executive Director
Washington, DC – Marriott International announced yesterday that it will acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts. The Starwood chain currently profits from sales of video-on-demand pornography, prompting pressure from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) for Marriott to apply its current policy of not selling pay-per-view pornography to the Starwood chain as well.
“Marriott must apply its policy of not distributing and profiting from pornography to its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of NCOSE. “A new normal is emerging among hotels, where pornography is being abandoned in light of its significant neurological, psychological, and societal harms, such as its link to driving the demand for sex trafficking. Just this year, Hilton Worldwide and Hyatt Hotels announced that they are removing all on-demand pornography from their rooms globally, joining ranks with Omni, Drury, Ritz-Carlton and others. Customers responded enthusiasticly, thanking both chains via email and social media, stating that they are more likely to stay at hotels that do not sell pornorgraphy.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has been considering Starwood Hotels for the 2016 Dirty Dozen list, a list of twelve mainstream contributors to sexual exploitation. NCOSE is sending a letter to Marriott headquarters this week, requesting that Marriott assure customers that their current policies on pornography will apply to Starwood.”
To learn more about the Dirty Dozen list, visit: http://www.dirtydozenlist.com
If you would like to schedule an interview, please contact Haley Halverson at (202) 393-7245 or haley@ncose.com.
