Engaging Adults in Sexual Health Messages: Examining the Posts of Pornographic Performers’ Social Media

In recent years, social media has become an important platform for sexual health information. Among the most followed stakeholders of sexual information on social media are pornography performers. To date, their influence on the dialogue around sexual health has yet to be measured.

In this descriptive study, we compared the three most frequently used social media sites: Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, for the top 30 Pornhub pornography performers ranked by views. The data was collected from January 2020 to June 2021.

Over the data collection period, there were 3407 posts on Instagram, 25 videos published on YouTube, and 31,630 tweets sent on Twitter. The study found that when pornography performers provided sexual health information (sexual health education or related global/social issues), their likes did not decrease compared to their regular brand posts. On YouTube, posts that provided education on sex had more likes (M = 3091, SD = 1031) than posts that did not (M = 1538, SD = 800) (t(18) = −4.06, p = < 0.001).

The findings suggest that sexual health education has a significant reach and positive reception when pornography performers explain these health concepts on social media.

Despite their influence, pornography performers have not been widely included in online sexual health education efforts. Future research and sexual health education campaigns should recognize and utilize the social media of pornography performers to better promote sexual health to a larger and more receptive audience.