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"Most people have no clue about the different ways you can stimulate a clitoris, or believe that female ejaculation is just a myth.”

THE FIRST step to successfully having sex in the great outdoors? “You’d just want to go off-trail, maybe hide behind a tree or something.” A man and a woman are standing naked in the midst of a mountainous hiking trail, and as the guy advises viewers on how to enjoy sexy times in nature without getting caught, the camera cuts to a scene of his partner, on her knees, giving him a blowjob, red rock surrounding them both.

This video is part of the ethical porn site afterglow’s Eduporn series, where porn stars narrate their sexual escapades and give pointers on how to have as much fun as they’re having.

With less than half of U.S. teens receiving formal instruction on birth control methods, STIs, and how to say “no” to sex before having it, it’s no wonder that many people learned what they know about sex today from porn. Porn can be a great tool for arousal and self-discovery, but consuming it uncritically can have deeply troubling consequences, from insecurities about penis size to unwanted choking during sex.

To provide an alternative to less-than-educational (and, often, harmful) mainstream porn, sites like afterglow are meshing porn with sex ed, offering videos that teach people how to have great, safe, consensual sex—while also perhaps turning them on.

Lily Sparks, afterglow's founder and CEO, created Eduporn after her own experience struggling to orgasm during partnered sex. “I had no idea how to listen to my body or how to ask for what I wanted with a partner,” she says, recalling that she wanted to show her partner a porn video that exemplified the kind of sex she desired. “When I went to mainstream sites, it presented a very narrow possibility of what sex could be.”

Afterglow’s Eduporn section went live in March, and includes videos on how to give a sensual massage, how to have sex with a disability, how to feel sexy after pregnancy, and more. “The goal is for people to be able to feel comfortable watching these videos with a partner and using them as a way to open up a conversation,” Sparks says. “We also thought about the performers that we were working with and their areas of expertise. Performers are experts in sex, and they don't get the credit they deserve.”

Sparks had seen data suggesting there was a demand for instructional videos; how-to videos were the #10 Pornhub trend in 2021. The response to her own educational content reflected that. Some women even used afterglow’s videos the way Sparks had tried (and failed) to use porn previously. “So many women have told me how afterglow has made an impact on their lives,” she says. “For example, ‘It's brought me and my partner closer together. I can send him a new [afterglow] video, and it's fun and it takes the shame out of masturbating and porn.'”

Erika Lust, who’s been directing and producing porn since the early 2000s, similarly showcases videos on her site XConfessions with titles like Female Ejaculation, The Art of Spanking, and Tips and Tricks for Licking Clits that double as how-tos and erotic entertainment. “I wanted to shed light, in a lighthearted way, on sexual practices strictly related to female pleasure,” she explains. “Most people, especially [cis] men, have no clue about the different ways you can stimulate a clitoris, or believe that female ejaculation is just a myth.”

While some, like Lust, started off as pornographers and incorporated educational elements into their work, others began as educators and leveraged porn as an avenue to disseminate information. Kenneth Play, a New York City-based sex coach, began posting demonstrations of sexual techniques on Pornhub in 2018 despite his misgivings about making the leap from sex ed to porn.

“When I uploaded the first Pornhub video, I was scared shitless. I was imagining strangers making fun of my average-sized dick en masse, and I truly didn't know if I could handle that level of ridicule, especially when I was on Pornhub next to monster cocks,” he remembers. But people cared more about the skills he was demonstrating than how he measured up to the fellow actors on the site. Today, a squirting demo of his—where he describes exactly what he’s doing with his fingers, hands, and arms as he makes a woman ejaculate—has 8 million views on the site. (Most videos on Pornhub’s home page have under a million.)

“People really resonate with the personal trainer-like instruction, which comes from my fitness background,” Play says. “Although my videos are sexy, the intent is more on the educational side. However, lots of people have told me that they find them really arousing and love to masturbate to them or watch them with a partner.​ Women in particular tell me they enjoy masturbating to them—there's just something about that naughty teacher vibe.”

Although his videos are geared mostly toward teaching men, Play was surprised to find that 35% of his audience was female. The explicitness of his content allows women to show their partners exactly what to do, rather than try to describe the methods themselves or direct their partners toward vague written material. “They don't find it arousing to teach their partner how to please them, so they'd rather refer them to my content,” he explains. “It's like they're saying, ‘I'll have what she's having!’"

Play also offers a course called Sex Hacker Pro, which includes a combination of videos where he describes different techniques and ones that show him using them on a partner. His video on multiple orgasms, for instance, is an hour long—and people emailed him to say they wished it were longer, with no cutouts. “It showed me that people really want to see how it works in real life,” he says.

“It's like watching Steph Curry give a step-by-step tutorial on his signature jump shot, followed by watching footage of him using that same jump shot to win a championship,” Play adds. “This way, it's a blend of instruction and real-world application. I find that this is the best format for rapid skill acquisition.”

Good Vibrations staff sexologist Carol Queen, who has appeared in about a dozen educational sex films including the pegging how-to Bend Over Boyfriend, sees the explicit nature of these videos as furthering their educational purposes. “We want people to leave with info and to have seen it illustrated,” she says.

“When we want to learn any other skill, like riding a bike or baking a cake, we go to YouTube,” Sparks agrees. “We use videos and visual media as a common way to teach. Why should it be any different with sex?”

Even porn that’s not created to be educational can still make an effort to spread positive messages, or at least avoid spreading negative ones. Some videos on mainstream sites like Pornhub, for instance, have disclaimers about the difference between fantasy and reality at the beginning of their videos, says Rachael Farina, a marriage and family therapist and doctorate candidate researching pornography consumption. Others make a point to include at least some scenes where actors use condoms, or where people discuss consent.

Some porn stars prefer not to use condoms, since they can increase friction during longer scenes, explains Jiz Lee, Marketing Director for the porn production company Pink & White Productions. For the Crash Pad Series, a queer porn site from Pink & White, Lee and the company’s creator Shine Louise Houston shoot behind-the-scenes videos where actors discuss STI testing and other safer sex methods they used that may not have been visible.

The Crash Pad Series includes content notes when something is shown on camera that could potentially be dangerous, such as certain BDSM activities, use of home-made sex toys, or insertion of butt plugs without flared bases. One video that involves caning (consensually striking someone with a cane), for example, has a note above it reading, “anyone curious about caning—especially on the genitals—should take extra precaution.”

“Society doesn’t apply the same level of media literacy to porn that they do to other film genres,” Lee says. “For many people, this may be the first time they see a toy or sex act happen on film. We wanted to make sure they are aware of any risks involved.”

In addition to creating more ethical and equitable porn, many sex educators point toward the need to instill greater porn literacy in young people and those of all ages. That’s why, on top of her feminist and educational porn, Lust also created The Porn Conversation, a site offering resources like informational videos and discussion prompts to help parents talk to their kids about porn.

“The probability that free online porn is young people’s first exposure to sex is high,” she says. “Most free online porn doesn’t show people communicating their needs and desires, setting boundaries, and practicing affirmative consent. This may be problematic for folks who are, in fact, using pornography as a source of education and who don't understand the difference between fantasy and reality.”

Schools also have a role to play in shaping people’s relationship with porn, Farina says. “When young people are equipped with details and accurate information about pornography, they're able to make more informed decisions,” she explains. “Some research suggests that [porn] can serve as a valuable tool in helping adolescents and adults understand their sexual interests. However, it's important to understand the ways in which pornography can potentially lead to both short and long-term consequences.”

Houston believes that while it’s helpful when porn can double as education, the responsibility should not be on the porn industry to teach viewers how sex really works. “Porn is graduate-level study of sexuality,” she explains. “If we're talking about education, we need comprehensive age-appropriate sex education in school. Porn shouldn't replace sex-ed."

In fact, many find value in porn made purely for the purpose of getting off, and the lack of realism can even sometimes be part of the appeal. “Porn is like watching a blockbuster film,” says Play. “Watching The Fast and the Furious is purely for entertainment—you wouldn't expect it to teach you to drive.”