WASHINGTON, D.C. – In defending the adult industry from its many vocal critics, public relations people, lawyers and marketers often sound a familiar refrain along these lines: “Everything we do depicts consenting adults.”

Damn straight and fucking-a right.

Like it or hate it, if it is legitimate adult entertainment, the two things every person looking at it ought to be able to find comfort in are the ideas nobody depicted therein is underage, or being forced to do anything he or she hasn’t agreed to do.

Now, to be frank, we all know the industry’s historical score on the dual ‘bright red lines’ of age and consent has not been perfect, especially if you expand your definition of the term “adult industry” to include every damn fool with an Internet connection, digital camera and the ability to place a Craigslist ad in search of performing talent.

That said, those of us who work in this industry also know it’s far from being the cesspool of drug-addled, swindled-by-agents, serial rape victims some of our more extreme detractors claim.

This is why as an industry, we should loudly condemn surreptitious assholes like “DonkCam1,” the online handle of someone who recently has been spending a lot of his (or her) time taking upskirt photos of women and girls riding the metro in DC.

I don’t care who this prick is; so far as I’m concerned, DonkCam1 should not be considered “one of us” by the legitimate adult industry.

I don’t care if he turns out to be biggest advertiser in the history of YNOT (which is not bloody likely, obviously) – if DonkCam1 is identified as being an affiliate, producer or webmaster of any notoriety whatsoever, we should all immediately shun him as a porn industry pariah without a second thought.

I also don’t give a particular shit what he’s doing is technically legal; from an ethical standpoint, it’s all kinds of wrong. It’s also true, to the extent this scumbag is identified as a “pornographer,” the wrath he is currently courting is liable to wind up being aimed at the rest of us in this industry, whether or not we’ve taken a single upskirt picture in our entire careers.

Don’t get me wrong; my issue isn’t with upskirt content as a form, in itself. Plenty of people have produced upskirt content over the years using paid models, after all, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. My issue is with taking upskirt pictures without the consent of the women wearing the skirts. Setting questions of law aside, it’s just a dick move.

It’s also among the last things an industry like ours needs to be associated with at this particular moment.

With controversy swirling over “revenge porn” sites, on-set performer safety and the easy access by minors to online porn, what we absolutely don’t want is to be perceived as an industry unconcerned with questions of age and consent.

For some people, they don’t see the big deal here: It’s just a picture of your underwear and crotch area; so what?

Such people are missing the point. The point is, it’s a fundamentally creepy, horrifying feeling to learn someone has been aiming a camera up your skirt and you had no idea it was happening at the time.

Finding out they’ve been the unwitting subject of upskirt or other “voyeur-style” content makes a person feel vulnerable, violated, targeted and threatened. In other words, it’s not about the fucking picture; it’s about the sleazy, discomfiting process which produced the picture.

Now would be an excellent time for a prominent adult industry figure to call up a major media outlet, like the Washington Post or CNN, and tell them the legitimate adult industry does not support the actions of people like DonkCam1.

Now would be an excellent time for the industry to reassert its unwavering adherence to the basic principle of obtaining knowing and informed consent from every performer in every work we publish.

Now would be an excellent time, as a matter of principle and public relations, to say we as an industry are not only concerned with the letter of the law, but its spirit, as well.

Will it happen? I doubt it…. But a guy can dream, right?