There's just a lot of financial incentives for them to try. A lot are using it to pay for tuition fee, some are basically set for life. Some used to take revealing pic/video from cosplay and they can now monetarize it further. Some use masks and what not to protect their identities. Some are already doing all these for free online. It all takes effort and time to build their branding, it's not as simple or tragic as you seems to be imagining. Sex is universal and people do enjoy sharing selfie, these two combined created an explosion in amateur porn.
I'm far from arguing that it should be banned. I can see you're invested in it to an extent and believe these women you're watching online are viable and mentally healthy mates. In my experience this is not the case, and I do have some experience in this area.
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no, I am not really invested in it in the monetarized way.
I am saying we have a normalized sex industry. I used to read up webcam models personal blog on tumblr about their life and experience in the industry, so it isn't a sudden awareness of the topic. And even in Asia here, sex is being a more open topic with more sex shops opening around, more youtube channels that talks about sex. So yes, I'd assume those who put the most effort to own their own branding, are very mentally healthy, probably even more so than you and I.
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