The gloves are off: will porn stars ever wear condoms?

While sex has always been a hot business, the high level of accessibility of porn to anyone with an internet connection means the industry is at its most influential and some of that influence is far from positive.

In 2015 CNBC estimated the global porn industry to be worth $97-billion. One of the criticisms levelled at the industry is its continued failure to enforce the visible wearing of condoms.

CNBC said between 60% and 70% of porn movies are filmed in California, which recently tried to criminalise the production of films where performers aren't clearly using condoms.

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The proposed amendment, Prop 60, was an addition to the 1992 Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, which requires porn actors to wear condoms during scenes. The new addition to the law would enforce the rule further by permitting Californians to sue any performers not wearing condoms on film. However, people voted against the law last year.

Michael Weinstein, Aids Healthcare Foundation president, who spearheaded the fight to force productions to use condoms, said in an interview with US investigative magazine Mother Jones: "A lot of people get their sex education through these films and I think it's sending a bad message. I don't want young people to be educated that the only kind of sex that's hot is unsafe sex."

Sexual health advocate and Sunday Times Lifestyle columnist Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng said porn could pose serious health risks and cause injuries to consumers.

"You never see condoms being used properly in mainstream porn," she said, pointing out that because of editing in post-production, viewers don't get to see that one needs to clean toys or wash body parts when changing orifices during sex.

What sometimes results, she said, is, for instance, someone "using the same toy for anal, vaginal and oral sex without cleaning the toy or without changing the condoms. So they end up getting infections."

Porn star Ela Darling told Mother Jones that condoms were impractical for porn sets because "they're uncomfortable and cause friction rashes".

She said: "The sex you have on camera isn't like the sex you have at home. It's like Olympic-level, athletic sex."

She said pornography should be consumed by fully consenting adults rather than those who are too young to fully grasp the effect it might have on them.

• This article was originally published in The Times.