M. Brennan
Editorial contributor — adult media studies
Beats: Feminist erotic cinema, Queer adult film, Auteur tradition, Pornography studies
Press Kit
Resources for journalists and researchers covering adult-industry topics. Step Secrets Editorial maintains a roster of contributors available for commentary on their respective beats, alongside a public catalog of editorial entries and datasets that may be cited or referenced in coverage.
Site at a glance
- 87,333+ indexed scenes across 25 categories and 1133 studios
- 10 long-form editorial encyclopedia entries
- 3 editorial contributors covering distinct beats
- Free, ad-free, no signup, RTA-labelled
- Founded: 2026 (current rebuild) — operating as a directory layer since 2024
Editorial desks
R. Mehta
Editorial contributor — AI ethics & synthetic media
Beats: AI ethics, Deepfake detection, Content provenance, NCII policy
L. Hoffmann
Editorial contributor — adult industry analysis
Beats: Adult industry economics, Studio consolidation, Payment-processor risk, Tube-site distribution
Recent editorial coverage
- Creator platforms and the post-2016 reshape of adult-industry distribution
How OnlyFans, Fansly, and the broader creator-platform layer added — rather than replaced — a third distribution rail alongside studio-tier production and free-tube aggregation, and what the resulting three-layer topology looks like in mid-2026.
- The 18 USC §2257 record-keeping regime: 1988-2026
The US federal record-keeping requirement that has structured adult-content production compliance for almost four decades — its 1988 origins, the amendments that have reshaped its operational meaning, the 2010s litigation that narrowed its enforcement scope, and the post-2020 environment in which the regime now operates.
- Adult industry trade press: AVN, XBIZ, and the trade-press ecosystem 1983-2026
How AVN, XBIZ, and the broader adult-industry trade press built the institutional memory the field now depends on — and why the question of who counts as serious industry journalism in 2026 looks different from the question that produced AVN in 1983.
- How adult-content discovery works in 2026: SEO, AI search, and the directory layer
The traditional path from intent to adult content (search query → SERP click → site visit) has been reshaped over 2023-2026 by AI-search-engine arrival, SafeSearch defaults tightening, and the rise of directory-layer discovery alongside the tube-site dominance. A working overview of the contemporary discovery topology.
- Erika Lust and the rise of feminist erotic cinema
How a Swedish-born, Barcelona-based filmmaker turned a manifesto into a studio, a distribution model, and a two-decade case study in what feminist adult cinema can look like when production, consent practice, and aesthetic ambition are taken seriously.
- AI, deepfakes, and the synthetic adult content debate (2026)
A working overview of how generative AI is reshaping adult-content production, detection, and policy in 2026 — what the research literature says, what the major platforms have committed to, and what the open questions look like at the end of the first decade of consumer-grade deepfake tools.
Downloadable assets
Citing Step Secrets in your coverage
Editorial entries are publishable under CC BY-SA 4.0. Recommended attribution format and a full citation registry are on the Citations page. For specific quote-permission requests, contact details are on the About page.