Over the last year, an abundance of evidence has surfaced showing Pornhub’s complicity in sex crimes. One of the most shocking and disturbing of these revelations has been the amount of child sex abuse material discovered on the site. Mind you, content they are profiting from.
The Internet Watch Foundation investigated and confirmed 118 cases of child sex abuse material on Pornhub, in only in 2 years. Half of the cases were Category A level abuse—meaning penetration and/or sadism. That is disturbing to say the least. I would add that when it comes to child sex abuse, one case is too many. But as we’ve pulled back the curtain further, the discoveries have been devastating.
Laila Mickelwait recently posted images on Twitter revealing coded conversations taking place between site users in the comments section of certain videos. Using the abbreviation “cp,” it is obvious these users were openly discussing trading or selling child pornography and Pornhub was a facilitator of this criminal activity.
Let’s pause for a moment, to really comprehend the gravity of this. Possessing or selling child sex abuse material is not a light crime. This is an area that our governmental and justice departments have thankfully taken extremely seriously. Recent raids of undercover child sex abuse rings, and high profile investigations like the Jeffrey Epstein case, serve as examples of how serious this is.
There are clear legal boundaries protecting children from abuse and exploitation. But amidst all that, apparently these users felt pretty secure, even emboldened, discussing the illegal trade of child pornography on Pornhub’s platform.
Where is the investigation? Where’s Pornhub’s so-called commitment to child protection? Pornhub has boasted about their robust screening technologies, “expertly-trained” human moderators and commitment to protecting children from illegal activity. So it should be virtually impossible for them not to know these negotiations are happening on their site. Yet, they have demonstrated either an inability or unwillingness to end this type of activity on their site, and in my opinion are failing to satisfy the minimum standards of any legal organization.
Last year, the Sunday Times reported finding “dozens” of examples of illegal material on Pornhub in just minutes of research. In their words, “Pornhub is awash with secretly filmed ‘creepshots’ of schoolgirls and clips of men performing sex acts in front of teenagers on buses. It has also hosted indecent images of children as young as three.”
Three years old. Despite Pornhub’s cheap vocal stance against underage content, some of the videos identified by their investigation had 350,000 views and were live for more than 3 years.
Pornhub is awash with secretly filmed ‘creepshots’ of schoolgirls and clips of men performing sex acts in front of teenagers on buses.
The truth is, child sex abuse material is all over the site—and they are well aware. Laila Mickelwait also posted last month about a conversation between a concerned viewer and Pornhub’s Sr. Community Manager on Reddit. The viewer was looking to report child sex abuse material on the site to authorities—but they were instructed not to. Instead they were told to just flag it for Pornhub’s internal review team.
Why? Because the last thing Pornhub wants is a legal investigation into their site. The user who uploaded the content should have been reported, investigated, found, and arrested. More than that, Pornhub should have never allowed the content to be posted in the first place. Nearly every state and US territory mandates reporting of sex crimes, especially against children. Failure to do so could result in heavy fines, imprisonment, or both.
Pornhub recently launched a dark web mirror site… ‘to help anonymize the online activity and communication of our users.’
Pornhub also says they are committed to protecting all forms of “sexual expression.” That sounds nice, except their definition of sexual expression seems to include rape, incest, trafficking, and pedophilia. And Pornhub has yet to explain why search terms like “jailbait,” “lolita,” and “very young girl” are allowed and even defended as “free speech.”
It seems Pornhub is more committed to protecting child predators than protecting children. They appear to be fostering a community for pedophilia and child sex abuse material and, despite what they say, the evidence suggests they could care less.
Pornhub recently launched a dark web mirror site, designed to provide further protection and anonymity around activities that could be flagged by governments or law enforcement. The site provides users a free VPN to hide IP addresses which law enforcement need to locate criminals, and accepts cryptocurrency to provide complete anonymity. In a statement, Pornhub VP Cory Price mentioned that the move was “to help anonymize the online activity and communication of our users.”
For years the dark web has been synonymous with illegal activity including the sale of drugs, contract murders and—you guessed it—child rape. This move by Pornhub rolls out a red carpet for pedophiles to comfortably feed on child exploitation—all in the name of profit.
This has to end. It is our responsibility as a society to strongly protect our children from all types of abuse. The fact that this gross abuse continues against the most innocent among us stains our humanity.
Recently, Paypal has pulled away from Pornhub and refuses to do business with the site. Visa and Mastercard must do the same. Unilever, a large consumer goods company which owns many well-known household brands, has advertised on the site in the past but has vowed to cease all marketing on Pornhub as well. Politicians, leaders, and celebrities from both the US and Canada have called for investigations into the site.
Pornhub crosses all lines and boundaries in their thirst for traffic and money. Even in the wake of the #metoo movement, which has brought mass awareness and justice around sexual misconduct, Pornhub has somehow gotten a pass. Yet, they have failed on all humane levels to qualify as a legitimate business and must be shut down. Until they are, we will see more victims, more child sex abuse material, and more money fueling an enterprise bent on protecting and profiting off of sex crimes.
Join our fight. Use your voice. There’s a generation of children counting on us.
With your help we can shut down Pornhub. Click below to sign the petition or give to the fight.
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