Another porn giant faces class action lawsuit for hosting child sex trafficking videos
Another leading online pornography company is facing the possibility of a class action lawsuit alleging that it profits from child sexual abuse material and sex trafficking.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for Central California, the complaint seeking class action status was filed against XVideos and its parent company, WebGroup Czech Republic, on behalf of a victim identified only as Jane Doe.
The lawsuit was filed by the National Center for Sexual Exploitation in consultation with five other survivor-focused and commercial litigation law firms. The court filing contends that Doe is a victim and survivor of childhood sex trafficking featured in videos of childhood sexual abuse sold, published and distributed on websites owned and operated by XVideos.
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“Neither XVideos, nor any other website, owned or operated by WGCZ Defendants undertook any measure to verify Jane Doe’s identity or age,” the lawsuit argues. “As a result, child sex abuse material (‘CSAM’) depicting Jane Doe was distributed broadly throughout the world on Defendants’ internet websites.”
The lawsuit also claims that the company commercially monetized the images, violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
“XVideos not only violated the law by hosting Jane Doe’s child sexual abuse material, it profited from her abuse given that each image and video of her was monetized,” NCOSE Senior Legal Counsel Dani Pinter said in a statement. “This cannot be allowed to stand and remain unchallenged. Victims of childhood sexual abuse such as Jane Doe unequivocally deserve justice.”
The lawsuit says the name Doe extends to represent a class of numerous victims who, as children, had their child sexual abuse images published and monetized by XVideos. The website boasts 200 million daily visitors and 6 billion daily impressions on various websites.
The court filing states that Doe was trafficked when she was just 14 and was forced by a sex trafficker to “participate in the creation of videos of adults engaging in sex acts with her.”
“As a minor, Jane Doe’s traffickers also sold her for sex and some of the sex acts forced upon Jane Doe were recorded on video and uploaded to the XVideos website,” the lawsuit details, noting that she was not paid for her participation in the videos.
“Videos of adults engaging in sex acts with Jane Doe while she was a minor were uploaded and disseminated through websites owned, operated and/or controlled by Defendants, including, but not limited to XVideos,” the filing adds. “Videos of these sex acts with the minor Jane Doe continued to turn profits as they were reviewed, downloaded, stored, and disseminated.”
The complaint argues that XVideos “profited financially from the videos through the sale of advertising and by drawing users to their websites to view the videos.”
“Jane Doe knows that her videos have been downloaded, using the easy-to-find ‘Download’ button that WGCZ placed on its websites,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit contends that XVideos not only “benefited from a sex trafficking venture” and distributed child pornography but also failed to report child sexual abuse material.
The Christian Post reached out to XVideos for comment on the complaint. A response is pending.
Pinter praised Doe as courageous for sharing her story “to help other victims of XVideos.”
“We stand ready to help others who have experienced similar abuse at the hands of XVideos or any other WGCZ entities,” Pinter stated. “It is time to end this pornography company’s abuses and egregious violations of the law.”
The lawsuit comes as MindGeek, the parent company of several major porn websites, including Pornhub, is under investigation and facing its own lawsuits filed on behalf of child sex abuse survivors.
Last month, two unnamed plaintiffs accused Pornhub of hosting and profiting off videos of their abuse uploaded to the popular pornography website. They filed a class action complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
“Sex traffickers and the Defendants worked together to earn a profit from commercial sex acts and child pornography involving the Plaintiffs and Class members,” states the complaint. “MindGeek’s platform traditionally made it easy for traffickers, rapists, or would-be criminals to go undetected as account holders or managers who would control and recover any associated compensation.”
In December, 40 women sued Pornhub. They claim that the company profited from their exploitation as victims of sex trafficking.
Last week, more than 70 Canadian lawmakers called for MindGeek to be investigated by police amid the mounting allegations that the company profited from the sexual exploitation of children.
Canadian Parliament members from all eight political parties wrote a letter to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police supporting the requests of 104 survivors and 525 nongovernmental organizations from across the globe who have called for a criminal investigation into the Canada-based Pornhub, one of the largest porn sites in the world.
