Pornhub to face trial over allegations it profited off videos, images of teen's abuse
Editor's note: Warning, this article contains descriptions of sexually exploitative content that some readers might find disturbing.
Pornhub made no attempt to verify the identity of a 16-year-old girl whose abuser uploaded videos showing her rape and sexual exploitation, according to a lawsuit alleging that the company knowingly profited from child sex trafficking.
In a decision last Thursday, Federal Judge L. Scott Coogler of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama denied Pornhub’s motion for summary judgment in response to the teen's lawsuit. The plaintiff is referred to as “Jane Doe” in the legal document, with Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek, which changed its name to Aylo last year, serving as the defendants.
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The court denied the pornography giant’s assertion that it’s immune from liability due to Section 230, which generally protects online platforms from lawsuits based on user-generated content. As a result, the teen's lawsuit will go to trial.
Laila Mickelwait, CEO of the Justice Defense Fund and author of Takedown:Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape and Sex Trafficking, applauded the decision. The advocate has dedicated years of her life to holding Pornhub and its parent company accountable for distributing videos depicting sexual abuse.
“This decision is a powerful step forward for justice,” Mickelwait declared in a statement provided to The Christian Post. “The evidence of criminal complicity by Pornhub’s executives is overwhelming. In addition to restitution for all victims, full criminal prosecution of the company and its executives is essential to ensure justice for survivors and to deter future abusers.”
Pornhub and its parent company Aylo did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
Jane Doe was 16 in early 2018 when her abuser filmed her engaging in a sexual act in his car, according to the document. The girl’s face was visible in the video that the man uploaded to his Pornhub account in February 2018.
The abuser participated in a program on Pornhub that enabled him to make money by uploading videos to the site. The pornography giant also profited off the revenue generated from views and downloads of the video depicting Jane Doe’s abuse.
The man is also accused of drugging Jane Doe and filming himself raping her in a hotel room, which he later uploaded to Pornhub in May 2020. The content uploaded online depicting Jane Doe’s abuse included 34 videos and six photo albums.
The perpetrator later pled guilty in April 2022 to "dissemination/display of obscene matter" involving someone younger than 17, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Jane Doe filed a class action lawsuit against the defendants in February 2021.
Another issue the judge highlighted in his ruling concerned the algorithm defendants created for their sites. Coogler noted that the defendants utilize tags and keyword titles that help uploaders advertise and locate child sex abuse material.
“Indeed, Defendants tracked how much traffic and profit each category and tag earned them — down to the dollar amount per month and per day for the most popular tags,” he wrote. “For example, in October 2019, the category ‘teen’ was the 6th most popular category, earning over $150,000 that month, amounting to just over 30% of total revenue that month.”
“The tag ‘young’ ranked number 2, ‘teenager’ ranked number 3, and ‘teen’ ranked 13 that same month, with each earning over $132,000, $117,000, and $54,000, respectively,” the federal judge continued.
Executives at the porn site also resisted efforts to remove certain search terms, such as “young girl,” citing an email in which one of the defendants’ colleagues objected to adding the term to a “banned word” list. The executive claimed that he didn’t think “young girl” implied underage in the same way as “young boy.”
Anti-sexual exploitation advocates are expressing gratitude toward the federal judge’s ruling for exposing how Pornhub profits from sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.
“This significant ruling is a victory for the brave Survivor-Plaintiff as it ensures Pornhub cannot use Section 230 as a legal shield and must face accountability for profiting from her child sexual abuse,” Dani Pinter, senior vice president and director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center, said in a statement shared with CP.
The NCOSE Law Center is one of several firms representing Jane Doe.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
