Whistleblowers Allege Major Adult Site Profited From Child Exploitation Videos

Written by Jack Applewhite

What’s happening: Pornhub’s parent organization MindGeek is facing a lawsuit alleging that the company allowed nonconsensual sexual content to be published on its website. Several whistleblowers have now come forward accusing MindGeek of knowingly profiting from explicit content involving victims of child exploitation and human trafficking.

The disturbing details: Over 30 victims claim they were sexually abused in videos that were uploaded to Pornhub and other adult sites. Many videos of the victims, some of whom were exploited as young as 7, remain on the site. Pornhub’s policy shockingly requires illegal content to be reported more than 15 times for moderators to act on it, emails show.

Pushback: Pornhub has been fighting the lawsuit as well as efforts by several states to put restrictions on how the site operates. Just last week, the North Carolina state legislature passed a bill to require platforms that disseminate sexually explicit materials to verify that their site users are at least 18 years old.

Why it matters: A survey conducted in 2022 of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 revealed that, on average, children are first exposed to sexually explicit content at age 12.

• Dive deeper: According to the new law, parents can take legal action against pornographic sites if their underage child has access to any of their content. If the North Carolina legislation is signed into law by the governor, it would become the seventh state this year to pass an age verification bill.