On December 8, 2020, Pornhub removed all unverified uploads from their platform. Many people on social media are shocked and have expressed their disappointment with losing their favourite bookmarked videos; but let's be clear, if a video was removed, then it very likely contained child sexual abuse, revenge porn, sex trafficking victims and many other coerced and/or manipulated people.
A statement made by Pornhub on their blog claims, "It is clear that Pornhub is being targeted not because of our policies and how we compare to our peers, but because we are an adult content platform. The two groups that have spearheaded the campaign against our community are the National Centre on Sexual Exploitation and Exodus Cry." Blatantly denying any oversight or wrongdoing on their part.
The fact of the matter is, they have been caught benefiting off of child abuse imagery for many years, and they're not the only ones. In a story covered by CBC News Manitoba, where an anonymous woman spoke of her personal experiences with removing her own child porn off of adult platforms. At 14 years old, she was manipulated into having video sex with an older man on Skype. He then uploaded that video to several sites. It took her many years to get her videos off of certain platforms, while being told things like "we can't prove that is you" and "we can't prove you're underage in the video". To this day, she is still working on having her videos removed from sites, as they've now been shared worldwide.
This isn't an isolated incident, by any means. In 2019, a Florida mother found pornographic videos of her missing 16 year old daughter on Pornhub, Periscope, Modelhub, Snapchat, and others; all in all, they found at least 58 different videos of the minor; Christopher Johnson has been charged for his child sex crimes but hasn't been sentenced yet. Another proven case of Pornhub benefiting and profiting from child pornography includes the case of 14 year old girl who was molested by a family member and then had those videos uploaded to Pornhub; Dawn Giannini was sentenced to 7 years in jail for her child sex crimes.
Master Card said they would no longer allow it's cards to be used on Pornhub; although Pornhub maintains that they had no illegal content on their site, an investigation uncovered just that. Before Master Card's investigation, there were 13.5 million searchable videos; it has since shrunk down to 2.9 million views. Pornhub removed all content that wasn't posted by a verified user, after Master Card announced their plan to sever ties with the adult website. Visa has suspended it's services until their investigation is done. There is now an easy to find removal form if you feel a video contains illegal activities of any kind.
The fact of the matter is, that many more sites hide sexual abuse content behind legitimate adult content. We need to hold these adult platforms accountable for the content they put out. Child pornography and abuse are not victimless crimes. Once something's on the internet, it's impossible to completely scrub it off; many people download or record their own copy and are free to upload and share any time they choose. Any site that allows unverified users to upload sex tapes and/or download their content freely, poses a huge safety risk to our children. A risk we can't allow to go on any longer. It takes a village!