An investigation into Pornhub by the New York Times has confirmed long-suspected fears that the platform has been hosting several shocking cases of sex trafficking and child rape on their site. 

In one example a 15-year-old girl who had been missing for a year was finally found alive after her mother was tipped off that her daughter was being featured in videos on the infamous porn streaming platform - 58 such videos of her rape and sexual abuse were discovered on Pornhub. 

In other words, many Pornhub viewers were getting sexual enjoyment out of the sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl.

The investigation also uncovered cases of revenge porn and video taken without the consent of the participants.

As a result of this scandal, MasterCard and Visa have blocked the use of their cards on this site, joining Paypal who had already had a ban in place.  This is not a move that has been taken lightly -  credit card companies will stand to lose millions. 

The New York Times Investigation is only the tip of the iceberg.

Pornhub’s claim that they have ‘cleaned up’ their platform by removing offending content is disingenuous. A search using simple search terms brings up hundreds of thousands of violent videos featuring rape, torture, strangulation, suffocation and women being hit and brutalized.

A significant proportion of Pornhub’s content promotes grooming, incest and pedophilia.

Pornhub has done the bare minimum as it is not in their interests to remove content. The removal of certain tags and search terms is nothing more than a PR exercise. Their new safeguards are easy to circumnavigate and such is the volume of videos that are uploaded on a daily basis, it will be impossible to certify every single video. 

Online pornography is harmful. It exploits both men and women and contributes to the sexualization of children. There is also a strong link between sex trafficking and the porn industry.

In one survey, 63% of underage sex trafficking victims said they had been advertised or sold online. (Thorn). According to anti-trafficking non-profit, Rescue:Freedom, in 9 countries, 49% of sexually exploited women said that pornography was made of them while they were being sold for sex.

A lawsuit has been filed against Pornhub's parent company,  Mindgeek, who knew it was partnering and profiteering from a sex trafficking venture for years. A judge has already ruled that one of Pornhub's collaborators lied to women about how their explicit videos would be distributed and ordered millions of dollars in compensation.  

Pornhub is complicit in the sexual exploitation of countless vulnerable women of all ages across the globe.

Reeling in millions of dollars in advertising and membership revenue with 42 billion hits and 6 million videos uploaded per year, Pornhub directly damages the lives of both men and women alike across the globe. 

Such is their profit-driven agenda that there is absolutely no way to reliably verify the age or consent of those featured in the pornographic content it hosts. 

Porn objectifies women and legitimizes the completely reckless notion that females can be mere objects for the sexual gratification of men. It robs women of their dignity and casts them into the debased hands of men with depraved appetites fuelled by this sinister trade.

There is increasing research demonstrating a link between sexual violence, sexual abuse of children and the use of pornography. 

We need to stand together to stop this depraved industry in its tracks. And this starts with banning Pornhub in Canada – it's the most popular porn outlet in the world, and it's based in Montreal.

Sign this petition today urging that Minister of Justice David Lametti implements a Pornhub ban at Internet Service Provider (ISP) level. 

Of course, even if Pornhub was banned from the country, other websites with many of the same issues would take its place. But we need to continually counter these attempts until all aspects of the porn industry which promote violence and the exploitation of women are defeated in every way. 

If you value the basic right to dignity and protection for all women, then sign and help spread the word by sharing this petition today!

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9059637/PornHub-owner-MindGeek-sued-80-million-40-women-say-site-profited-GirlsDoPorn.html