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Start for freeThe Genesis of a Movement
In February 2020, a pivotal moment occurred in the fight against sex trafficking. It was then that a dedicated activist, who had been battling human trafficking for over a decade, stumbled upon a horrifying reality that would change the landscape of online pornography forever.
A Disturbing Discovery
Late one night, while consoling her crying baby, the activist's mind wandered to a recent news story. It was about a 15-year-old girl from Broward County, Florida, who had been missing for an entire year. The girl was finally found when her distraught mother received a tip from a PornHub user who recognized the child in 58 videos on the site. These videos depicted the girl being sexually abused for profit.
This shocking revelation coincided with an investigation by the London Sunday Times, which uncovered dozens of illegal videos on PornHub within minutes of searching, including content featuring children as young as three years old.
Testing the System
Driven by curiosity and concern, the activist decided to test PornHub's upload system herself. What she discovered was alarming: anyone with an email address could upload content to the site in under 10 minutes, with no age verification or consent checks in place.
"I quickly understood that PornHub was not a porn site; it was a crime scene," the activist recalls. "It was infested with videos of real sexual crimes."
The Scale of the Problem
The sheer volume of content on PornHub was staggering:
- By the end of 2020, PornHub had become the fifth most visited website in the world
- The site received 170 million visits per day
- It logged 62 billion visits per year
- The amount of content uploaded annually would take 169 years to watch if played back-to-back
- There were 56 million pieces of content on the site by the end of 2020
Inadequate Moderation
Despite this enormous volume of content, PornHub's moderation efforts were woefully inadequate:
- Only one person was employed to review flagged videos, working just five days a week
- Videos had to be flagged at least 15 times before they would even be considered for review
- There was a backlog of 76,000 videos waiting to be reviewed
Specific Instances of Abuse
The activist encountered numerous disturbing examples of abuse on the platform:
- A video of a young Asian woman who was drugged and unconscious, with a masked assailant proving her unresponsiveness by touching her eyeballs
- Numerous videos with titles and tags explicitly describing the abuse of minors
- A case involving a 12-year-old boy who was drugged, raped, and filmed by an adult male who then uploaded 23 videos of the abuse to PornHub
The Birth of #TraffickingHub
Armed with this information, the activist took to social media to sound the alarm. She coined the hashtag #TraffickingHub to highlight the fact that, by definition, any commercialized sex act involving a child or induced by force, fraud, or coercion is an act of trafficking.
"Every child being abused on PornHub, every adult who was non-consenting, who was raped and trafficked - those are instances of trafficking," she explains.
The Fight for Accountability
The movement gained momentum, and pressure began to mount on PornHub to take responsibility for the content on its platform. However, the company's response was often inadequate and self-serving:
- When forced to remove videos of confirmed child abuse, PornHub would leave up a black box with the video's title, tags, and view count intact
- This practice allowed the company to maintain its "inventory" for advertising purposes while technically complying with removal requests
Legal Action and Progress
As awareness grew, legal action followed:
- Numerous victims have filed lawsuits against PornHub
- In 2024, PornHub was forced to produce a report for the European Digital Services Act
- In just four and a half months, they had to remove 3,770 child sexual abuse videos and over 8,000 non-consensual and rape videos
A Significant Reduction
The pressure has had a tangible impact:
- PornHub has deleted 91% of its content since 2020
- The site went from 56 million pieces of content to 5.2 million
However, activists argue that this is not enough, as much of the remaining content is still unverified.
The Importance of Full Accountability
The activist emphasizes that full accountability is crucial not just for the victims, but as a deterrent to future abusers:
"You have to increase risk and eliminate profitability. You have to make the risk of continued exploitation greater than the benefit that these executives get by maintaining the status quo."
She argues that when companies like PornHub are held fully accountable, it sends a message to other websites and executives that they need to clean up their act or face similar consequences.
Recent Developments
As of September 2024, after facing criminal charges and increased scrutiny, PornHub has finally announced that they will start verifying the age and consent of individuals appearing in videos. However, millions of previously uploaded videos remain unverified.
The Broader Impact of Online Trafficking
The fight against PornHub has shed light on the broader issue of online sex trafficking and exploitation. It's a problem that extends far beyond a single website and touches on complex issues of consent, technology, and corporate responsibility.
Changing Perceptions
One of the challenges in combating online trafficking is changing public perception. Many people have a limited understanding of what trafficking entails:
"The average person probably doesn't think of trafficking as that expansive," the activist notes. "But if you think about non-consensual commercialized sex acts, this is massive."
The Role of Technology
The ease with which abusive content can be uploaded and shared online has created new challenges for law enforcement and anti-trafficking organizations. Technology companies must play a more active role in preventing the spread of exploitative material.
The Path Forward
While progress has been made, there is still much work to be done in the fight against online sex trafficking and exploitation. Key areas of focus include:
Stronger Legislation
Advocates are pushing for more robust laws to hold online platforms accountable for the content they host. This includes stricter age and consent verification requirements and harsher penalties for non-compliance.
Improved Moderation Practices
Websites that allow user-generated content must invest in better moderation practices, including:
- Employing more human moderators
- Developing more sophisticated AI tools to detect potentially abusive content
- Implementing stricter upload requirements
Education and Awareness
Increasing public awareness about the realities of online trafficking and exploitation is crucial. This includes educating users about the potential risks of sharing intimate content online and how to recognize signs of exploitation.
Support for Survivors
Providing comprehensive support for survivors of online exploitation is essential. This includes access to legal resources, mental health services, and assistance in removing non-consensual content from the internet.
The Role of Consumers
Individuals can play a part in combating online exploitation by:
- Being critical consumers of online content
- Reporting suspicious or abusive material to the appropriate authorities
- Supporting organizations that work to combat trafficking and exploitation
Conclusion
The fight against PornHub has exposed the dark underbelly of the online porn industry and its intersection with sex trafficking and exploitation. While significant progress has been made, the battle is far from over. It will require ongoing vigilance, stronger regulations, and a commitment from both tech companies and society at large to create a safer online environment.
As the activist who started this movement reminds us, "The most important thing is that victims receive the justice they need for healing, and that we create a deterrent to future abusers." By continuing to shine a light on these issues and holding powerful entities accountable, we can work towards a world where online spaces are free from exploitation and abuse.
Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkUAqkzBSqw
