Washington, DC (December 14, 2020) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) called Pornhub’s announcement that it is removing pornographic videos uploaded by unverified user accounts a “distinction without a difference,” in light of the fact that abuse still occurs on verified accounts, and said that Pornhub “must be shut down entirely.”
“There is no way to make Pornhub safer or to prevent the abuse and trauma inherent in pornography by eliminating unverified accounts. Case in point: GirlsDoPorn.com was a verified user on Pornhub, but many of those videos were of sex trafficked women,” said Dawn Hawkins, senior vice president and executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“Pornhub cannot sanitize the fact that its audience wants abuse material, it wants content with children, rape, incest, racism, and extreme violence against women. These are the themes of ‘mainstream’ pornography.
“Pornhub’s solution to eliminate unverified accounts is truly a distinction without a difference. To be a verified user, all it requires is someone taking a selfie holding a piece of paper with their age.
“Pornhub must be shut down entirely. We reiterate our call for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Pornhub, which The New York Times investigation revealed that Pornhub profits from child sexual abuse material. And we urge Congress to pass the Earn It Act, a solution that would stop enabling digital platforms like Pornhub, Twitter, Facebook from having any accountability to stop abuse on their platforms,” Hawkins said.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-partisan organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
