Washington, DC (March 16, 2021) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) commended the call from 70 Canadian MPs and Senators to the Royal Mounted Police of Canada (RCMP) open a full criminal investigation into MindGeek. Their letter sent to the RCMP notes that as of February 22, 2021, the RCMP “had zero outstanding investigations regarding MindGeek,” despite testimony and evidence that MindGeek has “regularly made available content featuring child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and sex trafficking.”
This letter to the RCMP comes on the heels of a letter to the Canadian Parliament that was co-signed by NCOSE, 525 NGOs, and 104 survivors in 65 countries, calling for a criminal investigation into MindGeek.
“The voices calling for justice for victims of MindGeek are growing, and we commend the Canadian Parliament signatories who are pressing for justice and calling on the Royal Mounted Police to open an investigation into MindGeek. MindGeek has profited from sexual violence, abuse, and exploitation for too long, and this company that peddles in the worst abuses must be held accountable,” Dawn Hawkins, senior vice president and executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
The NCOSE Law Center has also submitted a legal brief to the Canadian Ethics Committee supporting an investigation and outlining “how nonconsensual content on MindGeek websites is violating international legal norms against slavery and torture.”
NCOSE is one of several law firms that have jointly filed a class action lawsuit against MindGeek. The representative class members are two survivors of childhood sex trafficking whose videos and images of their sexual abuse were posted on Pornhub and other MindGeek-owned sites.
On April 8, NCOSE will hold an online briefing for U.S. congressional staff and law enforcement professionals that will present evidence of MindGeek-owned Pornhub’s abuse.
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.