WASHINGTON, DC (August 17, 2022) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) has joined as co-counsel in a lawsuit (Does 1-9 v. Murphy et al) against XHamster and MindGeek filed on behalf of 9 women who were secretly filmed while changing in a college locker room for a field hockey game, and the footage of which was then uploaded to XHamster and Pornhub.
The plaintiffs, Jane Does 1-9, are young women who were allegedly filmed by Collins Murphy, the intramural/summer conference director of a college in S.C., who placed a hidden “spy camera” in a locker room and secretly filmed the women in all stages of undress, and then uploaded the video footage to XHamster and Pornhub. The women were visiting the College to play a field hockey game. At least one of the videos was shared by a “verified” Modelhub member on Pornhub.
“It is reprehensible that these women’s privacy was violated by the secret recording, but this was made even worse when the footage was uploaded to XHamster and Pornhub, both of which then profited from their abuse. These women deserve every ounce of justice for their abuse and exploitation, and for the egregious violation of privacy,” said Dani Pinter, senior legal counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“XHamster and Pornhub took no action to verify the age or consent of the women in the videos, which were labeled as ‘spy cam’ and ‘hidden cam’ videos. On Pornhub, at least one of the videos was uploaded by a ‘verified’ Modelhub member who did not even appear in the videos. This reveals Pornhub’s verification process for what it is: a sham. ‘Spy cam,’ ‘Hidden cam,’ and ‘Voyeur’ are extremely popular genres and were official categories and tags on XHamster and Pornhub. Both platforms capitalized on these categories of videos which eroticized violating women’s privacy. But pornography tube sites like XHamster and Pornhub have no financial incentive to remove potentially illegal material, so they don’t. For the sake of victims of image-based sexual abuse, it is time for XHamster and Pornhub to be held accountable,” Pinter added.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center joins the Bell Legal Group, LLC, and Dolt, Thompson, Shepherd & Conway, PSC, as co-counsel for the plaintiffs.
NCOSE is co-counsel on a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of two survivors of childhood sex trafficking whose videos and images of their abuse were posted on Pornhub and other MindGeek-owned sites. In February 2022, the judge ruled against MindGeek’s motion to dismiss, enabling the lawsuit to move forward. NCOSE also is co-counsel on a lawsuit against XVideos brought by a survivor of child sexual abuse.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center offers survivors a way to seek justice. More information can be found at: https://sexualexploitationlawsuits.com/.
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.
