WASHINGTON, DC (September 14, 2023) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) said Pornhub’s lax policies around age and consent verification have been further exposed by a new undercover video in which a Pornhub employee admitted that the company doesn’t verify individuals on porn videos.
In the video released by Sound Investigations, Pornhub executive Mike Farley admits to a “loophole” that allows verified users to upload videos of people without having to show their faces – this can enable sex traffickers and rapists to upload any video they want and to monetize the content. Pornhub allows anyone to upload videos using identification, such as a driver’s license.
Recently, it was also revealed that under Pornhub’s official policies, if a survivor reported a video of her/his rape or sexual abuse 15 times or less, the video would never even be looked at by the company.
“A Pornhub executive has basically admitted that the company DOES NOT CARE about profiting from videos of women, men, and children who have been raped, assaulted, trafficked, and have had their footage uploaded to Pornhub. This shocking admission should trigger an immediate investigation into Pornhub by the U.S. and Canadian governments,” said Haley McNamara, Vice President of Strategy and Communications, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“Pornhub has been attempting to sanitize its image by changing its corporate name from MindGeek to Aylo, yet these new revelations prove that the company is still the same exploiter that will profit from people’s abuse and exploitation.
“Pornhub must stop the charade and enact meaningful age and consent verification of every individual depicted in videos on its site – full stop. Pornography performers have demanded this verification. And most importantly, survivors who have been requesting Pornhub take down their abuse for years but have been ignored by Pornhub/MindGeek/Aylo deserve justice and accountability,” McNamara said. “The fact that such meaningful age and consent verification still hasn’t taken place means MindGeek/Aylo either can’t do it or won’t do it–and either are unacceptable for them to continue operating.”
Multiple civil lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. and Canada on behalf of sexually abused children and trafficking victims of MindGeek/Aylo. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation Law Center filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a child sex trafficking survivor against Pornhub. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation is also co-counsel in a lawsuit against Pornhub and XHamster 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 Pornhub and XHamster.
Learn more about “The Real Pornhub Story” at www.endsexualexploitation.org/pornhub.
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.
