The Problem
Comcast Corporation is an American telecommunications conglomerate that provides numerous services including broadcasting and cable television, home phone services, and high-speed Internet. Unfortunately, Comcast’s Xfinity also peddles pornography via its video-on-demand and premium channel services.
We are asking Comcast to immediately stop distributing hardcore pornography, which causes a multitude of public health harms to children and adults alike.
Further, with respect to its Internet Service Provider (ISP) services, we request that Comcast adopt the “opt-in” model recently implemented by Sky Broadband, a UK-based ISP provider. Comcast’s current ISP model requires that customers wishing to block hardcore material jump through complicated hoops to filter or “opt-out” of those services. However, the “opt-in” model requires that those customers wishing to view hardcore pornography online “opt in” to access such sites, while other customers automatically receive their Internet free from sexually exploitative material.
Comcast provides dozens of pornography titles via its Cinemax, Playboy, Vivid, Hustler, TEN, and Too Much for TV channels and subscriptions. All in all, by one review conducted in April 2016, there were 515 X-rated offerings on Comcast’s Xfinity. Many of the pornography titles offered by Comcast Xfinity contain themes of incest, racism, sexism, prostitution, and exploitation.
Our society is struggling to cope with the impacts of multiple forms of sexual abuse and violence: child sexual abuse, adult sexual exploitation, racially-motivated sexual violence, sex trafficking, and more. These problems have not emerged from a vacuum but flourish within the context of unprecedented access to hardcore pornographic material. Adult, hardcore pornography—with its raw, brutal, debasing, violent and hate-filled themes—exacerbates the deeply entrenched social ills mentioned above and unleashes devastating impacts at the individual and societal level.
Moreover, the pornographic material being distributed by Comcast Xfinity likely violates U.S. law, 18 U.S. Code Section 1468, which prohibits distribution of obscene matter by means of cable or subscription services on television.
The Comcast Code of Conduct Handbook states: “. . . it is our actions—how we perform day in and day out—that will ensure our success. It’s as simple as doing the right thing and treating people the right way.” Distributing and profiting from the degradation, abuse, and violence found in pornography is a far cry from “doing the right thing and treating people the right way.”
Additionally, pornography is available to all Comcast customers through its Internet services unless a consumer takes affirmative action to block such material. In the United Kingdom and in other countries, an “opt-in” approach has been adopted. Nearly all ISPs in the UK have begun blocking pornography unless a consumer exercises an option to “opt-in” for such material. Sky Broadband’s approach has been particularly effective. If Comcast were to take the lead in the U.S. by offering the opt-in Internet model and drop its pornography offerings on Xfinity, we believe it would find a large base of support and do much to make up for Comcast’s years of confederacy with the pornography industry.
WARNING: There are graphic images and text descriptions shown in these sections.
POSSIBLE TRIGGER.
Proof
Screenshots of Material
There are dozens of examples of exploitative content on Comcast's platform. We've included one example below, and other examples are available upon request.
Examples From YouTube
WARNING: The titles and descriptions listed in this document are extremely graphic and may cause a trigger for survivors of sexual violence and for those struggling with pornography.
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Updates
Progress
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