PornHub's Dirty Little Secret

TW: Mentions of sexual assault and abuse

Most people watch Porn. It is the world's worst kept secret. Over 62% of the population have consumed Porn in the last month here in the UK, and by the end of today, well over 23 million visits will have been made to a Porn site.

The most dominant company is of course Pornhub, it is the world's biggest porn site by far raking up to 42 billion visits to the site in 2019. Its undisputable commercial success has given the company an estimated value of more than $2 billion. The commercialisation of sex workers and the accessibility of sexual expression can be viewed as extremely liberating and modern.

But this is not quite the full-frontal truth. Pornhub has recently been called out by the New York Times for the monetarisation of rape and child pornography content and then avoiding the consequent "responsibility for sharing the videos and profiting from them." This issue was highlighted by the case of a 15-year-old who was missing for over a year from South Florida. The victim was rescued after 58 pornographic videos were found of her circulating online on sites such as Pornhub.

Pornhub has recently committed to a crusade on unverified, mostly amateur, content to "curb piracy and prevent the spread of non-consensual porn", the issue here is that those videos of 15-year-old were in fact verified according to advocate site Traffickinghub who claim that for verification "no government-issued ID is required."

Traffickinghub has been a leading force in bringing to light the exploitation that Pornhub harbours and has a petition to shut down Pornhub with more than 2 million signatures. Its argument is damming - Pornhub has profited of abuse and failed to rectify instances when exploitive content has been uploaded and not been removed.

In 2020, Rose Kalemba spoke out about her harrowing experience. In 2009, 14-year-old Kalemba was kidnapped and raped for 12 hours in which it was filmed and uploaded to Pornhub. She contacted Pornhub asking them to take the videos down that were being accompanied by ads and "had over 400,000 views." She was ignored for several months up until she posed as a Lawyer resulting in the videos being finally taken down.

These are not isolated incidents. An investigation done by the Times found that the purge Pornhub had done on unverified content, slashing its videos from 13.5 million to only 4.7 million was too little and too late. It was discovered that some indecent content "had been on the platform for over three years" and that the site still had content which involved "indecent images of children as young as 3-years-old". Pornhub, as Traffickinghub has argued, is quite literally profiting off abuse.

We cannot be naïve and suggest that incidences such as these only occur on Pornhub. In fact, as Attorney Carrie. A. Goldberg states, "For every case involving a rape tape on Pornhub, I have 50 involving rape and CSAM [Child Sexual Abuse Material] being disseminated on Instagram or Facebook." Social Media and online platforms all have a shared responsibility to properly regulate their platforms.

The dark side of Pornhub is much deeper than the surface level illegal content uploaded. Even within the sex industry, there are serious issues of exploitation and abuse being projected by major Porn producers and actors. The 2019 case of the "Girls Do Porn" producers being sued by multiple models and actresses for allegations of sexual assault and coercion into filming over a span of 12 years, in which the company made more than $17

million. More than 100 women have come forward amidst these allegations against producer Michael Pratt, who is still wanted by the FBI, receiving a $12 million pay-out for the damage caused. These women were assured that the videos shot of them "wouldn't go online " and instead only be sold to private collectors and video stores in New Zealand and Australia, this was a lie. The videos are still accessible online on Pornhub and are often re-distributed on the site and offline.

James Deen is one of the most recognised Porn actors in the world with his own production company, with over 16 million views. He has been accused of sexual assault and harassment

by 9 different women who worked with him in the industry, incidences occurring at the earliest from 2004 to 2015. One of the women who came forward, Tori-Lux, stated that "I felt pressured to maintain a professional demeanour, this being a major porn set, with other people present and failing to intervene."

Consent is not just contractual. Our perception of what happens behind and in front of the camera needs to acknowledge these very real experiences of performers, we need to make sure as consumers of this content that every single part was given with full enthusiastic consent.

The experiences of performers with Pornhub and the industry has really been bought to light by Mia Khalifa. Speaking about sexual coercion and mistreatments on set, using her platform on TikTok to shed light onto her own experience in which she only made $12,000 by being manipulated into Porn for 3 months of her life and on multiple occasions was forced to do scenes that she felt uncomfortable in. The videos are still online and peddled by Pornhub which have received over 800 million views; leaving Khalifa traumatised by the experience. In an interview with Radio 5 Live, Khalifa said how she "didn't know that I could speak up and say that."

Former Porn actress Jenna Jameson has also spoken out against the industry and Pornhub, claiming that she was "trafficked into strip clubs and eventually porn." Jameson at one point was the most famous Porn actresses in the world. The fact her entire career was not a consensual choice for her shows the hidden truths that lurk behind a screen.

My point here is not a crusade on Porn. Instead, we need to be aware of what we are consuming. The actors, the writers, the producers, and the person behind the camera. We need to make sure that behind the production and the sex: that the consensual truth is there.

Regarding Pornhub, so-called "ethical Porn sites" can be a sustainable solution, where content is verified rigorously, and all actors/producers are equitably paid. To go further, paying for the Porn you consume is also an ethical alternative, making sure performers are paid and protected. Listening to sex workers and performers, take their advice as they know the truth better than anyone.