By Gemma Kelly, Head of Policy and Public Affairs
It’s been an interesting few months for Aylo, the current owners of Pornhub and nearly 100 other pornography sites.
Undercover videos began dropping in October last year, revealing that amongst other erroneous activities, Aylo knew that due to their own near non-existent verification processes, illegal videos of rape, trafficking, child sexual abuse, and image based sexual abuse are rampant on Pornhub. That pleas from women to have non-consensual videos and images of them taken down were wilfully ignored and that adverts with ‘barely legal’ material that sexualises children make huge amounts of money for Aylo and thus are not removed. This led to 26 USA State Attorney Generals issuing a letter to Pornhub demanding they implement monitoring processes as a matter of urgency.
In the midst of this, in December 2023, after a federal investigation in the US, Aylo admitted it had profited from sex trafficking, agreeing to pay a fine of $1.8 million in order to avoid criminal prosecution for profiting from sex trafficking videos on its site.
This does not include the 12 lawsuits that have also been brought against Aylo, including a class action lawsuit for ‘allegedly “systematically participat[ing] in sex-trafficking ventures involving tens of thousands of children by receiving, distributing, and profiting from droves of child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”).”’ The other lawsuits include allegations of profiting from sex trafficking, Image-Based Sexual Abuse, and uploaded videos of sexual assault.
Against this backdrop, Aylo are also fighting age verification laws in numerous states across America.
And that is in just one country.
The European Union announced in December that Aylo will be forced to adhere to age verification regulations, as well as other mitigation measures to “address risks linked to the dissemination of illegal content online,” under the 2022 Digital Services Act (DSA).
Here in the UK, our own age verification processes are being consulted on and will be implemented in due course, meaning that Aylo and every other pornography site and social media site that hosts pornographic material will have to ensure that children cannot access their content. If they do not do this, they will face enforcement action from the regulator.
As well as this, the government is undertaking an independent review of the regulation of pornography in the UK. Of particular interest to this review is the lack of parity between online and offline regulation of pornography. Currently the aforementioned ‘barely legal’ content which contains petite, young looking ‘performers’ made to look underage through props such as stuffed toys, lollipops and school uniforms engaging in sexual activities, is illegal or prohibited offline but is legal online. Given that more and more child protection experts are drawing attention to how this type of pornography drives the demand for ‘real’ child sexual abuse materials and can lead to child sexual offences both online and offline, the ending of the loophole allowing this material online feels imminent. Again, bad news for Aylo, whose senior script writer admitted “MindGeek [Aylo] puts underage-looking actors in ads specifically because “it makes a lot of money”.
This, coupled with the review investigating the abuse and exploitation inherent in the pornography industry, as well as the implications of AI pornography, means that the next few months for Aylo may in fact be worse than the last.
The time of reckoning has come. Aylo cannot continue to operate without scrutiny. The world is watching, governments are taking note, and accountability is finally inevitable.
But let’s not forget the others. XVideos, OnlyFans, Hustler, and the rest. Their day will come too. And CEASE will be there, side by side with survivors of this hateful industry, arm in arm with allies, and with the weight of the public and governments behind us.
Will you be there too?
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