Towards the end of 2020, the adult entertainment site PornHub removed more than half of its videos after facing major controversy and criticism worldwide.
An exposé by The New York Times revealed that more than half of the content uploaded on this adult content streaming site was a hub for highly illegal content.
Content that was heavily based around child sexual abuse and sex trafficking. This fact will put children in jeopardy.
Such incidents have materialized in the creation of the Trafficking Hub Petition, by Laila Mickelwait.
It comes as a surprise how such a globally popular website could let such vile content be promoted on its platform.
Especially in the 21st century, where efforts are being made to abolish the aforementioned crimes worldwide.
The parent company of PornHub, MindGeek, holding a monopoly in the industry has done little to curb piracy and illegal content across its sites, with more than half of Pornhub’s content coming from unverified accounts.
So, what changed now that’s almost taking PornHub down?
What Made PornHub Take Down 10 Million+ Videos?
For a long PornHub has depicted itself as the cheery, naughty but, “woke” platform.
One that is widely popular in pop culture.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the global population, PornHub generously offered its content for free to help people get through the long periods of lockdown.
But is this all just a facade?
Covered under this “woke” image of PornHub, is the hidden side of this company.
The site is infested with rape videos and promotes rape culture.
It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spycam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.
This is not new news. PornHub has been monetizing this content for decades now.
Over the course of the Covid-19 shutdown, some of the most searched terms on the website were, “teen”, “gangbangs”, “girls under 18”, “forced submission”, “degraded teen”, and “sexy child”.
This should give you a clear view of the kind of content being posted on PornHub.
PornHub is finally being held accountable for its actions after a series of serious allegations we pressed on them over the last two years.
The Main Incidents That Occurred
In early 2020, a 15-year-old girl went missing in Florida. After investigations, the police found 58 non-consensual videos of the same girl uploaded on PornHub
After a few months, sexual assaults on a 14-year-old California girl were posted on Pornhub. This was reported to the authorities not by the company but by a classmate who saw the videos.
Is one thing similar in both cases?
In each case, offenders were arrested for the assaults, but Pornhub escaped responsibility for sharing the videos and profiting from them.
However, these incidents soon went viral on social media site, bringing many more similar incidents into the limelight, calling for a ban on PornHub.
An online petition accusing Pornhub of profiting from videos of rape and sexual abuse was launched and reached over 450,000 signatures.
22 women came forward to sue “Girls Do Porn”, one of the popular partners of PornHub accusing them of sexual abuse and child trafficking of the minor.
Around the same time, The New York Times published an exposé on PornHub. Highlighting all of its wrongdoings in the last decade.
This negative PR storm was compounded in December 2020 when Mastercard and Visa both announced that they would prohibit the use of their cards on the site.
Many more companies threatened to defund PornHub, forcing access to our website to make the decision of deleting over half of its video content. It is certainly a difficult decision to completely follow through with.
PornHub deleted all videos from unverified accounts and now allows only verified accounts to post content on the website.
But Is This Really Surprising?
While this vile news about PornHub might be surprising to some, it’s really not a surprise for a lot of us.
The porn industry has been violating basic human rights for decades now.
Many of these porn/adult entertainment websites allow anyone and everyone to post content freely on their platform.
There is an absolute lack of regulation and censorship in the industry.
As a result of which, anyone with a decent camera and internet connection is free to post anything. Porn websites have no computerized system that scans the content and approves it. Anything under the sun can be uploaded here.
Due to this, for years now streams of illegal content have been flowing through these websites.
There are videos of rape, abuse, and sex trafficking available abundantly on every porn site.
How Do Porn Sites Work?
In the sense that it allows members of the public to post their own videos on the video streaming platform.
Due to this there are approximately 6.8 million videos uploaded on PornHub every year.
But unlike YouTube, Pornhub allows these videos to be downloaded directly from its website. So even if a rape video is removed at the request of the authorities, it may already be too late: The video lives on as it is shared with others or uploaded again and again.
Even if we assume that a majority of the videos uploaded involve consenting adults. There is still a large chunk that depicts child abuse and non-consensual violence. Because it’s impossible to be sure whether the youth in a video is 14 or 18, neither Pornhub nor anyone else has a clear idea of how much content is illegal.
This is how most adult content streaming websites work. Be it PornHub, xxxvideos, or any other similar platform. Definitely don’t visit an adult platform.
The porn industry has been profiting from rape culture for quite some time now and getting away with it.
But, with a big website like PornHub under attack, this issue is finally being addressed by the mainstream media.
We can only hope that this movement against PornHub doesn’t die down and that a bigger conversation is started over the unethical means used by the porn industry.
5 Ways In Which Porn Is Causing Immense Harm To The Society
Porn is causing us more harm than you could ever imagine. Both on an individual and societal level.
It took us decades to realize that cigarettes are bad for our health. Even after science proved the harmful effects of smoking, it took society a long time to believe the science.
In the current times, we’re learning a similar lesson about porn.
When first introduced, pornography was said to be a harmless guilty pleasure. One that would cause no harm to society.
But, how true is that in today’s scenario?
Here are some of the major ways in which the porn industry is negatively impacting society:
It Promotes Violence Against Women
Pornographic content today is getting more and more violent as time passes.
The trends in this industry are gearing more towards degradation, violence, and humiliation with each passing second.
This is leaving a huge impression on porn viewers.
Especially on young impressionable minds. Who often fail to differentiate between the reel and real life.
In the last few years, female degradation has become a very popular category on PornHub. With “Teen Degraded”, “Brutal Gangbang”, and “Extreme Choking” being some of the most searched terms on the site in 2019 and 2020.
Experts believe that the increasing violence in porn is one of the main causes for the increase in sexual crimes against women worldwide.
Research conducted in India showed a 24% increase in sexual crimes in India was influenced by pornography. This has been true in many developing countries across the world.
It’s Enables and Profits From Sex Trafficking
If you haven’t guessed it already human trafficking refers to the trafficking of humans.
Trafficking here refers to the buying and selling of things. It is essentially moving things around to make a profit.
Here. it’s the movement of human beings. It’s the illegal trade of human beings.
Before PornHub made the aforementioned changes, there were really no strict rules and regulations on the website.
Anyone can access porn websites easily and post whatever they’d like.
When you watch a porn video, there is no way of telling whether the video was uploaded on here with the person’s consent.
Was it even filmed with consent? Is a question that arises.
There are many videos of underage girls that have been filed without their consent. Many videos were filmed for personal use but were uploaded nonconsensually on these sites.
There are even videos of toddlers being sexually assaulted on porn sites.
The booming revenue that the porn industry makes has caught the attention of human traffickers. Leading to an increase in sex trafficking worldwide to double the video production and double the revenue in return.
Activist Laila Mickelwait has been trying to bring this issue into the mainstream media for quite some time now. She started the “Trafficking Hub” movement and is working towards holding PornHub accountable for its wrongdoings. And also to stop human trafficking overall.
It’s Capable Of Rewiring The Human Brain
Research reveals that, frequent users of porn are mentally less active, less connected with society and even have brains that are smaller in some areas.
Porn is capable of rewiring the brain to a more juvenile condition.
The more you watch it, the deeper it’s effect is on your brain.
Modern science has shown us that, the human brain changes constantly.
It is constantly rewiring itself and laying down new nerve connections.
This is especially true for the youth.
Throughout this changing process, the brain is extremely impressionable and receptive to everything you do.
At this stage, if you continue to feed it porn, it will dull the difference between porn and real life.
As a result of this, the current generation is becoming more and more disconnected from real life.
A millennial man of Quora questions, “Is there really any need to date a person, when there’s porn abundantly available free of cost? While many young men agreed with him.
This is rapidly becoming the new normal because the porn industry is training your brain to think so.
It Promotes Child Abuse
The most recent controversy on PornHub revolves around child abuse and sex trafficking of minors.
The Internet Watch Foundation confirmed that there are 118 cases of rape and child sex trafficking in just one day.
Imagine the amount of child abuse that might be present in the millions of videos present on the website.
Sex trafficking of minors shot up globally by 14% between 2018 and 2019, around the same time when PornHub received the most number of video uploads from unverified users and in fact.
This has moved a lot of countries to take strict action against websites like PornHub.
It Is Extremely Addictive
Experts have said that out of all the online addictions, porn addiction is one of the most dangerous forms of addictions.
Mainly because, it has the highest tendency to be addictive when compared to other online activities like gaming or gambling.
Watching porn is a highly escalating behavior. That merged with the dopamine release that is associated with porn makes it extremely addictive.
The more you watch it, the more you crave for it.
As you watch porn often, your brain gets desensitized from the overload of dopamine and starts to crave it more. Feeling abnormal without the dopamine high.
This is what makes porn extremely addictive.
Crrently porn addiction is the most common among age groups 14 – 35.
A survey conducted in the US revealed that at least around 33% of males aged between the age of 16-34 are addicted to high-speed internet porn.
Which is why sciencist believe that porn could possibly be more dangerous than drugs.
Watching Internet Porn is an Indirect Vote in Favor for these Industries
It’s not just about PornHub or any one website in particular. The entire porn industry is at fault here.
The more we normalize porn sites, the more we’re normalizing these crimes against poor innocent souls.
If you still believe porn is merely a guilty pleasure, it’s time you rethink that opinion.
By giving porn websites our views we’re helping the industry thrive and prosper. All at the cost of heinous crimes.
Like activist Laila Mickelwait said, it’s about time we put our foot down and end this vicious cycle. The cycle of porn and crime.
If you have trouble staying away from porn. Or if you want to simply ensure that pornography is out of your sight once and for all, then install a porn blocker on all your devices.
A porn blocker like BlockerX will automatically pornhub block access in Utah out any form of pornographic content any time you want to visit you’re browsing the internet.
This way you won’t be supporting the porn industry directly or indirectly.
You can also spread the word about the atrocities of porn among your peers. Only by spreading awareness, we’ll be able to end this problem.
No More of This
As we move into the new year of 2021, as a society we need to make a joint effort. The effort to end the atrocities of porn once and for all. Completely disable access as it identifies users.
The easiest way to do this is by a strong stand and pledging to quit porn forever.
If you truly think about it, did the human society every need porn?
The capitalist industry produced porn and shoved it on us. Making us slaves of the capitalist porn industry.
A healthy human brain does not require porn.
This year, take a step forward towards a better safer world and quit porn. This is the quickest and easiest way to end this!
