EIE Applauds FTC Ruling on Pornhub, But Says DOJ Must Also Investigate Pornhub
 

 Enough Is Enough^® (EIE) said that the Federal Trade Commission’s $5 million dollar settlement with Aylo (parent company of Pornhub) is just, however it will not help to protect children from the extreme pornography freely accessible to anyone. In 2022, EIE launched a national petition calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the multi-billion dollar Pornhub for consistently violating federal child pornography (child sexual abuse material) and obscenity laws.

Both the FTC and Utah are “taking action against the operators of Pornhub and other pornography-streaming sites over charges they deceived users by doing little to block tens of thousands of videos and photos featuring child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and nonconsensual material (NCM) despite claiming that this content was ‘strictly prohibited.’” “Pornhub’s operators inflicted grave harm on children and nonconsenting adults by promoting and distributing truly horrific material online,” said FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak.

“The FTC has rightly penalized Pornhub for allowing child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual material to flourish on its site – thereby exposing children to this and re-traumatizing child victims. Since its inception, Pornhub has profited by allowing abusive, violent, and exploitative content to flourish. The FTC’s settlement is a significant step; yet, more needs to be done as their $5 million is just a drop in the bucket compared to the billions they make off of illegal content,” said Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO, Enough Is Enough^®.

“Pornhub continues to break multiple U.S. Federal laws, and must be shut down entirely in the U.S. until they can demonstrate they will abide by the rule of law, which is unlikely since their business model is based on prosecutable content. The DOJ must investigate Pornhub and all of Aylo’s pornographic sites, as the FTC settlement shows that there are clear violations of the law. Pornhub has profited from every click, download, and view of child sexual abuse, sex trafficking, obscenity, and other illegal content for years. It is time for the DOJ to investigate and shut down Pornhub,” Hughes said.

A 2022 study found that 52% of teens exposed to pornography reported seeing violent forms of pornography such as choking (36%), someone in pain (37%), or depictions of what appears to be rape (19%). (Common Sense Media, 2022) A study analyzing videos from Pornhub and Xvideos found that 97 percent of the targets of violence and/or aggression were women. (Archives of Sexual Behavior, A Descriptive Analysis of the Types, Targets, and Relative Frequency of Aggression in Mainstream Pornography July 13, 2020) A meta-analysis of 37 studies found that exposure to violent or rape pornography increased a child’s odds of experiencing sexual exploitation 3-5 times. (JAMA Network, Demographic and Psychosocial Factors Associated With Child Sexual Exploitation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, September 22, 2020)