SILENCE IS GOLDEN…FOR PORNHUB - The largest pornographic video sharing platform in the world. Where. Are. The. Voices. To break the silence?
The silence is deafening from those who should be making noise and using their influence to protect young girls, women and children.
“On International Women’s Day, March 8 from 1:00pm-3:00pm in Montreal, a demonstration will take place outside of the world headquarters of Mindgeek, the company that owns Pornhub, calling for the site to be shut down due to corroborated evidence that the company is aiding and profiting off of the sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children. “
“The protest, being attended by women and children’s advocacy NGOs, activists, and concerned citizens, aims to publicize the worldwide public outrage that has mounted as a massive Pornhub scandal has come to light in recent weeks. In an explosive op-ed for the Washington Examiner on February 10, Laila Mickelwait an author, activist, and director of abolition for Exodus Cry, blew the whistle on the world’s largest and most popular porn website and the executives behind it. The article contained shocking evidence that Pornhub does not require verification of the age or consent of millions of people featured in hardcore sex acts on its site. Because of this, the site has numerous videos of women and underage girls being raped and trafficked.” (Traffickinghub Press Release)
“In the last few months, there have been several shocking cases of sex trafficking and child rape films that were hosted on Pornhub. A 15-year-old girl who had been missing for a year was finally found after her mother was tipped off that her daughter was being featured in videos on the site — 58 such videos of her rape and sexual abuse were discovered on Pornhub.”
“Also in recent news was the case of 22 women who were deceived and coerced by Michael Pratt, owner of GirlsDoPorn, into performing sex acts on film that were subsequently uploaded to Pornhub. These women sued GirlsDoPorn and won a $12.7 million lawsuit against the company. According to a federal indictment, Pratt and his co-conspirators produced child pornography and trafficked a minor. Pratt reportedly fled the United States for New Zealand and is currently wanted on a federal warrant. But there are other individuals complicit in these crimes who should also be wanted by law enforcement — CEO Feras Antoon and COO David Marmorstein Tassillo of Mindgeek, the Canadian-based company (technically headquartered in Luxembourg for tax purposes) that owns Pornhub.”
“You see, Pornhub is complicit in the trafficking of these women and minors and probably thousands more like them.”
“Pornhub is generating millions in advertising and membership revenue with 42 billion visits and 6 million videos uploaded per year. Yet it has no system in place to verify reliably the age or consent of those featured in the pornographic content it hosts.”
“One of the most-searched terms on Pornhub is “teen” pornography. The search will result in videos that are constantly being added faster than any individual could watch them. Many feature girls who look 13 years old at best — girls with braces, pigtails, flat chests, no makeup, extremely young faces, holding teddy bears and licking lollipops, all while being aggressively penetrated. A quick search for the word “teen” turns up titles such as “Young Girl Tricked,” “Innocent Brace Faced Tiny Teen F---ed,” “Tiny Petite Thai Teen,” “Teen Little Girl First Time,” on and on ad infinitum.”
“Pornhub has no system in place to verify the girls (and I say “girls” because they are not women) in the videos it hosts are not trafficked children being raped on film in order to line the pockets of its executives.” (Excerpt from The Washington Examiner, submitted by Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMickelwait) Director, Exodus Cry, and Founder and President of New Reality International). Read the full article here.
At last count 35 media outlets have been instrumental in widely, circulating this article written by Laila Mickelwait. They have reported on Mindgeek - the mega-corporation behind Pornhub and shared information about Pornhub’s mass sex trafficking and exploitation of children.
But in this coverage there’s a blatant silence from those who should be making noise and using their influence to protect young girls, women and children.
Where are the voices of major Canadian media outlets, politicians and corporations?
Why are they not using their power and influence in combination with public outrage over “a virtual, unregulated, mega-brothel, where anonymous pimps and traffickers can sell anonymous young women and girls to anonymous cyber sex buyers all for the profit of the mega corporation behind it.” (Laila Mickelwait)
If you look on Traffickinghub.com you will see a list of the news outlets and organizations who have chosen to show their support by donations, by signing the petition to shut down Pornhub and by spreading the news. Cudos to them! We appreciate the work that is being done to shut sites like Pornhub down.
Then on the other hand, I’m outraged! I’m not only outraged by how Mindgeek and Pornhub have not been shut down before now - I’m also outraged how once again - the fight is placed on the shoulders of community agencies and women to break the silence of the atrocities of violence against women and children.
There needs to be louder voices - ones with large and powerful circles of influence. Don’t get me wrong…I know the awesome power of collective voices of women and community but I also know how tiring it gets to be fighting the battle with the same old, same old.
If you think that there should be more voices; politicians, Canadian media outlets and larger companies and Corporations - let your voice be heard by contacting them, by signing the petition, by leaving your comments here and by sharing this post.
#bethevoice #loveshouldnthurt #breakthesilence #wherearethey #signthepetition