Cali was trafficked and abused beginning at the age of nine. At 23, she is five years out of that life, but videos of her abuse continue resurfacing on pornography sites no matter how many times she asks to have them removed. “Pornhub has become my trafficker,” she told Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times. Her story is one of many documented in Kristof’s recent investigative column “The Children of Pornhub,” documenting how the pornography industry profits off of rape, abuse, and exploitation, wreaking havoc on the lives of innocent victims, many of whom are minors. Kristof’s article has drawn public attention to the evil being done by Pornhub, prompting a swift response that will hopefully have lasting effects.
Pornhub, owned by Mindgeek, the largest pornography company in the world, is notorious for its willingness to profit from exploitation and abuse. Laila Mickelwait of Exodus Cry launched a petition in February to shut down Pornhub after publishing an article detailing the ways that the company was complicit in exploiting women and children for profit. In March, lawmakers called on the Justice Department to launch an investigation into the company after a missing teenage girl was found in over 50 videos on the website. Pornhub confirmed that she had been a “verified user” when the videos were uploaded, unintentionally highlighting the way that their lax verification standards had enabled her abuse. Her rapist was prosecuted, but Pornhub faced no consequences.
In response to Kristof’s New York Times report, Mastercard cut ties with the company, and Visa suspended their relationship pending investigation. Pornhub attempted to save face by announcing that they were adding verification requirements, ending downloads, and increasing content moderation.
The “reforms” that the company says they will implement have nothing to do with their concern for the women, men, and children they have exploited for profit, whose lives have been upended and who are haunted by videos of their abuse being consumed by strangers for entertainment, and has everything to do with the company’s bottom line. Laila Mickelwait tweeted in February that she had received confirmation that the executives of Mindgeek had seen her article and that they did not dispute any of her claims! The fact that they were profiting off of rape and abuse meant little to the company, but the possibility of financial losses caught their attention.
Additionally, Senator Ben Sasse has once again called for a full investigation of Pornhub and Senator Josh Hawley has introduced bipartisan legislation that would enable survivors of rape and sex trafficking to sue pornography platforms. No one should be allowed to profit off of the abuse and exploitation of another person, and Hawley’s legislation is an important step toward ending this injustice.
It is encouraging to see The New York Times calling out the pornography industry and exposing their abusive, exploitative practices, and decisive action being taken by companies as well as lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle. At the same time, it is disheartening that it took this long to form a bipartisan consensus. Just last month, Exodus Cry was publicly maligned by actress Melissa McCarthy and her “20 Days of Kindness” campaign after McCarthy learned that the CEO of Exodus Cry is pro-life, and calls from conservatives to address the problem of internet pornography have consistently been dismissed as prudish and alarmist
Although Kristof’s article does an excellent job of drawing attention to the predatory nature of the pornography industry, he does not grasp the full problem. “The issue is not pornography but rape,” he writes. Kristof makes the mistake of assuming that “ethical pornography” can exist. “Ethical pornography” assumes that consent is the only factor in sexual ethics. But pornography, regardless of how it is produced, is a distortion of God’s design for sex. It takes something good and beautiful that God designed for intimacy between a husband and wife and reduces it to voyeurism.
Pornography’s devastating effects are not limited to the abuse that happens in production. It is addictive and damaging to relationships. Companies like Pornhub increasingly market themselves to younger audiences, and a growing number of children are addicted to pornography. This year pornography sites have received more traffic than Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Zoom, Pinterest, and Linkedin combined. In short, this is a public health crisis.
The search for “ethical pornography” also fails to take into account that as long as it is possible for people to profit from sexual exploitation, there will be sexual exploitation. Speaking to Sohrab Ahmari at First Things last year, Mickelwait said, “Sex trafficking happens in the prostitution industry. It happens in pornography. You can’t separate these things, and they are all fueled by demand.” “In other words,” Ahmari comments, “putting an end to sex trafficking requires shutting down commercial sexual exploitation in all its forms.”
Like all sexual sin, pornography is a distortion of a good gift from God and is a sin not only against God but also against one’s own body. It is addictive and destructive to those who use it, and the entire industry is built on and profits from using and abusing people created in God’s image. As a society and as individuals we must reject the pornography industry and its exploitative practices, refusing to settle for pornography’s cheapened perversion of God’s design for sexuality.
