How Pornhub Became The Internet’s Biggest Crime Scene - Laila Mickelwait

The Discovery of Pornhub’s Dark Reality

Laila Mickelwait’s involvement began around 2019-2020, when she encountered disturbing news stories about minors being trafficked and exploited on Pornhub. One particularly harrowing case involved a 15-year-old girl from Florida who was found in dozens of videos on the site, trafficked and abused under an account named “Daddy.” This case, alongside investigative reports such as the London Sunday Times’ exposé revealing videos of children as young as three years old, prompted Mickelwait to test Pornhub’s upload system herself. To her shock, she discovered that anyone could upload videos within minutes using just an email address, with no verification of age or consent. This lack of oversight allowed millions of illegal videos—ranging from child sexual abuse to adult rape and revenge porn—to proliferate unchecked.

Pornhub’s moderation system was exposed as grossly inadequate. The company employed a mere handful of moderators tasked with reviewing millions of videos across multiple sister sites owned by the same parent company, MindGeek. Moderators were pressured to approve hundreds or even thousands of videos per shift, often with sound off, and were instructed to prioritize volume over safety. This systemic failure enabled the site to become “infested” with criminal content, monetized through billions of daily ad impressions.

The Corporate Structure Behind Pornhub

The conversation also delves into the corporate history of Pornhub, revealing it as part of a vast empire controlled by MindGeek, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate that owns most of the world’s major porn sites. Originally launched in 2007 by a Montreal-based company called Mansf, Pornhub was sold multiple times due to legal troubles involving money laundering and tax evasion. Despite rebranding efforts and changes in ownership, many of the same executives remained involved, perpetuating a culture of negligence and profit-driven exploitation.

MindGeek’s aggressive branding campaigns, including philanthropic initiatives and mainstream advertising, masked the company’s darker practices. The parent company’s willingness to prioritize profit over safety, including refusing to remove illegal content and actively promoting categories that included minors, was a key factor in the widespread abuse on the platform.

The Fight to Hold Pornhub Accountable

Mickelwait’s campaign to expose Pornhub’s crimes began with the creation of the #TraffickingHub movement, which quickly gained traction on social media and led to a petition with over two million signatures worldwide. Survivors of abuse came forward in large numbers, sharing stories of trauma and the ongoing nightmare of having their abuse immortalized online. Many victims struggled to have their videos removed, facing bureaucratic hurdles and harassment from the platform.

A critical turning point in the fight was targeting the financial lifelines of Pornhub. With guidance from unexpected allies, including a former Pornhub owner and billionaire Bill Ackman, activists pressured credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard to sever ties with the site. This financial pressure forced Pornhub to remove 91% of its content in what has been described as one of the largest content takedowns in internet history. However, significant challenges remain, as verified uploaders—some of whom were abusers—still have content on the site, and new lawsuits continue to pile up.

Legal Battles and Internal Revelations

The conversation highlights the power of civil litigation in uncovering internal documents, emails, and depositions that reveal Pornhub’s executives’ knowledge of illegal content and their failure to act. An accidental court release of thousands of pages of internal communications exposed years of willful neglect and even active suppression of reports about child sexual abuse material. Despite overwhelming evidence, criminal prosecution has been slow, hindered by the complexities of international law and corporate maneuvering.

Pornhub’s attempts to claim immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act were consistently rejected by courts, as evidence showed the company was not a neutral platform but actively curated, promoted, and monetized illegal content. This legal defeat has set important precedents for holding online platforms accountable for user-generated content.

The Human Cost and Survivor Stories

Throughout the discussion, Mickelwait emphasizes the profound human toll of Pornhub’s negligence. Victims like Serena, a 13-year-old coerced into sharing nude images that were then distributed on the site, suffered devastating consequences including bullying, addiction, homelessness, and multiple suicide attempts. The trauma of having abuse recorded and endlessly circulated online is described as an “immortalization” of their suffering, with victims living in constant fear of re-victimization.

The conversation also touches on the staggering statistics of image-based sexual abuse, with suicide ideation rates among victims reaching 50%. The systemic failure to protect these individuals and the ongoing challenges they face in seeking justice underscore the urgent need for reform.

Technological and Regulatory Solutions

Looking forward, Mickelwait advocates for mandatory age and consent verification for every individual in every video uploaded to user-generated porn sites. She highlights existing biometric technologies, such as those provided by companies like Yoti, which can verify identity and “liveness” to prevent underage or non-consensual content from being uploaded. Importantly, she stresses that these checks must be conducted by trusted third parties, not the porn companies themselves, to protect user privacy.

Financial institutions are identified as key enforcers of these standards, with credit card companies wielding significant influence by refusing to process payments for sites that fail to comply. This approach offers a scalable, global solution to a problem that transcends national borders.

The discussion also acknowledges the broader challenges of age verification for users accessing porn sites, with some regions like Texas implementing laws requiring users to prove they are adults. Pornhub’s resistance to such measures, including shutting down access in certain states, reflects the tension between profit motives and child protection.

Emerging Challenges: AI and Subscription Platforms

The conversation briefly explores the emerging frontier of AI-generated pornographic content, including deepfakes that superimpose faces onto explicit videos without consent. New legislation, such as the U.S. Take It Down Act, criminalizes the distribution of non-consensual AI-generated content, but the technology presents ongoing challenges for enforcement and victim protection.

Subscription-based platforms like OnlyFans are also discussed, with concerns about minors being exploited on these sites despite tighter regulations. The normalization of user-generated adult content raises complex questions about consent, exploitation, and the evolving landscape of online sex work.

The Role of Technology in Prevention and Protection

Mickelwait highlights innovative technological tools designed to protect children, such as apps that monitor phone usage and detect the sharing or receipt of explicit images, alerting parents without overly intrusive surveillance. These developments illustrate how technology can be harnessed to mitigate the harms it sometimes enables.

Conclusion: A Call to Action and Hope for Change

The conversation closes with a reflection on the cultural and legal shifts needed to address the harms exposed by the Pornhub scandal. Mickelwait credits survivors’ bravery and the growing coalition of activists, lawyers, lawmakers, and allies for driving progress. She emphasizes the importance of justice not only for victims’ healing but also as a deterrent to future abuse.

Mickelwait’s ongoing work, including her book Takedown: Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub and the Justice Defense Fund, invites public engagement and support.