#BTColumn – Take it down!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc.

Pornhub, for many years, has been accused of exploitation of teenage girls and women. Now there is an online petition calling for it to be shut down. So far, the petition has garnered over two million signatures in 192 countries!

Pornhub, as the name suggests, is a site which markets explicit sexual acts. More than any other site, it is responsible for millions of people worldwide becoming addicted to pornography. And an addiction is most difficult to break. It takes over one’s mind, routine activities, and actually, one’s life.

This is what Paul meant when he said, “You say, ‘I am allowed to do anything’—but not everything is good for you. And even though ‘I am allowed to do anything,’ I must not become a slave to anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12 NLT) The key phrase here is “slave to anything.” This is the core effect of addiction. It literally masters and controls one’s life!

And this is how Pornhub is able to attract about 42 billion views each year! But the info on this website gets even more perturbing with regard to the exploitation of young girls and women.

According to petition originator, Laila Mickelwait, “The site is set up for exploitation and is infested with videos of the real rape, trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of women and children. We have significant evidence and it is just the tip of the iceberg. Pornhub is arguably the largest public collection of sexual exploitation evidence in existence… Shut it down and lock them up.” (article by Exodus Cry posted at www.prnewswire.com September 1, 2020)

It is commendable that someone has taken up the fight to effect the closure of Pornhub, which relentlessly profits from the plight of young girls and women.

The executives of the site are so indifferent and callous in their attitude toward the exploitation that anyone can upload any sexual activity on the site. There are no systems in place to verify the age or the consent of the people featured in the six million videos uploaded each year. The executives of Pornhub are concerned and interested solely in profit. This is why Mickelwait, director of abolition for Exodus Cry, is so passionate about the site’s closure.

The cases of sexual abuse and exploitation are rampant. One such case is that of “Rose Kalemba, who was taken at knifepoint and raped for 12 hours when she was 14 years old. Her attackers uploaded the videos of the brutality they inflicted on her onto Pornhub, and Kalemba had to threaten legal action in order to get the videos removed.” (article by Brandon Showalter, The Christian Post, September 3, 2020 www.christianpost.com).

Then there is the case of “a 15-year-old girl from Florida, who was missing for a year and was located after 58 videos of her sexual abuse and rape were found monetized on Pornhub.” (www.prnewswire.com)

These hard pieces of evidence, along with many others, have served to galvanize support for Mickelwait’s campaign. Her efforts have been featured in hundreds of media articles, supported by celebrities, and have “inspired protests in front of Pornhub’s offices in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.”

Also, one senator is demanding that the US Department of Justice investigate Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek. While in Canada, members of parliament are calling on the Trudeau Government to investigate the site as well.

Truly, it is time that Pornhub be taken down, thereby freeing millions of young girls and women from sexual exploitation and human trafficking. The site’s closure will also stem the tide of addiction of millions of others.

We look forward to and pray earnestly that this day will soon come.