Pornhub verified a 15-year-old rape victim and made millions off the videos, says report

Pornhub is said to have 'verified' a 15-year-old rape victim to allow 58 videos of her abuse to remain on its site.  

Pornhub Model Program

• In 2021, Pornhub started something called the Model program where users and content producers have to get verified.
• The verification program came after a 2020 opinion piece in the New York Times accused Pornhub of allowing videos of rape, trafficking, abuse, child pornography, revenge porn, and other illegal content on its website.
• There was a swift backlash against Pornhub after this revelation. 
• So much so that, Visa and Mastercard banned their cards from being used on the site. It was only then, that the oft-secretive owners of Pornhub, MindGeek took some action. 
• Pornhub temporarily suspended nearly 80% of its content which was from unverified users, brought in human content moderators and NGOs to flag abusive content, and banned downloads. 

However, Laila Mickelwait, founder and CEO of Justice Defend Fund and the Trafficking hub movement, revealed that Pornhub "verified" a 15-year-old girl who was kidnapped and sexually exploited for months in 2019 with the videos posted to Pornhub.

P*rnhub verified a 15 yr old who was missing for a year into their “ModelHub” program. She was found being raped in 58 videos. PH took 35% of the profit from her rape video sales.

Twitter recently suspended P*rnhub’s ModelHub account.

This art piece was inspired by her story. pic.twitter.com/aumsJLn9jZ

— Laila Mickelwait (@LailaMickelwait) February 21, 2023

• Pornhub made money from 58 abuse videos of the victim. 
• Mickelwait also pointed out that despite Pornhub's biometric-based verification program, it doesn't verify everyone in videos. 
• In another instance, a mother in the US took MindGeek to court for allowing rape videos of her 14-year-old son on the platform to circulate and make money.