World's biggest adult site under scrutiny over child abuse

INTRODUCTION:

An online platform, Pornhub, which is the biggest open access porn site, has come under fire after reports that  numerous alleged cases of real videos of child rape, child trafficking, adult trafficking, abuse, and exploitation has been monetized on Pornhub. A petition has been signed by over one million people. The petition was started by a group called Exodus Cry in the US but is being supported by activists in the UK and Canada, with a group of people protesting in front of Pornhub’s main office in Montreal, Canada, on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

WHAT LED TO THE PETITION AND PROTESTS?

• The protests and petitions against the adult site started when a case of 15-year-old missing girl being discovered on videos which had been featured on the site came to light.
• Her trafficker, who is now facing a felony charge, was identified using surveillance footage of him with his victim. 58 videos of her rape and sexual abuse by the trafficker were discovered on Pornhub.
• Another case was reported where a 14-year-old girl who was taken at knifepoint, raped for twelve hours, and the crime scene videos of her abuse were uploaded to Pornhub.
• It is also reported that the website refused to take down her video when the girl had pleaded but agreed after being threatened to take legal action.

ADULT WEBSITES IN INDIA:

• Heavy allegations have been levied against the website, which is accessible to everyone, without any age limit. According to various reports, traffic to the site from India has seen growth spiked to over 55% on the first day of the lockdown and March 27 recorded the peak in growth in traffic that month at 95%, from its usual traffic. According to the site itself, one of the largest number of traffic comes from India, but has reduced considerably overtime since there has been a blanket ban on pornographic sites in India.
• The issue of cyberbullying is not new and there have been several reports of unflattering videos of girls and women being uploaded on various adult websites.
• The issue of child trafficking is not new either. According to a 2018 global report on Trafficking in Persons by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that about 5% of the total victims of child trafficking come from South Asia, and about 35% of the victims trafficked for forced labour were also females, both women and girls.
• Further, National Crime Records Bureau states that states like Mumbai and Kolkata see the highest number of women and child trafficking cases.