A 16-year-old Alabama girl who claimed she was drugged and raped and that the sexual abuse was filmed and uploaded to PornHub was one of two girls who filed a federal class action lawsuit against the adult video site’s parent company.
The lawsuit alleges PornHub profited from sex trafficking and did not take steps to ensure its videos did not contain victims of child pornography or rape.
The suit, filed Thursday in federal court in Birmingham against MindGeek -- PornHub’s parent company -- alleges that the site violated a number of laws, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act , which allows victims to sue entities in civil court who benefit from “a venture that it should have known was engaged in a violation, including that an act involving a child 18 years of age or under constitutes a violation,” according to the complaint.
The girl, who is not named in the lawsuit, was drugged and raped in 2018 by a Tuscaloosa man who uploaded video of the sexual assault to PornHub, the suit claims. The alleged rapist is also not named in the suit, and he is not named as a defendant.
Lawyers for the teen, who along with an underage California girl brought the federal lawsuit in Alabama, said PornHub did not make an effort to check whether she was a minor or victim of rape or sex trafficking.
“At no time did MindGeek or PornHub attempt to verify [her] identity, age, inquire about her status as a victim of trafficking, or otherwise protect or warn against her traffickers before or while the video of her being drugged and raped was sold, downloaded, viewed and otherwise advertised on PornHub,” the suit goes on to say.
In addition to unspecified money damages, the lawsuit also asks MindGeek to develop measures to identify and remove child pornography from its adult sites.
“MindGeek’s business model facilitated a massive surge in child pornography by making it easy to access and distribute these horrific crime scenes throughout the world,” said Gregory Zarzour of the Zarzour Law Firm in Birmingham, one of six firms representing the girls and the affected class. “The courageous survivors, identified as Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe 2#, are proud to stand up for themselves and the multitude of other victims. This lawsuit is a defining moment for survivors and a warning to those who dare to profit from the rape of children.”
“The monetization of child sexual abuse is a pernicious stain on America,” said Josh Hayes, partner at Prince Glover Hayes in Tuscaloosa. “Today’s filing marks the beginning of the end of these unholy profits.”
PornHub could not immediately be reached for comment.