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A call to action: DOJ and law enforcement need to hear from you! Obscenity is the primary content on Pornhub with categories depicting rape, incest, teens, torture, group sex, strangulation, bestiality, waterboarding, and eroticized racism are rampant. It is time to stop this blatant disregard of human dignity and the law. Shut down PornHub and ALL violators who profit from the exploitation of human beings. SIGN THE PETITION |
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Dear John,
Obscenity has NO LEGAL PROTECTION under the 1st Amendment. Pornographers are KNOWINGLY and BLATANTLY breaking U.S. laws EVERY MINUTE and GETTING AWAY WITH IT! For decades, the multi-billion pornography industry has been given a free pass to provide obscene content to anyone online, including children, even though obscenity (hardcore pornography) is illegal under U.S. Federal law. (18 U.S.C. Chapter 71 § 1460-1470 prohibits distribution of obscenity on the Internet and elsewhere.) The onslaught of illegal pornography escalated after the Department of Justice (DOJ) Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, originally set up to combat adult obscenity, was shut down by Attorney General Eric Holder in 2011. Since then, obscenity laws have gone virtually unenforced. We say ENOUGH! CitizenGO is partnering with Enough is Enough on this important call to action. The Department of Justice and law enforcement need to hear from you!
Sign our petition to the White House, Department of Justice, U.S. Attorneys, and State Attorneys General to shut down PornHub and ALL violators who profit from the exploitation of human beings.
Yesterday's black market porn is now today’s mainstream porn. Without accountability, innovative pornographers have emerged. Enter MindGeek-owned Pornhub — the largest aggregate of pornographic content in the world with more than 42 billion hits in 2019, according to their own reporting. (MindGeek, a private pornography conglomerate based in Canada, operates more than 100 websites, production companies and brands and has a California office.) Obscenity is the primary content on Pornhub and categories depicting rape, incest, teens, torture, group sex, strangulation, bestiality, waterboarding, and eroticized racism are rampant. The top video categories on Pornhub include statutory rape (165,857 videos), strangulation (157,000 videos) and teen porn (155,445 videos).
Moreover, between 2017-2019, the Internet Watch Foundation confirmed 118 cases of child rape on Pornhub, and the site is reported to have profited from sex trafficking victims exploited on its platform. Research shows this content fuels a vicious cycle of abuse, including child sex abuse, sex crimes, sexual exploitation, violence against women, child pornography (a.k.a. child sex abuse material or CSAM), sex trafficking, and sexual predation. We must stop the demand by prosecuting obscene pornography. Online Pornography is devastating our children and stealing their innocence, causing irreparable emotional, mental and sexual harm. Even elementary-aged kids are watching extreme porn! Any child with unfettered Internet access can view hard-core pornography that is even illegal for adults. Sadly, children under the age of 10 now account for 22% of online porn consumption among those under age 18, while 10-14-year-olds make up 36% of minor consumers. Even more disturbing, the sites most visited include porn mega sites featuring categories such as ‘extreme brutal gang bang,’ ‘sleep assault,’ ‘domestic discipline,’ and ‘crying in pain.’ This toxic content has become the de facto sex educator of youth, conditioning many into believing that sexual violence, degradation and humiliation is acceptable. Additionally, medical evidence finds pornography use is linked to decreased grey matter and reduced functional connectivity in the brains of children. Multiple studies show that pornography use leads to an increased risk of committing sexual offenses. The average age of first perpetration of sexual violence was between 15 -16 years old and is strongly associated with exposure to violent pornography. Parents cannot possibly shoulder the burden of protecting children from online criminals. It’s the job of law enforcement to restrain evil by enforcing the entire rule of law. It must and can stop!
Add your name: shut down PornHub and ALL violators who profit from the exploitation of human beings.
Enforce existing U.S. law an& hold PornHub accountable. An explosive New York Times article recently confirmed the following about Pornhub. “Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spycam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content". In response, MasterCard and VISA announced they will block customers from using their credit cards to pay for purchases and memberships on Pornhub, which is a great start. In response to an NGO partner's Traffickinghub petition and media and corporate pressure, Pornhub announced policy changes to thwart illegal sex trafficking and child sex abuse films from appearing on their site and even removed some of the abuse videos. However, the damage has already been done. The victims depicted in these exploitive videos have been irreparably harmed and repeatedly commercially exploited.....their images downloaded and shared to live on forever in the hands of porn consumers, predators and traffickers. These policy changes are nothing more than a smokescreen until the public pressure is off! We must strike while the iron is hot and continue the momentum by insisting that the stick of the law is aggressively applied. Pornhub and MindGeek must be held criminally liable for violations of U.S. Federal laws they broke and are continuing to break. Shut them down now! Your VOICE and OUTRAGE must be heard loud and clear by top officials at DOJ, the White House, U.S. Attorneys, and State Attorneys General. Law enforcement must declare war on all forms of sexual exploitation and commit to a comprehensive strategy of prosecution for a trifecta of violations by enforcing existing obscenity, child pornography, and sex trafficking laws. Prosecuting Pornhub ONLY for child sex abuse, sex trafficking, non-consensual porn content would send a loud, clear message to MindGeek and others that as long as they don’t host this type of illegal content, they won’t be criminally prosecuted for hardcore obscenity, which is the cornerstone of their business model. Instead, our primary recommendation is for DOJ to prosecute Pornhub on sex trafficking, child sex abuse, AND obscenity violations. Bringing down MindGeek’s mega-site Pornhub would be a mammoth victory, and would send a loud clear message to ALL violators of obscenity that if you break the law, you will be prosecuted.
The White House, DOJ, and State AGs have consistently heard from us and our NGO partners, but they need to hear from you…. demanding they TAKE ACTION NOW. Sincerely, Gregory Mertz and the entire CitizenGO Team P.S. This petition is a partnership with Enough is Enough, a national non-partisan, non-profit organization that has led the fight to make the Internet safer for children and families since 1994. We are fired up to increase our impact to make a difference. This partnership will allow us to do just that. Please share with your friends and family after signing.
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