US Judge Hsu: Pornhub $120 Million Settlement Approved for Underage Content

• A U.S. District Judge has preliminarily approved a $120 million class action settlement involving Pornhub and its former parent company, MindGeek (now Aylo).
• The settlement addresses claims from thousands of women who had nonconsensual, underage explicit content posted on Pornhub and related sites.
• Aylo has agreed to implement new age verification measures requiring government-issued ID for both content creators and those depicted, alongside enhanced content moderation.
• The lawsuits alleged violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, claiming MindGeek profited from child sexual abuse material.
• Judge Wesley Hsu previously rejected MindGeek's Section 230 immunity defense, stating the law does not protect platforms from their 'own malfeasance'.

Section 230 is not intended to protect MindGeek from its own malfeasance, which is what is alleged here.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has granted preliminary approval to a $120 million class action settlement involving Pornhub, its former parent company MindGeek (now known as Aylo), and thousands of women. The agreement addresses claims that explicit sexual images of these women, created when they were underage, were uploaded and made viewable on Pornhub and related websites without their consent. The settlement aims to resolve two distinct class actions, one originating in Alabama and another in California.

This significant settlement covers any individual who was under 18 years old when they were depicted in explicit sexual content that appeared on MindGeek's platforms between February 12, 2011, and December 6, 2024. As part of the terms, Aylo has committed to implementing stringent new verification protocols. These include requiring government-issued identification to confirm that both individuals depicted in videos and the users uploading them are over the age of 18. Furthermore, the Montreal-based company has pledged to enhance its content moderation efforts to remove child sexual abuse material and to streamline its procedures for handling content removal requests.

The underlying lawsuits accused MindGeek of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) by allegedly profiting from child sexual abuse material uploaded by users. Plaintiffs contended that for an extended period, MindGeek failed to implement adequate age-verification measures or other policies that could have prevented the uploading of such illicit content. One particularly harrowing account from the Alabama class action's lead plaintiff described being 16 when she was drugged and raped, with the perpetrator subsequently uploading a video of the assault to Pornhub.

U.S. District Judge Wesley Hsu, a Joe Biden appointee, issued the preliminary ruling. Notably, Judge Hsu had previously rejected MindGeek's argument for immunity under Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act in related individual lawsuits. While MindGeek's legal team contended that Pornhub was no different from other adult content sites that had seen similar claims dismissed, Judge Hsu observed that the plaintiffs specifically alleged that the site's moderators actively assisted users in posting child pornography and facilitated its discovery by other users.

Judge Hsu's rejection of Section 230 immunity for MindGeek marks a critical development, as the statute typically shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content. The judge clarified that Section 230 is designed to offer robust protection against third-party malfeasance, but he emphasized that it is not intended to shield platforms from their own misconduct. "It is not intended to protect MindGeek from its own malfeasance," Hsu stated, adding, "That is what is alleged here." This distinction highlights a potential shift in how courts may interpret platform responsibility when direct involvement in facilitating harmful content is alleged.

While the class action settlement moves forward, a group of 15 women has opted out to pursue their own individual child trafficking lawsuits against MindGeek, its financial backers, and payment facilitators. These individual cases remain pending before Judge Hsu. One of these plaintiffs, who chose not to sue anonymously and was featured in a 2020 New York Times exposé, recounted being 13 when her then-boyfriend coerced her into making a sexually explicit video, which he then uploaded to Pornhub, where it quickly went viral within her community.

This settlement and the court's rejection of Section 230 immunity for Pornhub's 'own malfeasance' establish a critical precedent for online platforms hosting user-generated content. Lawyers advising such platforms, particularly those with adult content, must review their content moderation, age verification, and reporting mechanisms to mitigate liability risks under statutes like the TVPRA, as courts may increasingly scrutinize platform actions rather than granting blanket immunity.

Source: Original reporting via Courthouse News