In September, 26 attorneys general wrote to Pornhub about an alleged “loophole” that they say could allow uploads of child pornography. The so-called loophole? No-face porn, a genre in which performers are only seen below the neck, so that you see their adult bodies but not their heads. The attorneys general claim PornHub forces these stars to upload photo IDs to verify their ages, but since they don’t have to include their faces in the videos, this “loophole” could lead to uploads of content featuring minors.
The lawyers claim they want to protect children by “ensur[ing] that no children or other victims are being abused for profit on any of [Pornhub’s] platforms.” But look further and you’ll see the end result of their baseless campaign is to harm the porn industry.
The lawyers’ argument makes little sense. In their letter, they write like PornHub earns much of its profits from these no-face videos. But even millions of views on a free no-face video rakes in just pennies. Just as streaming music doesn’t pay musicians well, neither does streaming porn. Furthermore, no-face porn is a niche genre; if you look at PornHub’s most-viewed videos, they show people’s faces. Saying PornHub runs on no-face porn is like saying Hollywood runs on indie movies.
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PornHub has no financial interest in a loophole that would allow child porn. The site doesn’t sell videos of underage people, and it never has. Any video it has sold has always required age verification, even for free content. The lawyers’ letter, therefore, displays a fundamental misunderstanding of how the porn industry works. Even if a performer isn’t showing their face, PornHub requires them to upload an ID and verifies their identity before the video is posted. PornHub knows they’re adults. These attorneys general just can’t see the adult performers’ faces as they jack off.
Their letter also impedes on the First Amendment. Users aren’t hiding their faces to conceal crimes—rather, they’re appealing to a no-face fetish. They make artistic choices to conceal their faces, just as some musicians and streamers wear masks. Is Daft Punk, the DJ DeadMaus, or the countless masked Twitch streamers who go viral on the platform lying about their ages by covering their faces? Nobody would ever ask them that question because we respect adults’ freedom to make artistic choices. The same opportunity ought to apply to adult performers, too.
It’s impossible to know the lawyers’ exact motives with this crusade, but they’re repeating anti-porn talking points, and it’s clear that the end result of their campaign would meet radical Evangelicals’ agenda. Banning no-face creators or pushing them to reveal their faces could destroy these actors’ business. They could lose all their income—which is exactly what Evangelicals want.
PornHub also loses. The lawyers’ letter follows a long line of misleading attacks portraying PornHub as a child porn factory, which puts the site once again in the political arena, spending millions fighting baseless lies.
Everyone battling PornHub claims they care about children, but if you care about kids, go after the actual criminals creating vile content that abuses minors. Study after study shows Facebook hosts way more disgusting child porn than PornHub ever has, yet Meta receives way less public pressure. (If you ask Facebook, they’ll correctly point to Section 230, a law that protects them from being held legally accountable from what people post on their platform and that protects numerous websites which host content that harms kids.)
As I’ve written before, we need to better safeguard kids on the internet while also making sure adults can still access legal adult content. Age-gated phones, for example, would better protect children and allow them to be on the internet while also making sure adults can act like adults online.
Why don’t these attorneys general, then, write a letter about how we could better protect kids online? The answer to that question is that none of this is actually about children. Once again, it’s about using them to destroy the porn industry.
