26/05/2026
“A system in which victims are constantly retraumatised…”
UN experts alarmed by complicity of online pornographic platforms and other intermediaries in large-scale s*xual exploitation of women and girls.
UN experts have raised the alarm over the large-scale sexual exploitation of women and girls facilitated and monetised by P*rnhub and its parent company Aylo Holdings, as well as the role of payment networks, and search engines.
Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against Women and Girls and Ana Brian Nougreres, Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, stressed that businesses cannot evade responsibilities for being complicit in human rights violations and providing available tools to direct perpetrators.
“A red line must be drawn. Systems that facilitate and profit from the sexual exploitation of women and girls cannot merely be regulated at the margins, they must be fundamentally confronted,” they stated.
They urged the Governments of the United States and Canada to fully prosecute Aylo and require third-party age and consent verification for all user-generated p*rnography sites.
“We are concerned that the abuse reflects a broader pattern on platforms such as Xvideos and X.com, which allow user-generated p*rnography without reliable age or consent verification,” the experts said. “Exploitation is further enabled through platform monetisation and the continued involvement of payment networks and search engines.”
The experts raised concern over the burden placed on victims to remove non-consensual content, which often remained online despite repeated reports and effort, shifting responsibility onto victims.
“This creates a system in which victims are forced to chase their own abuse. They are constantly retraumatised and, even many years after the initial abuse while abusive material continues circulating,” they said.
“There is an urgent need for States to impose binding measures on P*rnhub and other digital platforms distributing p*rnography,” the experts said. This included the duty to remove violent and abusive images of children and of adults, particularly where they have not consented.
Global action – which we were part of - forced P*rnhub to take down the majority of its content - over 50 million unverified images and videos.
“Aylo's response makes clear that the company cannot credibly dispute its longstanding conduct in globally distributing and monetising the traumatic exploitation of victims on Pornhub,” the experts state.
They also pointed out that while individuals were imprisoned for trafficking, the corporate entity that enabled and knowingly profited from the criminal enterprise on a large scale avoids conviction.
