Pornhub owner agrees to $5M settlement amid oversight, safety failures
The Federal Trade Commission is keeping an eye on how companies handle harmful content online, from family entertainment platforms to adult sites. On Wednesday, the FTC and the state of Utah announced that Pornhub and its parent company, Aylo, will pay $5 million to settle allegations that they allowed illegal and abusive sexual content to be uploaded and shared while misleading users about their safeguards.
“The images and the videos cause lasting trauma for their victims and because it remains online for years, that victimization continues,” said Utah Attorney General Derek Brown.
Utah’s involvement comes through its consumer protection laws, including the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act (UCSPA), which prohibits deceptive and unconscionable business practices. State regulators joined the FTC in the settlement to enforce these rules alongside federal law.
A 2023 Utah law also sets rules for commercial entities that provide pornography or other material considered harmful to minors. The bill requires companies to verify the age of individuals accessing such content, establishes data retention rules, and holds publishers and distributors liable if they fail to meet verification requirements.
FTC and Utah announce settlement
Aylo owns and operates some of the world’s most visited adult websites, including RedTube and hundreds of others. Representatives for Aylo did not respond to requests for comment on the settlement.
Regulators said the site misled users by claiming to have zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material. According to the complaint, Aylo failed to review videos flagged by users, did not block uploaders of child sexual abuse material from returning to the platform, allowed reuploads of previously identified content and did not consistently screen videos before they went live.
“Pornhub’s operators inflicted grave harm on children and nonconsenting adults by promoting and distributing truly horrific material online,” said FTC commissioner Melissa Holyoak.
Harmful content examples
During a press conference, Margaret Woolley Busse, executive director of the Department of Commerce, said Aylo had been criticized by credit card companies, journalists and the public but continued to ignore its own policies in pursuit of record profits.
Until December 2020, Aylo’s sites hosted videos with titles such as “schoolgirl” and “Brunette Girl was Raped,” according to investigators. Regulators cited those examples as evidence that the company failed to prevent harmful and illegal material from being uploaded and shared on its platforms.
Regulators also accused Aylo of breaking trust with its own performers. The complaint said the company collected sensitive information, including birth dates, Social Security numbers and government IDs, but failed to keep that data secure.
Settlement comes with restrictions
Under the settlement, Aylo did not admit wrongdoing but agreed to follow new restrictions. The company is now prohibited from misrepresenting how it monitors and removes content. It must also suspend any videos that cannot be verified for both age and consent.
In addition, Aylo is required to create a comprehensive program designed to prevent the posting and spread of illegal material. The order also sets out standards for verifying age and consent, reviewing content before it goes live and processing takedown requests.
For videos uploaded by performers, the company is required to verify the age and consent of every individual shown. That includes confirming, through documentation or direct attestations, that each person was at least 18 at the time of filming and agreed to both the sexual activity and its publication. Verification records must match the individual shown, and consent must be documented in writing or electronically.
Aylo must also notify people who appear in content uploaded by others. Within 24 hours of publication, the company is required to send an email or text message with a link to the video and to the form used to request removal.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
