Major credit card companies — like Mastercard, Discovery, and Visa, among others — are facing an increasing amount of pressure to end their partnerships with websites proven to be hosting illegal content.
Haley McNamara, vice president of advocacy and outreach for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, penned a column Monday, in which she asked, “How can mainstream credit card companies process payments for an industry that is virtually guaranteed to profit from rape and sex trafficking?”
McNamara’s call for credit card companies to end their collaborations with major pornographic websites, like Pornhub, is not entirely out of the question. In November, PayPal announced it would no longer process payments for the leading smut site, owned by MindGeek, the parent company behind a slew of pornographic websites across the internet.
McNamara argued credit card providers break up with Pornhub because — among other reasons — “it is essentially guaranteed that there are more videos of real-life rape and sex trafficking” on the website since it “has no age or ID verification requirement to upload a pornographic video” to the platform.
“This makes it a magnet for sex traffickers and abusers to upload content in order to control and manipulate victims further,” she wrote.
For its part, PayPal ended its partnership with Pornhub over a series of concerning transactions. The decision came on the heels of the controversy over Girls Do Porn, a former official content partner on the pornographic site. In August, 22 women filed a lawsuit against the content creator, claiming the owner, Michael Pratt, lured and coerced young women into performing sexual acts and using the footage without consent.
There is also clear and undisputed evidence Pornhub has profited from — and continues to profit from — sex trafficking and the rape of minors.
Laila Mickelwait, director of abolition for Exodus Cry, an advocacy organization focused on ending sexual exploitation and sex trafficking, told Faithwire the porn site is making money off “crime scenes.”
“[The website’s] policy is set up to enable exploitation and trafficking under a facade of actually having some form of protection,” she said, noting, as McNamara pointed out, there is no requirement to verify age or consent, which is virtually impossible to guarantee over the internet.
While focus on the issue does seem to be consolidating and the pressure on Pornhub is mounting, there is still a steep hill to climb. Just last month, for example, celebrities were bragging to late-night host Conan O’Brien about their premium subscriptions to the website.
Decisions like the one made by PayPal and lawmakers in Utah, who are currently considering requiring a warning label appear at the start of any pornographic content, are encouraging. It is critical to keep the pressure up on this issue.
If you are struggling with an addition to pornography, Faithwire has a seven-week, video-based course, Set Free, handing participants the spiritual and practical tools they need to tackle this sexual sin.