P*rnhub’s Reckoning: Taking Down A Crime Scene

By June 30, 2025, Pornhub will be forced to delete much of its remaining unverified content, another stunning turning point for the adult entertainment world.

It is the latest milestone in a years-long campaign led by anti-sex trafficking activist Laila Mickelwait, whose Traffickinghub campaign has doggedly criticized the site for hosting illegal and non-consensual content.

With 91% of Pornhub’s content, over 50 million videos and images, already taken down since 2020, the latest purge seeks to delete the last 9% of unverified videos, which Mickelwait describes as a “crime scene” saturated with unverified age and consent abuses.

How we got here, why it matters, and what Mickelwait’s work says about the struggle for justice.

The Catalyst: Laila Mickelwait and Traffickinghub

Laila Mickelwait, the founder of the Traffickinghub movement and CEO of the Justice Defense Fund, has been the driving force against Pornhub since February of 2020. Her campaign began life as a stark yet chilling realization: any individual could upload videos onto Pornhub with minimal in the way of validation: no government-issued ID, no consent check, just an email address.

This tolerated system enabled the spread of child sex abuse material, non-consensual videos, and sex trafficking material.

Mickelwait’s campaign, chronicled in her 2024 book Takedown: Inside the Fight to Shut Down Pornhub for Child Abuse, Rape, and Sex Trafficking, sparked a global movement that drew millions of supporters and over 600 organizations calling for accountability.

Her work was set ablaze by a 2020 New York Times expose by Nicholas Kristof, which included victims’ tales, such as a 14-year-old’s nude video being shared on Pornhub without her consent.

The public’s outcry spurred on immediate action with Visa, Mastercard, and Discover all cutting ties with Pornhub, causing the site to remove 10 million unverified videos which constitutes 80% of its library with The Financial Times calling it “probably the biggest takedown of content in internet history.”

The Latest Blow: June 30, 2025 Deadline

Fast forward to 2025, and Mickelwait’s campaign continues to bear fruit.
On June 7, 2025, she posted on X that Pornhub will be removing a “massive amount” of its remaining 9% of unverified content by June 30, 2025. Why? The platform never checked the age or consent of the individuals shown in those videos, so it was vulnerable to carrying illegal content.

Importantly, Mickelwait’s posts emphasize that this isn’t a willing adjustment but a forced act due to mounting pressure from lawsuits, investigations, and public outcry.
The continuous monitoring by the European Commission under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which forces platforms to protect children through age checks and other requirements, is among the pressure factors.

Aylo (formerly MindGeek), the parent company of Pornhub, has been criminally indicted in the U.S. for knowingly profiting from sex trafficking, and the site is a party to 26 lawsuits on behalf of nearly 300 victims from the U.S., Canada, and UK. The lawsuits, combined with the loss of Heinz and Unilever as large advertisers, have left Pornhub reputationally and financially handicapped.

Why Unverified Content Matters

Mickelwait’s argument is that PornHub’s criminality originates from unseen content.

Without third-party age and consent verification of each individual in every video, the platform is a haven for exploitation. She cites examples like that of Rocky Shay Franklin, a confirmed uploader who posted 23 videos of a 12-year-old boy’s abuse, with titles that clearly stated the subject matter of the content as illicit. Even with police action, Pornhub was reluctant to do much, exposing systemic failures in moderation.

In her book, Mickelwait relayed the anecdote of a chat with a previous moderator at Pornhub who admitted to having watched over 1,000 videos per day, sometimes fast-forwarding or hastily deciding without sound, allowing suspicious content to get through. This laxity ensured that rape, child abuse, and unwanted videos remained online for years following their reporting by FoxConn victims.

Mickelwait’s report also identified a chilling reality: Pornhub’s business was more about profiting than protecting.

The site’s staggering traffic which once rivaled Amazon and Netflix, was driven by unverified user-generated content, which helped generate ad revenue and pay-for-play subscriptions. By not employing robust verification tools, Pornhub deliberately benefited from criminal content, an argument Mickelwait makes that makes it complicit in sex trafficking.

The Bigger Picture: A Fight for Justice

The June 30 deadline is a huge victory, but as Mickelwait has insisted, the fight is far from over. “Pornhub is still a crime scene,” she posted on X, citing unpornographed videos that are still up and running, including those uploaded since the 2020 purge.

She believes that the site should be shut down entirely and its executives subjected to criminal charges, insisting that “severe harm demands severe consequences.”

Her ultimate desire is systemic reform: blanket age and consent authentication on all user-uploaded porn sites to stave off future exploitation.

So, What’s Next?

As Pornhub scrambles to comply with the June 30 deadline, the broader stakes are clear. The site’s downfall, the loss of 91% of its content, major payment processors, and social media accounts, sets a precedent for holding tech behemoths accountable.

Mickelwait’s campaign has inspired policy changes, including the U.S. Survivors of Human Trafficking Fight Back Act, making it easier for victims to sue platforms like Pornhub. It has also resulted in stricter controls, such as France’s new age verification law, that prompted Aylo to censor material within the country rather than comply.

For survivors, the deletion of unverified content offers a chance at closure, but most are still traumatized by having their abuse published online.

Mickelwait’s Traffickinghub petition, with over 2.3 million signatures in 192 countries, is still a forceful voicing of their opinions, demanding restitution and accountability.

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