Is this the end of PornHub forever?

If you’ve been following the news recently, you may have seen that PornHub has been having some negative attention.

According to a New York Times piece, PornHub has been hosting inappropriate pornography, such as child porn as well as real rape videos. Now, while to some this may not be incredibly shocking because in these sites it is inevitable, but a quick read of the NY Times piece will give a little more insight into what the issues actually are. Essentially, young girls who were trafficked, underaged and raped still have their videos up on the website years after they got free. Why has PornHub not yet removed these videos? Now yes, it is hard to know what exactly is made by whom on a site that allows anyone to post.

Not any longer.

PornHub will now require those posting videos to be verified, similar to OnlyFans, to prove that those posting the video and in the video are of legal age – although there could still be ways people attempt to get around it. The bigger situation is regarding the payment services.

Both Mastercard, Visa and Discover have cut the ability to make payments with their cards on PornHub. If you have those cards and pay for PornHub services, you will no longer be able to do so. The negative publicity and being connected to a site that hosts that kind of pornography prompted these services to cut their ties immediately.

There are concerns regarding this in the sex industry as those are the main credit card providers, leaving many people with no way to pay PornHub, which is one of the largest porn providers, and ultimately leaving sex workers without money. The sex industry, removing the ethical debate, supports thousands and thousands of people make rent and be able to purchase food. Between two consenting adults there is no issue at the heart of it.

However, because of poor regulation, sex workers, especially amateurs, are possibly going to struggle or have to go to other sites to make income to support themselves.

Mastercard has said that while this suspension is only to PornHub right now they are looking into other sites, possibly leading to other pornography sites to lose the business of these companies.

While this is a great step in the right direction by PornHub, that others should possibly follow, confirming those who are posting videos online and also working harder to remove footage that is reported or known to be child pornography/rape, this sudden backlash by outside companies that allow people to pay for legal porn has ramifications against sex workers that could cause more damage.