40 GirlsDoPorn victims sue Pornhub for hosting sex trafficking videos

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Three other co-defendants have already pleaded guilty in the case, while the remaining defendant, GirlsDoPorn owner Michael James Pratt, 39, remains a fugitive. CNN As Equals and Plan International collaborated to survey 619 girls and young women and five non-binary people aged online through Plan’s country offices in Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Philippines and Timor-Leste in February 2024. Surveys were shared online across Plan’s networks in these countries for up to one month, inviting girls aged to complete them until an adequate sample size was reached. Fernanda, a 21-year-old participant also from Brazil loves women’s football, but said she is reluctant to engage with online discussions about the sport. “I’m very afraid of commenting on my team’s posts, because I know how toxic the comments are (against girls),” she said adding that taking time offline has helped her deal with the stress. Nearly one in five young women and girls surveyed reported taking a break from the internet entirely to cope with the dangers they face online, and studies show online abuse has a silencing effect on women and girls.

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Only a law enforcement officer or the district attorney’s office are allowed to file ERFPO petitions, and they must be approved by a district court judge. Tia Bland, Bernalillo County’s spokeswoman, declined to comment about the lawsuit. Rael’s mother, Vanessa Salgado, alleges in a new lawsuit that Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputies ignored a legal requirement that they use New Mexico’s red flag law to seize multiple firearms Wallin was known to possess. At the time of the killings, Wallin had been accused of sexually abusing Rael and two other underage girls.

Company

Despite this knowledge, MindGeek continued to partner with GirlsDoPorn, never bothering to investigate or question its business partner regarding the mounting evidence of sex trafficking that MindGeek received. MindGeek continued its partnership with GirlsDoPorn until October 2019 when the Department of Justice shut down GirlsDoPorn by arresting and indicting its principals. At this point, there was no longer a company left for MindGeek to partner with. The lawsuit was filed against Pornhub and Pornhub owner MindGeek in US District Court for the Southern District of California. The complaint asks for “compensatory damages in an amount that exceeds one million dollars for each plaintiff,” plus another $1 million or more, each, in punitive damages. “This defendant was a willing participant in a scheme that has traumatized many victims,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman.

Dethroned pageant queen alleges she was raped, forced into explicit video in lawsuit against Pornhub

Wolfe trained co-defendant Theodore Gyi, a cameraman, on how to run video shoots and told Gyi that, if asked, to tell the women that the videos would not be posted on the internet. In trial, defense attorneys argued that the women were over 18, understood what they were doing, accepted payment and in some cases returned to San Diego again and again to make more videos. The plaintiffs’ attorneys said the videos were not immediately posted on the internet and defendants later refused requests to take down the films. During her testimony, the woman described what her attorneys call an “elaborate scheme” to convince her and hundreds of other women to appear in sex videos which were later posted to some of the most popular websites in the world. Pratt was charged in a 19-count indictment with sex trafficking, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments in connection with the operation of the GirlsDoPorn adult website, according to the FBI. According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe 15, who was 18 at the time, admitted she consented to the shoots but only on the understanding that the videos would not include any identifying information, and would only be distributed to private collectors abroad.

And what I began to notice as I was looking at the trends with this global crime is that it wasn’t just happening offline. In his communications with the adult victim, Bailey sent child sexual abuse material to the adult, who recognized one of the girls in the images as a 12-year-old that they knew. According to court records, Bailey pretended online to be a girl from Florida and, in using that persona, obtained more than 120 photos and 10 videos from the female victim. In addition to granting the rights to the videos and images to the victims, Judge Sammartino ordered Garcia to pay approximately $18 million in restitution to the victims. On July 7, the women and MindGeek filed a joint motion to suspend proceedings for 30 days so they could discuss a “possible resolution of this action (including potential mediation or other alternative dispute resolution.” The court granted the motion.

• The GirlsDoPorn civil lawsuit and main criminal indictment have spawned a dizzying network of related criminal cases, civil suits and bankruptcy proceedings.
• The plaintiffs’ attorneys said the videos were not immediately posted on the internet and defendants later refused requests to take down the films.
• Pratt gave her a list of names and numbers and showed her how to use a spoof program to conceal her actual phone number when making calls.
• A former beauty pageant queen has made new allegations in a federal lawsuit claiming she was sex trafficked and raped on the orders of an infamous pornography producer.
• Finding and erasing every video, screenshot, or repurposed clip from the internet will still be a challenging task; but with the judge’s ruling, the women now have the right and agency to do so, which is a significant step.

Since their arrests, Garcia, Wolfe, and several others have pleaded guilty to sex trafficking. Garcia was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, and Wolfe awaits sentencing. Michael Pratt was recently captured in Spain, while his victims, their attorneys, and federal prosecutors await his extradition to the U.S.

Nored is accused in the criminal case of acting as a “reference woman” who would lie to the victims by saying she had performed in similar videos that were never posted online. Once the videos were posted online many victims contacted Garcia and his co-conspirators seeking to get their videos taken off the websites. As a part of the conspiracy, Garcia and others would at times coerce victims into completing the videos once they were underway. Garcia and other co-conspirators threatened to sue the victims, cancel flights home, and post the videos online, if the victims did not complete the sex videos. Hotel room doors were at times blocked by camera and recording equipment, and the victims felt powerless and unable to leave.

Ultimately, though, the wild success of those viral GirlsDoPorn Internet videos is what led to the site team’s downfall. The Does were eventually able to find one another—and by doing so, they collectively found the strength to come forth and build a successful legal case against GirlsDoPorn. When she flew to San Diego in October 2013 with her friend who found a modeling ad on Craigslist, Jane Doe 7 believed she’d be paid $2,000 to do a nude photo shoot. Defense attorneys argued that Wolfe, Pratt and Garcia did not personally harass any of the women and were not responsible for “internet trolls” who did so. San Diego Superior Court Judge Kevin Enright, who presided over a four-month-long bench trial, decided in favor of all 22 plaintiffs and against 13 defendants. The sentence is several years longer than the 12 years and seven months in prison that prosecutors suggested.