Tag: porn

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Survivors speaking up as Canada continues to investigate Mindgeek

The company’s most popular website, Pornhub, faces allegations of hosting abusive content

Content warning: This article covers topics such as sexual abuse and the sexual exploitation of minors. 

On Feb. 19, the House of Commons ethics committee heard several survivors’ accounts of being traumatized by Pornhub’s refusal to take down exploitative videos from its website, which included sexual abuse and underage individuals.

The survivors said their traumas were exacerbated due to Pornhub’s continuous refusal to remove such videos. These survivors, living in the United States and Canada, explained how Pornhub, which is owned by Mindgeek, had constantly rejected their pleas for action made through all available channels.

In fact, there are numerous allegations of this kind. For long, Mindgeek has been accused of hosting abusive content, such as rape and exploitation of underage girls. For instance, last January, an Ontario woman initiated a $600 million class-action lawsuit against Mindgeek, alleging she was videotaped being raped as a 12-year-old, and the recording was posted on Pornhub.

On Feb. 5, top executives of Mindgeek testified before the House of Commons ethics committee. In the face of these accusations, they still claimed they run “the safest adult platform in the world right now.”

In 2004, two Concordia graduates, Stephane Manos and Ouissam Youssef, founded an entity in Montreal named “Mansef,” where the main function was to hold links to various free pornographic websites, and sold these assets after six years. After another change of ownership in 2013, this company got its current name Mindgeek, which is most well known for its flagship website Pornhub. Manos and Youssef successfully continued their entrepreneurship journey, and now run Valsef Group — a technology investment group mostly focused on software business. In 2019, they contributed to Concordia’s District 3 Innovation Centre to support the “ANA Avatar XPRIZE” competition.

Mindgeek, the company they once founded and nurtured, continued its impactful journey. In terms of traffic, Pornhub has always remained in the global top list. However, since this past year, Mindgeek has come under significant backlash for different controversies.

Run from a commercial complex on Decarie Boulevard in Montreal — along with its other offices in the United States, Luxembourg and Cyprus — Mindgeek possesses some impressive statistics. According to the company website, every day it has over 115 million visitors and 15 terabytes of content uploaded.

On March 8, 2020, International Women’s Day, a large protest took place outside Mindgeek headquarters in Montreal, as part of a continuous campaign. Similar demonstrations occurred in the same location on Oct. 2, the International Day of Non-Violence.

This protest ultimately turned into a weekly practice, which continued even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every Tuesday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., activists and demonstrators protest outside Mindgeek’s Montreal headquarters. This endeavour is being led by “Stop Exploitation Hub,” a Quebec-based non-partisan and non-religious campaign against Mindgeek.

In early December 2020, The New York Times published a special op-ed which detailed experiences of women victimized by this website, as it continued monetization on content depicting child rape, and revenge pornography (when someone publicizes intimate photos of their former partner without their consent).

Some of them narrated how videos depicting them being raped as an underage girl were never removed from the website, even after years of requesting Pornhub to take them down.

On Dec. 4, 2020, after being asked during his regular press briefing, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his deep concern over the issue and stated that the government would continue to work with its law enforcing agencies to tackle it.

After a week, a motion was unanimously passed in the parliament, asking senior officials of Mindgeek to testify regarding recent allegations before the House of Commons ethics committee, which ultimately happened on Feb. 5, 2021.

A crucial development occurred on Dec. 10 2020, when Mastercard and Visa announced that they had started blocking their customers from using their credit cards to make purchases on Pornhub, due to the presence of unlawful content on the site (Paypal enforced similar blocking in 2019). These steps by online payment giants have been hailed by anti-pornography activists.

Consequently, Mindgeek announced some policy changes on their end: suspending uploads and downloads from all non-verified users and deleting millions of non-verified videos — which were nearly 80 per cent of its hosted content. Mindgeek has announced that it is implementing a standard third-party system, Yoti, for user identity and age verification.

Enforcing age verification for adult sites has been a long demand of the activists. Online age-verification technologies — ID document or face-based verification for anyone accessing the site —  which are commonly used in some countries to verify people intending to buy age-restricted products (such as alcohol, weapons, banking services), are now getting more sophisticated through artificial intelligence.

In 2017, the UK became the first country to legislate mandatory age verification of adult sites. A similar bill is currently under consideration in Canadian parliament. German authorities are currently working with Microsoft to develop a “globally unique” AI process to combat child pornography.

Rapid emergence of digital technology during the last two decades has obviously increased the availability of pornographic contents. However, such tech tools can be utilized to curb the damaging consequences of pornography as well.

Choosing a balanced approach is crucial in this regard. One good example can be how Tumblr (a popular American social networking platform) banned all sorts of adult content in 2018 after discovering uncontrollable presence of child pornogrpahy in their site.

While Mindgeek focuses on surviving amid their current challenges, the Ethics committee will continue to hold hearings to prepare a recommendation report for Parliament on if, and how, Ottawa should intervene in the issue.

Disclaimer: Azfar Adib is a recurring volunteer with “Stop Exploitation Hub.” 

 

Photograph by Christine Beaudoin

Categories
Student Life

Shedding light on female porn stars

Graphic by Jennifer Kwan
Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

Montreal is known as the third largest porn-producing city in the world alongside reigning contenders Los Angeles, Prague and Amsterdam. As the ‘femme fatale’ of Canadian cities, it comes as no surprise that Montreal thrives on pornography given the number of strip clubs, sex shops and escort services it offers. Beating out top technology companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and ebay, the porn industry proves to be a cash cow.

It has been said that happy employees are good for business and a recent study in the Journal of Sex Research would agree. Psychologists compared a group of 177 adult entertainment actresses with a sample of women matching in various factors including age and marital status. The porn stars proved to be healthier and happier and trended in high self-esteem, showing greater levels of satisfaction, spirituality and positive feelings compared to their non-porn working counterparts.

Prostitution tends to dominate sex-related work studies and Concordia sociology undergraduate student, Kayla D’Aloia, said she feels that “while it may be more common to study prostitutes as opposed to porn stars, both are stereotyped in the same way for trying to establish sex-related work as a professional status.”

“The most common stereotype is that women in sex-related work fields are victims when instead the study demonstrates that sex workers can make conscious decisions and be happy with the lives they lead,” said D’Aloia.

The study demystifies certain prejudices around the profession of pornography and dismisses the “damaged goods theory” by revealing a group of women who are happy with the work they do and why they do it. It may seem hard to picture a porn star leading a normal life. However, it has become quite common to hear of a school secretary who moonlights as a porn star. While this may stir controversy at the next parent-teacher association meeting, the point of the matter is that those drawn to the profession are not always desperate, addicted to drugs, homeless or victims of sexual abuse.

When having sex is part of your job, risks are important to consider. Famous Montreal porn star Vandal Vyxen told the McGill Daily’s Erin Hudson: “Porn stars must be tested for [sexually transmitted diseases] and bring documented medical proof to shoots, otherwise the DVD cannot be distributed. With so many regular visits to medical clinics, a porn star is likely more aware of their sexual health than the average person.”

Porn is criticized for debasing women but there are parts of the industry that do the exact opposite. Without implying the causation that porn makes these women happy, the study sheds a light on women who appear to be empowered both sexually and emotionally.

The debate about whether porn is good or bad, positive or negative, is still ongoing. In the meantime, researchers will continue to try and understand what makes for a happy life and how people can achieve satisfaction in the most diverse ways imaginable.

Categories
Student Life

Warning! Viewer discretion is advised

Graphic by Phil Waheed
Graphic by Phil Waheed

Anxiety over the effects of extensive porn-watching is not something altogether new, but it does beg the question, what are the negative effects?

Men’s Health’s article “Is Porn Bumming You Out?” by reporter Kiera Aaron explores the link between viewing porn and depression. The article highlights the results of a recent study that included 500 subjects who were asked to complete a survey on the importance of pornography in their lives, their thoughts on personal health and feelings of depression. The study concluded that those who watched porn on a regular basis took more days off from work and admitted to feelings of depression compared to those who watched porn very rarely, if at all.

Co-author of the study Dr. Duane McBride, professor at Andrews University, told Men’s Health that porn may be a cause of mental health problems because of the isolation it involves, but admits that there isn’t necessarily a correlation between the two. Rather, as the article’s writer puts it, “porn might not cause isolation but rather be a symptom of isolation—meaning those who are already antisocial tend to rely more on pornography.”

To find out how Concordia’s students feel, The Concordian spoke with students Chris Herbert and Melissa Park.

Herbert agreed that sometimes porn made him feel depressed and admitted to only watching it in a positive state of mind. “Masturbation is not a substitute for actual sex,” he said. “It will often make me feel lonelier afterwards.”

Both students agreed that porn served as a good educator and felt it never diminished their sex lives. If anything, Herbert said he believes porn has helped him appreciate his partners more. “I’ve learned a lot about how much better real-life sex with a real person can be,” he added.

So let us look at the effects of porn if we were to remove the isolation factor.

A Norwegian study observed relations between couples and porn habits. Hands down, the most dysfunctional relationships were the ones where only one member used it. Surprisingly, the most satisfied couples were the ones who both incorporated it into their sex lives and shared the experience with one another. Researchers found these couples were more capable of communicating their fantasies to one another, experimenting and being open minded when romping around between the sheets.

A study done in the University of Denver also concluded that couples who are open about, and even join their partner in their x-rated movie nights, are more likely to keep relationships going strong.

McBride agreed, saying that “experts believe that face-to-face social interactions improve mood and perceptions of physical health while social isolation has the opposite effect.”

The application of the open-porn relationship expressed in the Norwegian survey, however, seems easier said than done.

“I’ve never watched porn on a regular basis with a partner,” said Herbert, adding that this was because his partners were not interested in watching it. Park, however, said her experiences have been mixed among partners.

“One boyfriend was really not cool with [porn],” she said. “Others were a lot more receptive and adventuresome.” She also echoed the importance of a partner’s personal preference on the topic.

“I’ve talked about it pretty openly with past partners,” she said, “but it really depends on how they feel about it.”

According to the studies, the bottom line seems to be intimacy and connection, something Herbert and Park both feel is most important.

“My relationship with porn definitely affected myself personally, but never my relationships in a direct way,” said Herbert.

In moderation, and with the right partner, porn can be just thing to strengthen your relationship and get a little kinky. On the other hand, it is advisable to watch porn only in a positive emotional state, because if not you might risk feeling lonely and depressed afterwards.

 

Names of the students interviewed have been changed to protect privacy. 

 

 

Categories
Arts

So what’s the deal with porn?

Graphic by Katie Brioux

Graphic by Katie Brioux

Man. There’s something about the sex trade, isn’t there? Pornography is an international multibillion dollar industry that has been around for centuries, in the underbelly of society. Now, having never watched a full feature-length erotic film before, I was decently okay continuing a porn-free lifestyle. Honestly. I could take wild guesses at the works of thousands of silicon-based porn stars, and I was happy – ecstatic, even – to be unaware of the details.

But when Seinfeld A XXX Parody started showing at Cinema L’Amour, even my curiosity was piqued. I like the original show, so it only seems right to check out the smut it’s inspired, right? But, dear readers, curiosity is a fickle friend. And once you’ve seen two hours of raunchy, sweaty bodies committing unspeakable acts, there’s no return from that. So for this last Spoiler Alert, I’m giving you something a little outside the box. You thought Lady Gaga was edgy? I watched the Seinfeld XXX Parody so you never have to – unless you’re hard up and have specific ’90s sitcom fetishes.

First off, it would be against my journalistic morals if I didn’t mention that I decided to download the film, saving myself from those unsavoury theatre seats of Cinema L’Amour. I stand by this decision. Porn is not a social enjoyment, and people who think it is are – honestly? – a little fucked up. Secondly – being fucked up is alright. And few are more fucked up than the characters of Gerry, Elaina, Gorge, Crammer, and, oh yes, the Porn Nazi (no guesses as to his tagline).

Now. The story: Gerry and Elaina are really into this new adult DVD rental place. Elaina pisses off the owner, the Porn Nazi, by simply being annoying. Gerry and Elaina go back to the apartment and start watching porn, breaking the moans from the TV with painfully neurotic dialogue. Sex scene ensues for half an hour – no cuts, no edits, one shot (cinematically speaking).

Meanwhile, Crammer is unable to “jack off to porn anymore.” His idea is to make his own movie, renting a camera, porn stars, and a craft services table. Sure, he could probably cut down on production costs by walking into a bar and picking up a rando, but his way works too. Another half-hour sex scene with two girls on a picnic bench and a fully-clothed Crammer occasionally (and awkwardly) inserting his dong into various orifices.

Elaina goes back to the Porn Nazi to complain, but the Hot Female Asian Employee offers to give her the name of a secret distributor instead – “but you’ll have to do something for me,” which is, of course, code for inventory room girl-on-girl sex with magically appearing dildos.

The rest? “Noman” has trouble delivering Crammer’s completed film, Seinfeld’s new girlfriend has orgasms while watching the news, Gorge is basically George but less annoying. Throw in a few weak comedy routines (“What’s the deal with fake boobs?”) and awkwardly positioned laugh-tracks, and cap it off by Gerry gettin’ dirty with a massively-titted audience member on stage for, like, 20 minutes before credits roll.

But you don’t care about that. You just want to know what I think. Now here’s the thing – I had major expectations going in. I was a little nervous, had heard all these things, but I’d had a long and serious relationship with Seinfeld. And if it’s going to be your first time, it should be with something you love, right? Totally anti-climactic!

I could forgive the writing (no porn aficionado’s expecting classic Larry David-esque banter in all 15 minutes of dialogue), but it was mostly the sex that disappointed. Come on, porn stars and director, this is your trade. This is how you bring home the cash and cocaine. You live, breathe, eat, and fuck sex. If I’m going to sit down and watch a feature film in which the main selling point is 90 minutes of naked moaning professionals who are paid to have sex on film, let’s dive into the deep here. We all know the regular moves. I expect semen-stained pages ripped out of the Kama Sutra on the linoleum; perfectly agile, flexible bodies with new and fresh ways of penetration. Where’s the educational aspect of Seinfeld XXX? High production value isn’t going to cut it in porn anymore, Lee Roy Myers, director of this and many other sexy parodies. Time to get kinky.

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