Online Child Sexual Exploitation on Pornhub

Date: March 22, 2021
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Fully releasable (ATIP)? Yes    
Branch / Agency: RCMP

Proposed Response:

Background:

Pornhub

Pornhub is a leading online adult entertainment platform owned by MindGeek. When selecting content to view, users are able to apply filters to identify their preferred content; some of the available categories include references to children and youth. Furthermore, many victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse, whose exploitation and abuse was recorded, have found their material available on Pornhub and flagged the difficulties they face in having the company remove this content. They are legally registered in Luxemburg and it is not clear if any of their servers are located in Canada. This impacts the authority of Canadian police to investigate and on the application of Canadian laws. 

By allowing users to download material to their own electronic devices, Pornhub made it impossible to determine where this material may be stored, or prevent it from reappearing and being further disseminated. Pornhub provided the ability to the users to upload their unverified material, making it possible that the hosted material could be exposing underage persons or non-consensual sexual activities, for example. In December 2020, Pornhub removed its download function and disabled the upload function for most users, which was a positive step to prevent the platform from being used to sexually exploit and re-victimize children.

Legislative Framework

Canada’s criminal law provides comprehensive legal protections against all forms of sexual abuse and exploitation of children, and contains prohibitions against possessing, accessing, making and distributing all forms of child pornography, including where committed via the Internet, social media and/or other technology. Canada’s definition of child pornography (commonly known as child sexual abuse material) includes not only actual depictions of child sexual abuse, but also fictitious depictions, as well as written and audio forms of child pornography that may fuel the market for these materials or normalize this behavior. It also prohibits the use of the Internet to communicate with a child for the purposes of facilitating the commission of a sexual offence.

In 2011, Canada introduced An Act respecting the mandatory reporting of Internet child pornography by persons who provide an Internet service. The Act imposes reporting duties on Internet service providers when they are advised of an Internet address where child pornography may be available to the public or if they have reasonable grounds to believe that their Internet service is being or has been used to commit a child pornography offence.  The Act recognizes that a person can be in compliance with their reporting obligations if they report under the laws of a provincial or foreign jurisdiction.

Since 2015, in order to better protect victims and respond to emerging trends, the Criminal Code also prohibits the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (section 162.1) and empowers the courts to order the removal of intimate images from the Internet (section 164.1).  These changes were made to the law by former Bill C-13, the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, which was referred to in the letter. Courts are also authorized to order the disposal or deletion of child pornography, voyeuristic recordings, and advertisements of sexual services from print materials or made available through computer systems in Canada, which includes the Internet (sections 164 and 164.1).

Online Child Sexual Exploitation

The National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet was launched in April 2004 and renewed on an ongoing basis in 2009. Recent investments of $22.24 million over three years, starting in 2019–20, support Public Safety Canada’s enhanced efforts to:

None of the above funding for 2019-20 investments went to the RCMP, however, budget 2018 allocated $19 million over five years, and $5.8 million ongoing to enhance capacity of the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre.

Public Safety Canada is the lead for the National Strategy and partners with the RCMP, Justice Canada and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P), a not-for-profit organization responsible for operating Cybertip.ca, the national tip-line. Public Safety also works with international partners, such as the Five Eyes, to better understand the threat of online child sexual exploitation and to find solutions to better protect children and youth.

RCMP National Child Exploitation Crime Centre and Pornhub

The RCMP National Child Exploitation Crime Centre (NCECC) is the national law enforcement arm of the National Strategy. It is the central point of contact for investigations related to online sexual exploitation of children across the country and internationally when the victim or offender is Canadian. The RCMP undertakes investigations to track down offenders, the identification and rescue of victims, and provides training, research and investigative support for municipal, territorial, provincial, federal and international police.

The Mandatory Reporting Act requires Internet service providers to report tips they receive regarding Web sites where child pornography may be publicly available to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and to notify police and safeguard evidence if they believe that a child pornography offence has been committed using their Internet service.  The Act recognizes that a person can be in compliance with their reporting obligations if they report under the laws of a provincial or foreign jurisdiction. The RCMP engages service providers to explain relevant Canadian legislation and obligations, and enforces the law to the greatest extent possible. However, there can be jurisdictional challenges in applying domestic criminal laws to Internet services which can be global in nature and not bound by traditional borders.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) recently passed a motion to have Minister Blair, Minister Lamenti (JUS), Commissioner Lucki and the head of the Public Prosecution Service appear for their study on Protection of Privacy and Reputation on Platforms such as Pornhub. Representatives from the RCMP’s Specialized Policing Services (SPS) previously appeared before the committee for this study on February 22, 2021.

More than 70 parliamentarians from all parties have also addressed a letter to the RCMP Commissioner calling for a full criminal investigation into Pornhub’s parent company (MindGeek), following testimony to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics from survivors and child-protection organizations. The 53 MPs and 20 Senators who signed the letter accuse MindGeek of failing to report cases of child pornography to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) and the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (U.S. NCMEC) between 2011 and 2020. The RCMP can confirm that the Commissioner has received the letter from parliamentarians and that it is currently being reviewed.

With respect to the call for a criminal investigation, this matter is with the RCMP for consideration and any required action.

Voluntary Principles to Combat Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

The Five Country Ministerial meeting in July 2019 in London included a joint session with digital industry representatives (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Roblox, Snap, and Twitter) to discuss the role digital industry plays in combating online child sexual exploitation on their platforms. One of the outcomes of the meeting was an agreement among the Five Eyes that government officials would work with digital industry to develop a set of voluntary principles to guide private sector efforts in this regard.

The Voluntary Principles were officially announced by the Five Eyes at an event in Washington, DC on March 5, 2020. In parallel, digital industry partners involved in the development of the Voluntary Principles, as well as additional industry stakeholders, issued statements of support for the Voluntary Principles. The intent is that the principles will be adopted by a wide spectrum of companies, provide a shared framework to combat online child sexual exploitation, drive collective action, establish a baseline standard for safety, including encourage initiatives to ascertain the age of users, and complement initiatives specific to each partner country.

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