Clark Hill’s Kevin Kent, Mark Schoeller, and Vanessa Huber obtained class certification in a child sex trafficking class action matter against Pornhub, the world’s largest pornography website, on Dec. 19 in an Alabama federal district court.
The class action involves claims of child sex trafficking under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and federal child pornography laws alleging that the owners and operators of PornHub have victimized Plaintiff and more than 20,000 other minors by disseminating child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”) on their websites.
“We’re grateful for the Court’s decision to certify the class of Plaintiffs and plan to hold Pornhub accountable for their actions,” Schoeller said.
In Doe v. MG Freesites LTD, et al., Plaintiff was a minor when she was drugged and raped in Alabama by a man who uploaded videos of the sexual assault to PornHub, where they were viewed hundreds of times and accessible to PornHub’s users throughout the world.
In discussing the benefits of class treatment for the highly traumatized victims of CSAM, Judge L. Scott Coogler noted that “certifying a class also helps more vulnerable CSAM victims come forward with their claims and potentially receive relief than might otherwise come forward individually.”
The district court certified both an injunctive relief class to modify PornHub’s business practices and a damages class seeking statutory, actual, and punitive damages. Kent, Schoeller, and Huber of Clark Hill’s Philadelphia office represent the Plaintiff and the class of child sex trafficking survivors, along with a team of lawyers from other firms and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“We have a responsibility to get justice for those harmed and exploited. This will continue to be a collaborative effort with partners from around the country to stop these unlawful practices,” Schoeller said.
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