Montreal-based owner of Pornhub agrees to pay US$120 million to victims of child sexual abuse material

Under the terms submitted to Justice Wesley L. Hsu, the US$120 million settlement will be distributed across seven financial installments. The payout structure begins with an initial sum of US$25 million (C$34.5 million) this year, followed by annual payments of US$15.8 million (C$21.8 million) on each of the first six anniversaries of June 17, 2026.

Class members covered under the agreement include individuals who were under the age of 18 when they appeared in media uploaded to Aylo platforms between Feb. 19, 2021 and Dec. 6, 2024.

Allegations and financial liability

The legal proceedings stemmed from class-action suits filed by plaintiffs in California and Alabama, who alleged that explicit media filmed when they were minors was posted to Aylo sites including Pornhub, YouPorn and Redtube without consent.

According to court filings, plaintiffs claimed the platform operator knowingly profited from the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and allowed content to be viewed thousands of times.

In the California filing, the plaintiff stated her former boyfriend recorded her without her knowledge during a sexual encounter.

Their relationship came to an end after he pushed her out of a moving car — years later, she learned that he had uploaded sexually explicit videos of her “as revenge porn” to the defendants’ website, where users could “freely view, download, and reupload” the media, according to the settlement motion.

In the Alabama case, the plaintiff alleged she was drugged and raped as a minor before her abuser uploaded videos of the assault to Pornhub. Plaintiffs in both jurisdictions argued the company reviewed media before approving it for public viewing.

Aylo has denied all allegations made in the lawsuits.

Corporate obligations and operational safeguards

In addition to direct financial payouts, the proposed settlement imposes operational mandates designed to curb non-consensual and illegal material across Aylo platforms.

Under the injunctive relief terms, the parent company must verify the age of every individual uploading or appearing in content on its websites by requiring government-issued identification to confirm they were 18 or older when the media was recorded.

The company must also deploy automated content moderation technology to identify CSAM, enforce mandatory prevention training for all trust and safety personnel and issue immediate account bans to users uploading suspected or confirmed illegal material.

To track compliance, a dedicated monitoring committee will meet annually for five years, and the business will be subject to third-party external audits over the same five-year period.

Court records highlight scope of exposure

Document filings from the multi-year legal proceedings emphasized the extent of illicit content discovered during evidentiary phases.