FTC fines porn sites for lackluster crackdown on child sex abuse materials

A company that operates over 100 pornographic websites agreed to pay Utah $5 million for turning a blind eye to content containing child sexual abuse and nonconsensual sexual material, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday. The FTC alleged that the porn company and its international affiliates deceived users by not enforcing its proclaimed zero tolerance policy prohibiting child sex abuse materials, or CSAM, and nonconsensual materials, or NCM.

Investigators found that operators did almost nothing about their websites being full of illegal content featuring children and sexual abuse, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said on Wednesday. The company took no action when users flagged concerning videos and allowed previous offenders to continue uploading content, the FTC claimed. The company also failed to protect sensitive data collected while trying to verify the ages and identifies of models appearing on the websites. The porn company in question failed to use standard security measures like encryption and firewalls when collecting the birth dates, Social Security numbers, and government-issued ID scans, the FTC alleged.

What does the settlement include? The porn operator agreed to pay $5 million to Utah and implement policies and technical measures to stop CSAM and NCM from being posted and shared. In response, the FTC agreed to waive an additional $10 million judgment against the company. The company must enact systems to actively respond to reports of inappropriate content, and verify the ages and identities of subjects appearing in videos and images. The company must also remove all concerning content until the ages and identities of individuals are verified. A judge still needs to formally approve the proposed remedies that both parties already signed off on.

FTC Commissioner Mark Meador described the Wednesday settlement as long-awaited justice for abuse victims. Protecting women and children is high priority for the Trump administration, so the FTC isn’t done with pedophiles and others enabling sexual assault, Ferguson added Wednesday.

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher’s report on a landmark case in which a man was charged with distributing child porn generated by artificial intelligence.