Kids at risk as porn explodes on ‘tube’ sites

ANEW documentary claims that pornography has got “uglier and nastier”, with actors forced to shoot more hardcore films since the explosion of free-to-view internet sites like Youporn and Pornhub.

Pornocracy, made by Ovidie, a former French porn star turned director, claims far fewer films are now being made and fees have been slashed up to 10-fold. She blames “tube” sites — so-called because they resemble YouTube — which have been accused of hosting thousands of videos pirated from traditional adult entertainment companies.

Critics say children are also getting their first exposure to sex through the sites. And they worry about the effect porn culture is having on the way teenage boys treat girls.

“Tubes” are blamed for making porn consumption so commonplace that last week London’s transport system warned people who watched porn on buses and trains that they would be reported to the police.

Gregory Dorcel, who heads Marc Dorcel, Europe’s third-biggest adult entertainment group, said 95% of the 100 billion porn clips watched on the web last year were pirated.

His company has made five million requests to Google for its videos to be taken down from “tubes”. “But 48 hours later they are back online,” Ovidie said.

The documentary claims a little-known company called MindGeek — headquartered in “an empty office” in Luxembourg — is now porn’s most powerful player, holding a monopoly-like grip on the industry.

But MindGeek said that it operates only four “tube” sites — Pornhub, Youporn, RedTube and Tube8.

“Claims we dominate the industry are nonsense,” a spokeswoman said, saying only three of its sites ranked in the top 10 of the world’s most visited adult sites. Pornhub alone, however, is the 11th most-viewed site in the US, behind Wikipedia, Twitter and Instagram.

The French pressure group Ennocence said children now tended to first view porn aged 11.

Its president, Gordon Choisel, said they were being bombarded with adult images from a very young age.

“You think your child is watching a cartoon but then a window pops up with porn,” he said. — AFP FREE TO VIEW: ‘Tubes’ pirate mainstream sites