Inside a Christian's crusade to shut down Pornhub

Serena was only 14 and had never kissed a boy when a guy she had a crush on convinced her to send him nude pictures and videos of herself, which he then shared with her classmates.

She fell into depression and attempted suicide several times after viewing the content on Pornhub and repeatedly uploading it to the website.

When she was 19, Serena contacted her longtime advocate Laila Mickelwait after seeing the girl's abuse video online. Mickelwait posted a warning video with the girl's face on it, which allowed the two to connect for help in getting the content removed from Pornhub.

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“[Serena’s story] could be any child's story, and realizing that was a horrible thought, but it only fueled my fight even more,” Mickelwait told the Christian Post in an interview about her latest memoir. Takedown: Inside the fight to shut down Pornhub over child abuse, rape and sex trafficking.

Serena's story is one of many cases Mickelwait cites in his book about Pornhub's proliferation and monetization of child sexual abuse and rape.

Mickelwait shares her efforts to hold Pornhub and its parent company Aylo (formerly Mind Geek) accountable for distributing sexual abuse videos.

From exposing abuse videos to pressuring credit card companies to cut ties with Pornhub, the founder of the Traffickinghub movement reveals her strategies for taking on billion-dollar porn website Pornhub.

Another case mentioned in the book is that of a 15-year-old girl who was missing for over a year before a Pornhub user told the girl's mother that he recognized the woman's daughter on the website.

The mother discovered over 50 videos uploaded to Pornhub by a user named “Daddy's_Slut” showing her daughter being raped. As Mickelwait describes in the book, the minors' assaults were monetized with advertising and over 100 million users were able to pay to download the content.

As an activist who has fought against issues like human trafficking for over 15 years, Mickelwait said she has always had a heart for children.

“In order for people to be interested in this issue, I thought it was important that they walk this path with me,” Mickelwait told CP.

“The journey of discovery to meet the victims and whistleblowers to understand how this company operates and the devastating trauma it causes to victims,” ​​she added. “Hopefully, by the end of the story, they'll be as passionate about putting an end to this as I am, and we can mobilize an army of activists to take this to the next level.”

Her efforts to mobilize the public against sex crimes have spawned a movement made up of a diverse group of people, including those who work in the porn industry. Mickelwait said she is in regular contact with porn producers and performers who she believes have helped her expose abuses in the industry.

The changes she is calling for, such as age and consent verification on every user-generated porn site, are policies supported by people in the porn industry, she said. In her book, she makes clear that she wants to abolish sex trafficking and online sexual crime, but not the legal porn industry.

“When we're dealing with abuse and criminal organizations of this magnitude, it's important that people come together and put aside their differences, whether it's about their religion or non-religiosity, whether it's about their political ideology,” Mickelwait said. “Because this is a human rights issue. It's not a right or left issue; it's not an issue that only affects Christians.”

Throughout the book, Mickelwait portrays her roles as an advocate and mother. In one section, she describes rocking her infant son one night in the darkness of her bedroom while thinking about a story she had read about a missing Florida girl a few days after her son was born.

She stressed that anyone who cares about the welfare of children can take action on this issue. At the same time, Mickelwait noted that her empathy for the abused children she has learned about through her work seems to have grown through motherhood.

“I think it took it to a whole new level when I thought that these exploited children could be my children in a few years, because what happened to them could happen to any child in the digital age,” she explained.

However, the takeover of a large corporation is not without emotional consequences.

Mickelwait speaks openly with her readers about the stress of dealing with doxxing, or having her face superimposed on graphic images. But in moments of emotional turmoil, the activist thought of Pornhub's victims and also turned to God.

“I have a strong faith and believe in God,” she said. “My spiritual side has played an important role in keeping me grounded and helping me just keep going.”

Another inspiration for Mickelwait, who gave her courage in times of need, was her late father, whom she refers to frequently in the book. Her father was a general and vascular surgeon and died in 2014 after a heart attack.

Mickelwait recounts how she stood at her father's grave after his funeral and vowed to bring justice to the victims of abuse.

“He was just a great father and the reason I do this work today,” Mickelwait said.