Cybercrime and Da Vinci Forensics CEO, Sharon Knowles, says the call by American activist and author, Laila Mickelwait, to have sexual content site, Pornhub, shutdown raises serious concerns about online platforms enabling criminal activity.
Mickelwait, who has long called for Pornhub to be shut down, has reignited her bid after 21-year-old, Stephen Lee McIlvenny, was on Friday sentenced to 23 years in prison in the UK on 77 counts for brutally beating and raping three boys.
Mcllvenny posted the videos he filmed of the abuse on Pornhub and blackmailed the victims who are now teenagers.
According to police the rapes took started when the 21-year-old was 16 in 2019 until he was 19 years old.
According to the American activist, Pornhub enabled the 21-year-old by giving him the means old to distribute his content not only in the UK but globally and since the videos are on the site the victims abuse has been immortalized online.
Knowles says while these discussions have been global, South Africa faces its own challenges when it comes to non-consensual content; online exploitation, and cyber-enabled abuse facilitated by platforms that fail to implement strict safeguards.
Speaking to YNews, the CEO of Da Vinci Forensics says cases like this highlight a severe failure in online platform accountability.
“If a website profits from non-consensual and exploitative content, then it is complicit in the crime. South Africa must urgently strengthen laws and digital forensic capabilities to track, remove, and prosecute those responsible for such material,” she adds.
Knowles says existing legislations like the Cybercrimes Act (2021), which criminalises revenge porn, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and cyberstalking, still lags behind and need to be strengthened.
Below are the platforms, she says, authorities have flagged posting videos which include CSAM, and sex trafficking.
XVideos and XHamster — Known for similar content issues as Pornhub.
OnlyFans — Though it claims strict moderation, investigations have revealed cases of CSAM and sex trafficking.
Telegram and Discord — Encrypted chat apps often used to share illegal material with little oversight.
Facebook Groups and X — Both platforms have been used to share illegal sexual content due to lax moderation policies.
While the debate continues on whether platforms that allow content that one of the parties might not have consented to should or shouldn’t be shutdown, Knowles has offered some suggestions of the spaces she believes should be closed down.
1. Shut Down Platforms That Enable Crime
* Websites that cannot prevent criminal content despite repeated warnings and legal pressure should be permanently shut down or blocked by ISPs, as was done with Backpage.com in 2018.
2. Stricter Regulations and Third-Party Audits
Rather than allowing platforms to police themselves, governments should mandate strict verification measures, independent content audits, and severe penalties for failures to remove illegal content.
According to statistics, here in South Africa – the addiction is most common among the young people between the ages of 15 and 30. It is also estimated that between 6-8% of South African men would become addicted to porn at some point.
Clinical psychologist, Anele Siswana says a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and experiential factors contribute to this.
“These factors contribute to the development and maintenance of addictive behaviours, including pornography addiction, which can have significant negative impacts on mental and emotional well-being,” adds Siswana.
