Pornhub’s parent company is facing a massive financial settlement tied to years of allegations over sexual abuse material involving minors on its adult content platforms. Aylo, formerly known as MindGeek, has agreed to pay $120 million to settle two class action lawsuits accusing the company and its platforms of violating federal sex trafficking and child sexual abuse material laws. The proposed settlement, which still requires court approval, would resolve cases filed in California and Alabama in 2021.
The California lawsuit was filed on behalf of a woman who alleged her former boyfriend uploaded sexually explicit videos of her to Pornhub when she was 16. According to Susman Godfrey, attorneys accused MindGeek of knowingly benefiting from material depicting people who were minors when the content was created.
The Alabama case involved allegations from two women who said they were trafficked as minors. According to the original federal complaint, one plaintiff alleged she was drugged and raped at age 16, and that video of the assault was later distributed through MindGeek-operated platforms. The complaint also alleged the person responsible participated in Pornhub’s Modelhub program and shared revenue connected to the content. Those claims remain allegations, and the settlement does not constitute a finding of liability.
The scope of the case stretches far beyond the named plaintiffs. According to a federal class certification order, the certified class covers, “All persons who were under the age of 18 when they appeared in a video or image that has been made available for viewing on any website owned or operated by Defendants anytime from February 12, 2011, through the present.” The class notice later established December 6, 2024, as the deadline for members who wanted to exclude themselves from the litigation.
Aylo is expected to fund the settlement through an initial $25 million payment in 2026, followed by six annual installments. The company said the agreement “resolves the matter with no admission of liability or wrongdoing by Aylo and remains subject to court approval.”
Money is only one part of the proposed deal. Aylo also agreed to content safety requirements that include confirming that performers appearing in uploaded material are adults, using human and automated moderation before content is published, and reporting suspected child sexual abuse material to appropriate authorities. Aylo maintains that several of those safeguards were already part of its operations.
The company’s policies have undergone major changes in recent years. According to the Federal Trade Commission, Aylo entered a separate settlement with the FTC and Utah in 2025 over allegations involving child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual content. That agreement required additional safeguards and included a $5 million payment to Utah.
MindGeek was purchased by Ethical Capital Partners in March 2023 and officially changed its corporate name to Aylo that August. According to Ethical Capital Partners, the company said the rebrand represented a renewed focus on trust, safety and corporate transparency.
Aylo has continued to defend the safety systems now operating across its platforms. In a statement provided to 404 Media, management said, “Over the years, we have put in place robust measures to help protect our platform from abuse. Only verified content creators can publish on our platform, and every upload is subject to a combination of technological tools and human review by trained moderators before it goes live, to confirm that it complies with our Terms of Service, Community Guidelines and related Policies,” Aylo management said in a statement. “Many of the commitments in this settlement reflect practices we already have in place. Trust and Safety should be a priority for every online platform, and we all share responsibility for a safer online experience. Every day, our trust and safety and engineering teams work alongside law enforcement, advocacy groups, and other stakeholders to prevent online abuse and to hold those abusers to account.”
If approved by the court, the $120 million agreement would bring two significant class actions against Aylo to a close while placing continued legal obligations on the company over how content involving age, consent and potential abuse is reviewed before reaching its platforms.
