The porn industry is tagging hardcore videos with Disney characters and Paw Patrol to hook children

By Jonathon Van Maren

Over and over again, I’ve had parents tell me that their children would never search for pornography online. Teenagers? Maybe. Children? No. They are simply too innocent. They aren’t thinking about sexual things yet. They haven’t been exposed to material that would pique their interest in sexual matters yet, and thus children can be children and there is no need to mar their innocence by broaching topics like porn.

I believe those parents.

Many mothers and fathers strive to give their sons and daughters a childhood defined by innocence, and one in which they can simply enjoy the simple things in life without having their small minds clouded with information about the omnipresent digital content that is not adult so much as evil.

But it is essential that parents realize something: Your children may not be looking for pornography. But the porn industry is most certainly looking for your kids.

Many parents are under the mistaken belief that so long as kids are not looking for porn, or so long as the Internet in the home is filtered, everything is safe. It might surprise them to know that most children stumble across porn first by accident. I’ve heard that same story hundreds of times while speaking to young audiences about porn, and a recent study confirmed not only that many children first see porn by accident, but that the vast majority of those wished they had not seen it. This is not about whether your children have a desire to see porn. It is about whether they will see it anyways.

In fact, as I’ve noted before, predatory companies like PornHub have actually taken to tagging hardcore porn videos with the names of children’s cartoon characters like “Dora the Explorer” or “Paw Patrol” so that children searching the Internet for innocent subjects will end up on their websites filled with degradation and rape. The earlier children get addicted, the more porn they’ll watch—and the more porn they’ll watch, the better it is for companies like PornHub. Their bank accounts bulge with stolen innocence.

They even joke about it: PornHub’s Instagram account shared an image of Baby Yoda with the PornHub logo reflected in his pupils with the phrase “10 seconds after my parents leave the house.” PornHub not only does not verify age or consent, and they not only do nothing to keep children away from their vile material—they actively joke about the fact that children are also targeted customers.

Exodus Cry, which has been running a brilliant campaign exposing PornHub’s complicity in rape, sex trafficking, and exploitation, explained how PornHub preys on children:

Pornhub doesn’t even have a click-through warning button, asking the visitor if they are at least 18 years old. Why? Age is nothing but a number to Pornhub.

The organization hunts on popular social media outlets like Tik Tok, Twitch, Snapchat, Periscope, and so many others—using models and videos as bait to lure innocent kids into their sadistic clutches. Some of these sites and apps have inadequate protections for scrolling kids or lack restrictions on predatory practices.

Then there are the categories. In 2019, “teen” was one of the top search terms on the site, along with “cartoon,” “revenge,” and many more. Make no mistake, Pornhub is setting and exploiting the sexual appetites of young kids and minors.

And again, it gets worse. Collective Shout and Exodus Cry revealed that in addition to hosting videos of rape, child sexual abuse, and sex trafficking (and consider for a moment the fact that people go onto this platform for sexual satisfaction), PornHub has a collection of “Disney cartoon porn—virtual or animated content featuring children’s favourite Disney characters in hardcore porn sex acts including multiple penetrations, BDSM, and what appears to be gang rape.” Figures like Rapunzel from Tangled are shown bound and gagged, with other children’s favourites being abused and violated. Children’s cartoon characters.

WATCH: Interview with Protect Young Minds explaining how to talk to kids about porn

Porn sites also place popup ads on Internet gaming sites frequented by children and young teens. I’ve often asked audiences of kids I’m speaking with how many of them have played an Internet game—and how many of them have been exposed to an explicit popup while doing so. In answer to both questions, nearly every hand goes up. As children become more and more frequent Internet users, the porn industry is utilizing the time they spend online to lure them onto porn sites. Once they are there, their innocence can be destroyed, and they can be hooked. This is

I write all of this to plead with parents: Please, please monitor any time your children spend online. Please talk to them about pornography in an age-appropriate way. Millions of children have been exposed to porn without their parents’ desire or consent, and many parents are ignorant of the fact that their children have already been exposed to this material.

It is an ugly and awful fact of the culture we now live in that discussions which were unnecessary a few decades ago are absolutely necessary now. Yes, they are.