When Predators Press Play: Is PornHub Queering the Algorithm for Minors?

There is no doubt that in the modern age, inappropriate content is being forced into the faces of children and adolescents every day, hour by hour, minute by minute. The level of exposure to such content through social media, television, movies, etc. can be overwhelming. Radical LGBTQ+ content is no exception, insidiously slipping its way into all levels of education, most noticeably into elementary education and high school. Teachers and other school staff necessitating education into LGBTQ+ and radical gender ideology lead to a slippery slope of indoctrination and confusion in developing minds. We have seen this time and time again in recent years. What if it was discovered that a tech giant, not associated with commonplace social media sites, was operating under such practices in a subtle, yet surreptitious and graphically inappropriate manner.

Pornography has, unsurprisingly, become a much more mainstream subject in recent decades, as sexuality is on full display in all forms of media. PornHub serves as one of the leading providers of adult sexual material. In an undercover interview conducted in the summer of 2023 by Sound Investigation’s Arden Young, an executive of PornHub revealed unsettling insight into their methods. Dillon Rice, Senior Scriptwriter at Aylo, Pornhub’s parent company (formerly known as MindGeek), admitted to pushing gay and transgender content onto straight male users, including minors.

(Photo: Newsweek, 2024)

“Let’s say you’re 12 years old. You’re still figuring out your sexuality…Wouldn’t it be helpful to see…maybe a normalization of something that you think is what you want? Probably helps a lot.” -Dillon Rice

“They [Aylo/MindGeek] need to try to push stuff that’s…less accepted…Test it out (when referring to using trans actors in scenes). See if you get a bigger audience with it. See if you can convert somebody, right?...Same thing for bisexual stuff. Same thing for gay.” -Dillon Rice

This undercover interview was first highlighted by Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire, who invited Young onto his show to discuss what she had captured. The story eventually picked up steam with other news outlets and political/social commentators, such as the Washington Examiner and Brett Cooper, a former Daily Wire employee.

“The first thing that stands out to me in this clip is just the smugness, which disgusts me…that is grooming. Textbook definition of grooming.” -Brett Cooper

“The fact that these people are considering how to reach children as young as 12 years old and already assuming that they need more…stimulation that they need to explore…disgusting.” -Brett Cooper

Aylo denied these allegations, attempting to spin the misinterpretation of the illegally filmed interview and claim Rice was “very clearly speaking of converting free users into paid subscribers” (Thies, 2023). While the Aylo spokesperson continued on with how their platforms are exclusively intended for adults, he disregarded the explicit references to children from the recording.

Over the past couple of years, two dozen states have passed laws requiring users to verify their age by providing some form of government-issued identification. Pornhub tried suing over this action, targeting bills such as Texas House Bill 118, a 2023 law mandating user age verification to view online pornography, on the grounds of free speech violations and concerns over privacy issues and data breaches. Assisted by the Free Speech Coalition, their case made its way to the Supreme Court, only to be ruled against them on June 27th, 2025 in a 6-3 decision, deeming the bill constitutional.

(Image Source: WPLN News, 2025)

To understand how frequent viewing of pornographic content can affect the developing minds of adolescents, we must first delve into its effects on the general (adult) population. The most commonly noted results of continual pornography use include desensitization and the ability of pornography to mimic addictive substances (e.g., hard drugs and gambling), regarding its effects on the brain.

Porn consumption releases dopamine and leads to heightened pleasure. Over time, the brain’s perception of reality and what is considered normal and acceptable in society are altered by the highly scripted, unrealistic depictions of sex in porn. Unable to attain the same high as before, users start to consume it more frequently, often leading to full-blown addiction. The incessant attempts to recreate the same dopamine high as before in the brain’s reward system, in combination with what is known as the Coolidge Effect, are what make porn so addictive. The Coolidge Effect is a biological phenomenon exhibited by a renewed, heightened sexual interest by males (and sometimes females) directed toward newly introduced sexual partners and a decreased interest in repeated intercourse with the same partner. Online porn offers novelty on demand (i.e., new and exciting clips are everywhere) and being without it leads to habituation, or the decreased physiological or emotional response to stimuli repeated in high frequency.

(Neural Correlates of Sexual Cue Reactivity, 2014)

This can also lead to ramifications within an addict’s interpersonal relationships. Sexual dysfunction (e.g., erectile dysfunction, premature or delayed ejaculation, and impotence) can result from the depletion of dopamine in the brain. There is also a heightened risk of contracting STDs (going back to the Coolidge Effect), as frequent pornography use has led to “more pervasive attitudes regarding promiscuity” (Prestige, 2021). Aside from physical side effects of porn addiction, there comes a time when the addicted individual begins to experience dissatisfaction and emotional deprivation in their own romantic and sexual lives. The reduced dopamine levels while offline can lead to lowered self-esteem, depression, and struggling to focus and think clearly.

Coinciding with physiological desensitization, there is also a psychological effect, in the form of a “marked increase in their tolerance of abnormal sexual interactions and behaviors, namely toward aggression, promiscuity, and violence” (2021). Once the novelty of previously viewed content wears off, the release of dopamine decreases, causing the user to seek out more extreme content. In one study, 46.9% of surveyed men (aged 18-72) stated their porn tastes and preferences changed to more extreme pornography genres/fetishes/kinks, including ones that they were previously disinterested in or even disgusted by (Wéry & Billieux, 2016). Going back to the interview, this appears to be how Aylo is attempting to push and normalize gay, bi, and trans content to straight males. They are exposing such individuals to content they wouldn’t normally see and may get curious about, as they try to regain the original high.

(Image: How Porn Can Impact The Brain)

During Young’s interview with Knowles, he references one of her previous interviews, where she states the median age of pornography exposure is around 11 years old. The aforementioned side effects of persistent pornography use are already detrimental enough on the fully developed or almost fully developed brains of adults. Imagine how much more damaging that same product can be on the developing mind of a child. During the COVID pandemic, Pornhub traffic skyrocketed, assisted by the ease of accessing porn via mobile devices. Such devices are considered to be “triple-A influences” with their “accessibility, affordability, and anonymity,” to which most children have mostly unlimited availability (Safe Schools Alliance UK, 2021). In a 2021 study, 84% of male teens and 57% of female teens (both aged 14-18) admitted to having viewed pornography in the US (Wright et al.). Initial porn access stems from curiosity about sexual content and hormonal changes during sexual development in response to such content, which can lead to a loss of control and subsequent addiction, which is more common with teens (Setyawati, Hartini, and Suryanto, 2020).

Teenagers with a combined high consumption in pornography, belief that it portrays sex realistically, and identification with porn actors led to an increased risk of sexual aggression; the last factor was only true for males, true for both sexes for the first two (Wright et al., 2021). Similarly, a 2015 meta-analysis of 22 studies across seven countries linked increases in sexual aggression (both physical and verbal) with males and females (Wright, Tokunaga, and Kraus; 2015). Another study showed 53% of teenage boys and 39% of teenage girls reported that they believed pornography was a realistic depiction of sex, despite unrealistic and exaggerated scenarios, as well as glorifying sexism, racism, and violence (Martellozzo et al., 2016). Addiction can lead to more accepting attitudes towards less moral sexual practices (e.g., prostitution and sexual relations without love), and desensitization among adolescents, which can lead to a skewed view of “acceptable behavior in romantic relationships” (Setyawati, Hartini, and Suryanto, 2020). Another study’s results revealed that within their test group of 12-17-year-old boys, porn addiction was related to those who enjoyed watching group sex, sexual domination/submission, and sexual activity with adolescents (Ballester-Arnal, et al., 2022).

One YouTube video in July 2022 by the Jubilee channel invited teenage boys to answer questions openly and honestly, while keeping their identities anonymous. The very first question was about watching porn, to which most admitted to watching. Several of these boys spoke in detail about their personal experiences, stating they looked to porn as sex education and had reached a somewhat addicted state due to dopamine depletion from prolonged use. One of these teens, the same who had previously gone through porn addiction, said he was straight but admitted to watching trans porn as “it was erotic in a different way that I’ve never seen before…I needed more stimulation.” Later in the video, they discussed questioning their sexuality and the peer pressure from others explicitly stating they should be gay based on stereotypical interests or behaviors synonymous with gay men. For the same (previously) porn-addicted teen, his viewing of trans porn made him anxious about what his sexuality may be. His own research found people online stating watching it doesn’t make you gay, while at the same time pushing that “trans women are women,” which is factually incorrect. He feels straight because he is only attracted to biological women, but forcing this false narrative that leaves him scared and confused is a great disservice to a young man trying to do some soul-searching.

Sexual orientation is an immutable and innate characteristic in everyone. Realization of one’s own homo- or bisexuality can sometimes occur later in life, but it does not mean they were somehow “converted.” The idea that someone can be converted is exceptionally harmful to one’s mental and sometimes physical health, as thousands of victims of conversion therapy over multiple decades can attest to. The objective behind this company’s push for gay, bi, and trans porn among straight males (including minors), increasing profits aside, doesn’t seem to be the adults truly trying to convert these males at its core. Looking deeper into this practice, it seems more likely that the adults are trying to mess with their heads enough to get them to believe they can, in fact, be converted once they show interest in one or more of these novelty porn genres.

To put this all together, the accessibility of porn has escalated exponentially in the digital age, especially since the pandemic. The unbelievable ease to find and view pornographic content can cause young men and boys to seek out newer and more extreme genres as the dopamine levels in their brain decline. In their futile attempts to regain that original high, they can easily become addicted. Aylo/PornHub has noticed this trend and has started to openly and pervasively advertise “LGBTQ+ content” to its viewers, who may not normally seek out such material. Minor boys make up a significant amount of traffic on their website, so they are exposed to this aggressive marketing as well. States are cracking down on the availability and accessibility of pornography to minors by passing ID verification laws, and Aylo/PornHub is vigorously fighting against them. While the more obvious goal of this strategy is to boost profits as much as possible, beneath the surface lies an unsettling agenda that has now been exposed to the world. Protecting children from harmful and explicit material does not start and end at one’s local bookstore or library. It also includes the seemingly infinite, modern-day wild west that is the Internet.

References 

Thank you to our Research Team, led by Mandy, whose work allows us to deliver robust investigations and well-sourced reporting. 

AVP Association. (2025, May). US state age verification laws for adult content. https://avpassociation.com/4271-2/ 

Ballester-Arnal, R., et al. (2023). Pornography consumption in people of different age groups: An analysis based on gender, contents, and consequences. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 20(2), 766–779. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:4ba51c79-c5a0-48e4-9480-ba7e2bddd6b9 

Jubilee. (2022, July). If teen boys were 100% honest [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxaK3rhS-78&t=135s 

Knowles, M. (2023, December). PornHub EXPOSED | Undercover Reporter Arden Young [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tDJ8Padfp4 

Martellozzo, E., et al. (2017). "I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it?? A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people". https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:8d9aff82-4a6d-47ad-93f8-c9f7ef0ae9f2 

PornHub. (2023, August). Age verification in the news. https://www.pornhub.com/blog/age-verification-in-the-news 

Prestige Men’s Medical Center. (2021, October). 3 surprising effects of pornography and porn addiction. https://prestigemensmedical.com/blog/effects-of-pornography-and-porn-addiction/ 

Remojo. (2021, March). What are the effects of porn on the brain? https://www.remojo.com/post/what-are-the-effects-of-porn-on-the-brain 

Safe Schools Alliance UK. (2021, April 11). Porn and children – The facts. https://safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2021/04/11/porn-and-children-the-facts/ 

Setyawati, R., Hartini, N., & Suryanto, S. (2020). The psychological impacts of internet pornography addiction on adolescents. Humaniora, 11(3), 235–244. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:70fd6950-930e-451e-a2d3-69738b2928e9 

The Comments Section with Brett Cooper. (2023, December). This company wants to convert straight men [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z3JT6sBPTA&t=474s 

The Economic Times. (2025, June). Pornhub, XNXX in panic? US Supreme Court ruling lets states crack down on online adult content access. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/pornhub-xnxx-in-panic-us-supreme-court-ruling-lets-states-crack-down-on-online-adult-content-access/articleshow/122117508.cms?from=mdr 

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Thies, B. F. (2023, December). Pornhub pushes gay, transgender videos to “convert” straight men, secret recordings suggest. Washington Examiner. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2454943/pornhub-pushes-gay-transgender-videos-to-convert-straight-men-secret-recordings-suggest/ 

Wéry, A., & Billieux, J. (2016). Online sexual activities: An exploratory study of problematic and non-problematic usage patterns in a sample of men. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, 257–266. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563215302612?via%3Dihub 

Wright, P. J., Paul, B., & Herbenick, D. (2021). Preliminary insights from a U.S. probability sample on adolescents’ pornography exposure, media psychology, and sexual aggression. Journal of Health Communication, 26(1), 1–8. 

https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1887980 

Wright, P. J., Tokunaga, R. S., & Kraus, A. (2016). A meta-analysis of pornography consumption and actual acts of sexual aggression in general population studies. Journal of Communication, 66(1), 183–205. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:b1beed82-443c-4e17-8880-c969a56d31d3