How to Use Pornhub Ethically
Please wank responsibly
I wasn’t always a good porn consumer.
When I met my husband, he did something I had never seen anyone do before. He paid for porn.
He owned a few adult DVDs already. And when we wanted to have a naughty night in, we’d go behind the curtain at the back of the video store to rent a couple of movies.
I never did that when I was alone, though. Not because I was too embarrassed, but because my moral compass wasn’t as strong.
I was a porn pirate. And it might be because my dad was kind of a porn pirate, too.
I remember the day the satellite dish was installed on the side of our house. My father got it legitimately, but he got access to the premium channels through illicit means. And those channels gave me my first access to porn.
When I moved in with Mr. Austin, I took my pirated porn habit with me. While he was out working 10-hour shifts, I’d pass the time by downloading adult torrents from The Pirate Bay and a website called Empornium.
I had access to full movies and videos ripped off from various sites. It made paying for porn seem pointless.
So, I was pretty fucking happy when Pornhub came on the scene. Finding and watching free porn became so much easier. And even though it was full of pirated stuff, it eased my conscience a little. Downloading felt like stealing — streaming didn’t.
I enjoyed the convenience of Pornhub for years. But I eventually started paying for porn.
It wasn’t really a principled move. I just wanted better porn.
As I got older, I got fussier about porn. I wanted some quality stuff that spoke to my particular tastes.
It was even worse during my low libido weeks. I would spend almost as much time looking for porn as I would spend actually watching it. Sometimes, I’d get to the 12th page of results on Pornhub without clicking on a single thumbnail and just give up.
I wanted porn that was playful but dirty. I wanted cute girls with brightly colored hair. I wanted really good lighting. I wanted some thought put into the space they were fucking in (at least keep it clean, people).
And I didn’t want to spend over twenty minutes looking for a video that fit those needs.
I found one performer who delivered exactly what I was looking for at the time: Cherry Crush. So, I signed up to her site and porn became simple again. I could just log in and enjoy myself without any frustration.
Supporting her work was a nice bonus. It felt good to know that she was being rewarded for creating something so damn good.
After a while, that wasn’t just a nice little extra. I got used to paying for porn and supporting the people behind my jill off material became essential to me. I love the adult industry and I have nothing but respect the people who put in the effort and creativity to make the world sexier. I’d hate for them not to get rewarded for making all this great stuff.
Plus, I’m in my thirties now. Feels a little old to still be stealing shit.
So, here I am, a fully reformed porn pirate. A lady who pays for her porn and encourages everyone else to do the same.
But I still use Pornhub. Like, a lot.
Because I firmly believe using Pornhub can be part of your ethical porn consumption.
Pirate’s Booty
Pornhub’s kind of like Walmart. It’s widely used but it has a bad reputation.
We all click on it to supplement our spank banks, but there’s often this attitude that if you’re serious about porn, you’ll stay away from it.
Some people write about it as if there’s real, proper, ethical porn on pay sites, and just a bunch of pirated junk all over Pornhub.
Maybe that used to be true. My memories of the early Pornhub years are hazy, but I did get the sense that it was mostly pirated content flooding the site.
Pornhub is a disruptor. It changed the landscape of online porn by making access to free content simple and convenient. But now it’s also part of the legitimate porn market.
Because anyone can upload just about anything to the site, there’s still plenty of pirated stuff on Pornhub. But it’s a huge mischaracterization to claim it’s the only thing that’s peddled there. It’s also a platform a lot of creators use to share and promote their work, earn some income, and turn porn into a career.
And there are ways to use Pornhub responsibly, so those creators get compensation for their work and you can wank with a clear conscience.
Stick to Verified Accounts
The best way to avoid pirated content is to watch content on verified accounts.
Verified amateurs will have a little white checkmark in a blue circle next to their names. Official channels will have a little blue icon shaped like a TV set next to the channel name.
These are the legit videos on the site. Pornhub compensates the people who create them according to how well the videos perform.
Pornhub basically works the same way YouTube does: the site earns money through ad revenue and then gives a portion of it to the verified content creators that drive traffic to the site.
By sticking to verified accounts, you get to enjoy the content for free while still supporting the people who put it out.
If you pay for Pornhub Premium, the creators you watch get a cut of that, too.
And no, it’s not a lot of support. In the aggregate, those views can add up to a huge pay day for performers, but your individual view doesn’t count for much on its own. Definitely a lot less than paying $28.99 to join their personal site would. But it’s not any less ethical than watching vlogs on YouTube.
Buy Their Videos
Pornhub isn’t just a streaming site. It’s also an on-demand marketplace.
A lot of the amateurs you’ll watch will have paid videos available at a range of prices. When you buy one, they get to keep 65% of that money (or 85% for the month of April in response to COVID-19).
Often, the paid videos are full-length versions of the ones you can stream for free. Sometimes, they’re just extra content. And in some cases, I’ve seen performers make certain kinds of acts (like anal or fully undressed scenes) exclusive to their paid videos.
Occasionally (or regularly, if you’re a baller) buying a video from a performer you like is a good way to directly support them.
Subscribe to Their Fan Club
Creators can also set up a fan club on their Pornhub pages.
For a monthly charge, you can subscribe to a performer and get access to fan-only videos, photos, posts, and discounts on their paid videos. You might also have the option to send them direct messages.
You’ll get all that extra stuff and they get to keep 80% of the subscription rate.
Send Them a Tip
If you’re the altruistic type, you can also send your favorite verified amateurs a tip.
That’s all there is to it. You send them some cash to show your appreciation for their work and for giving you a lot of material to assist in your self-loving.
Like the fan club subscriptions, they keep 80% of the tips you send their way.
Support the Creators Elsewhere
Pornhub is also a great way to discover performers and studios you might not have heard of otherwise. And when you like someone’s work, you can support them elsewhere (those options are usually listed in the About section of their account page).
I discovered Cherry Crush through Pornhub and signed up to her site.
Pornhub is also where I found Molly Pills and Horny Hiking, and now I’m subscribed to their OnlyFans.
It’s not compensating them through Pornhub exactly, but it is using Pornhub while being a great porn consumer.
Keep Using Pornhub, But Use It Well
In the end, it doesn’t matter how you support the people who are making porn and keeping the adult world going. All that matters is that you do it.
Porn exists in a weird space in our culture. It’s legal and enjoyed by a lot of us but it’s still seen as an illicit product. Yeah, it’s lewd and pervy, but it’s also entertainment and it shouldn’t be taken for granted or treated like it’s worthless.
Most of us pay for Netflix instead of downloading torrents. A lot of us have moved from ripping mp3s to paying for Spotify.
We need to start treating porn the same way.
If you get off to adult material, support the people who create it. Buy a membership to your favorite porn sites. Pay for content from your favorite creators. And if your porn budget is too tight for that, just look for that little checkmark.
Since writing this article, Pornhub has made relevant changes to its policies. Thankfully, they make it even easier to use the site ethically. I wrote about them here.
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