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Two child trafficking survivors have filed a lawsuit against porn company MindGeek and its popular adult video-sharing website, Pornhub, for victimizing and exploiting "child sex abuse material for profit."

A federal class action lawsuit against PornHub’s parent company MindGeek alleges the smut purveyor hosted multiple rape videos of teen sex-trafficking victims — and profited from them while doing nothing to verify the ages or consent of those depicted, court records filed Friday show. 

Backpage.com has pleaded guilty to human trafficking and conspiracy to launder money, officials announced Thursday, one week after the US government shut down the classified ads website and days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions called it the "dominant marketplace for illicit commercial sex."

Two United Methodist bishops must testify in a lawsuit filed by a one-time church member who claimed he was sexually abused, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday, turning away the church leaders’ efforts to stay out of the case.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - While Tuscaloosa police charged a motel owner for promoting prostitution Thursday, a Birmingham lawyer continues his fight against sex trafficking in civil court.

As the country continues to fight a growing opioid epidemic, the Gadsden City Council voted Tuesday to pursue a civil law remedy instead of solely focusing on criminal issues.

A federal court ruled yesterday that Alabama fails to provide constitutionally adequate mental health care to people in state prisons, finding that mental health services are "horrendously inadequate" and have led to a "skyrocketing suicide rate" among incarcerated people.

The statistics on child sexual abuse aren’t well known, but they are seriously alarming. According to reports, experts estimate that one in 10 children are sexually abused before their 18th birthday. Approximately 35 percent of youth sexual abuse victims are 11 years old or younger.

Perhaps the most shocking revelation about child sexual abuse is that more often than not, the abuser isn’t a stranger – it’s someone the child knows and perhaps even trusts.

A federal judge on Thursday entered an order requiring the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) to immediately take actions to protect suicidal prisoners – an order sparked by the SPLC after a client died by suicide in a prison cell days after testifying in court about the state’s failure to provide adequate mental health care to prisoners.

A federal judge ruled yesterday that a lawsuit on behalf of prisoners denied mental health care can head to trial as a class action on behalf of all prisoners, noting that there is evidence of systemic “deliberate indifference” to the mental health needs of the prisoners.

On Wednesday, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit in Houston against her abuser Santiago Alonso, Backpage.com, Choice Hotels and Veda LLC. Choice Hotels is the owner of the Quality Inn and Veda LLC owns the Dothan Hotel, two locations where the victim was allegedly forced against her will into prostitution.

A 2013 human trafficking arrest and subsequent conviction in Dothan has resulted in a lawsuit filed by the victim against the assailant, a classified ad website believed to have been used in the trafficking operation, and the owners of the hotel where the victim was found.

A sex-trafficking survivor, who had been forced into prostitution at a Dothan hotel, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Houston County Circuit Court against several defendants she says profited from her abduction--including the convicted perpetrator, Santiago Alonso; classified advertising website Backpage.com, and its byzantine ownership group; and Choice Hotels, parent company of the Quality Inn where the victim was held against her will.

Jerry Sandusky.  Roman Polanski. Warren Yerger Sr. While you might not be as aware of the last two names, the first one probably means something to you. Though many others are not “famous,” they are all convicted child abusers.  

Gregory Zarzaur visited Talk of Alabama to discuss his work representing survivors of human trafficking.