More than 30 women have filed a lawsuit in California against Pornhub and its parent company for profiting from sexual exploitation and skirting rules that provide actors with protection in the porn industry.

The lawyers representing the plaintiffs accuse the parent company, MindGeek, of running a "classic criminal enterprise" with a business model that profits from non-consensual sexual content.

What does the lawsuit say?

A draft of the lawsuit said that MindGeek "embraced underage, non-consensual, and pirated content in its business," reported American media company CBS.

One of the plaintiffs said she had seen a nude video that her boyfriend had coerced her to make when she was 13 on the website. The video had been uploaded without her consent.

She had asked Pornhub to remove it, but it remained online.

Fourteen of the plaintiffs said they were minors when they were filmed for videos.

"This is a case about rape, not pornography," the complaint said.

MindGeek operates more than 160 pornographic websites from Montreal, though the company is registered in Luxembourg.

What has the reaction been?

MindGeek said that allegations of it running a criminal enterprise were "utterly absurd, completely reckless and categorically false."

The Canadian parliamentary ethics committee called for requiring all content-hosting platforms to specifically require affirmation from persons in porn videos before they're uploaded. They should also be above 18 years old. 

It had launched a study in December after an investigation by The New York Times brought to light the sexual violence the website capitalized on.

In March, more than 100 victims of sexual exploitation, backed by 525 nonprofit organizations, had asked Canadian authorities to criminally investigate the owner of Pornhub.

The lawyer representing the 34 women spent the last year building a civil case against the company.

rm/rt (AFP, AP)