Pornhub just launched a university scholarship and you don’t have to get naked to qualify

Pornhub wants you to know it cares. Really. It’s just launched what it’s describing as a “philanthropic endeavour” literally called Pornhub Cares.

For a business whose entire reason to be is monetizing the masturbatory urge, it seems slightly high-handed – pun honestly not intended – but let’s… um… crack on and see what it’s all about.

The first public product of the Pornhub Cares initiative is a $25,000 Pornhub Scholarship. The company is accepting applications from students anywhere in the world.

The criteria for being awarded the money include “leadership and creativity, alongside more tangible accomplishments such as extracurricular activities and dedication to community service efforts.”

To enter, students need to submit an essay of between 1,000 and 1,500 words on the topic, ‘How do you strive to make others happy?’ Presumably answers such as “By schtupping on camera,” or “Going down like a submarine,” are valid, but I suspect not what Pornhub is actually looking for.

The scholarship process is open until 12am EST on October 31. The company says the winner will be chosen shortly after applications close.

And now, for some clenched grin rhetoric from Pornhub Vice President Cory Price:

Pornhub takes immense satisfaction in providing happiness for millions of people around the world each and every day.

Consequently we want to support the recipient of our [scholarship] to realize their goal of doing the same… [so they can] pursue their educational passions and [be relieved of] some of the financial burden of paying for college.

That person will also need to be enrolled to study in “an accredited post-secondary institution and be 18 years of age or older at the time of application.” They will also need to have a grade point average (GPA) of 3.2 or higher.

That last part, the GPA requirement, obviously skews the Pornhub Scholarship towards US students where that is a standard metric of educational achievement. In other countries, notably European ones, it just isn’t really a thing.

On the one hand, anything designed to free someone from some of the financial stress associated with higher education is a good thing. On the other, the Pornhub Scholarship smacks of the old cliché about strippers dancing “just to pay for college.”

There will no doubt be plenty of applicants for the scheme, but they’ll need to be happy with the intendant publicity. When I was studying and just about getting by, I’d have welcomed the cash but would I have wanted to be the student sponsored by a network of porn sites? I’m not so sure.