A Mainstream Contributor To Sexual Exploitation
Empowerment or Exploitation?
OnlyFans promotes itself as giving porn performers power, but in reality it empowers sex traffickers, child exploiters, and “revenge porn” posters.
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Updated 6/3/24: In May 2024, UK communications regulator Ofcom announced they were investigating OnlyFans over concerns the company is not doing enough to prevent children children from accessing pornography. The investigation will also assess whether OnlyFans failed to provide complete and accurate information in response to the regulator’s requests.
Updated 3/19/24: A Reuters investigation found more than 120 people have complained to U.S. police agencies that they were featured in sexually explicit content on OnlyFans without their consent – including one woman whose rape video was allegedly sold on the platform. This investigation has led to calls from policymakers to hold OnlyFans accountable.
Jane Doe thought she was on a date.
But it turned into a living nightmare.
When Jane was raped by her “date” and another man, it was only the beginning. After the brutal assault, she grabbed her clothes and tried to leave—but the two men prevented her, raping her again and again.
Finally, the perpetrators let Jane go . . . but it still didn’t end there. Because the whole time, the men were filming each other raping Jane. And they uploaded a compilation of the videos to OnlyFans.
OnlyFans verified the perpetrator’s account, enabling him to upload the material. Despite the company’s claims of robust safety features, they somehow failed to detect and remove a video that showed Jane screaming and crying while being gang-raped.
Instead, OnlyFans monetized the rape footage, taking a 20% cut of the money made from it.
As OnlyFans has grown in notoriety in the past few years, so has recognition that it is a platform being used for exploitation and criminal activity. OnlyFans has rightly faced increased scrutiny by police, policymakers, and the press for evidence of child sex abuse material (CSAM, the more apt term for child pornography), sex trafficking, child online exploitation, harassment, doxing, cyberstalking and image-based sexual abuse and a host of other harms and potential crimes.
Though OnlyFans has claimed to have instituted robust age and consent verification, evidence would suggest that these measures have been insufficient to rid the platform of crimes. When NCOSE researchers searched public Discord servers using the keyword “onlyfans,” a third of the results tagged with OnlyFans contained high indicators of child sex abuse material.
Review the proof we’ve collected and read our recommendations for what needs to change.
*Please also see our Discord and Reddit pages for examples of the type of deepfake pornography and other forms of image-based sexual abuse that are shared and proliferate across platforms, including OnlyFans.
Our Requests for Improvement
- Create a designated law enforcement account to facilitate investigations
- Implement dual verification for live streaming requiring creators and anyone in the live stream video to provide age, identity, and consent information by video submission to OnlyFans before beginning the live stream
- Implement increased measures of proactive detection and moderation specifically for private chats and live streams
- Ban deepfakes and AI-generated pornography and invest in sufficient technology to identify and remove such content
- Require users and creators to manually check a product warning for the website every time they log into the platform
Proof
WARNING: Any pornographic images have been blurred, but are still suggestive. There may also be graphic text descriptions shown in these sections.
POSSIBLE TRIGGER.
Threat to the Safety and Well-Being of Creators
OnlyFans is often thought to be a “safe” alternative to other iterations of the commercial sex trade—but this could not be further from the truth. “Creators” report facing a myriad of serious harms, including doxing, stalking, rape, abuse, physical threats from subscribers and traffickers, financial exploitation by subscribers and the platform itself, psychological manipulation, death, suicide, mental health harms, and more.
Death Threats, Stalking, and Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA)
- OnlyFans 22-year-old has ‘had threats to dismember and rape’ her, Nottingham Post, Katie May Nelson Local Democracy Reporter and Annette Belcher Digital Publishing Editor (LDR), November 30, 2022.
- She criticizes the lack of safety measures on OnlyFans: “Luckily for me, every public occurrence has been quelled by my friends or staff stepping in so hasn’t led to a report. The site unfortunately has absolutely no safeguarding in place for when things like this happen. They barely reply to technical support emails. Even with content leaking and theft online, they do not support creators. I currently pay an outside agency to help me deal with that. I would like to think the police would take OnlyFans creators seriously as they should be impartial when dealing with crimes.”
- The dark side of OnlyFans: Model, 24, reveals her ‘stalker from hell’ experiences of being filmed from her apartment and followed in public, Daily Mail UK, Carina Stathis, December 17, 2022.
- OnlyFans model forced to move after stalker sends disturbing backyard knife photo, Dexerto, Michael Gwilliam November 2, 2022.
- Man drove 400 miles to stalk OnlyFans model, WI court docs say. ‘I was ten feet away’, The Kansas City Star, Mitchell Willetts, July 31, 2022.
- Pressure to escalate to more extreme acts: Myth: Selling nudes on OnlyFans is “empowering” – a thread, Collective Shout, Twitter, August 12, 2022.
See the evidence we’ve compiled into this easy to view & download PDF
Image-based Sexual Abuse
Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is the sexual violation of a person committed through the abuse or weaponization of any image depicting the person. Creators on OnlyFans have reported experiences of IBSA such as having sexual content they posted on their account stolen, distributed, and sold without their consent or knowledge. With the rise of generative-AI and deepfake technology, IBSA will only become a more pervasive problem on OnlyFans. There is evidence of image scraping bots stealing creators’ content from OnlyFans, as well as evidence of stolen content being distributed on pornography sites and social media platforms like Discord and Reddit.
NCOSE researchers found evidence of ‘leaked’ and stolen content on various social media sites like Reddit and Discord. Results also suggested that generative AI and deepfakes are increasingly problematic for OnlyFans creators. A few Discord servers suggested containing sexual deepfakes of OnlyFans creators.
Additionally, when NCOSE researchers conducted a search on GitHub for “onlyfans” more than 300 results containing image scrapers for downloading content from OnlyFans were returned.
Creators have reported OnlyFans’ lack of safety measures and support for those who are victimized through image-based sexual abuse. One creator explained how when she submitted a support ticket reporting the IBSA, her support ticket was removed for purportedly violating OnlyFans policies:
See the evidence we’ve compiled into this easy to view & download PDF
Insufficient Age Verification and Moderation
OnlyFans fails to implement age and consent verification and moderation systems and fail to keep criminal and harmful activity off of the platform. The lack of consideration for the safety and wellbeing of the creators on the platform is alarming. By ignoring the concerns and refusing to implement more stringent processes for age and consent verification and moderation, OnlyFans continually puts its community and creators at risk.
While OnlyFans does have age verification measures in place for creators, these have been easily circumvented. Live streams, private messages, and published content of individuals who are not the account owner have been found to depict non-consensual content and child sexual abuse material. Age and consent verification must be comprehensive to be effective. Currently, OnlyFans fails to require age and consent verification after signing up for a creator account.
OnlyFans allows Users to authenticate accounts through Twitter and Google. However, because Twitter and Google fail to verify age upon account creation (they merely ask the user to provide a date of birth), OnlyFans’ reliance on these sites to authenticate users is insufficient and provides easy methods for minors to access sexually explicit content. To test this, NCOSE researchers set up an account on Twitter (18+) and then used that account to verify their age when creating a User account on OnlyFans. The NCOSE researchers were able to access sexually explicit content in less than 60 seconds after creating the fictitious adult Twitter account.
The lack of age and consent verification upon account creation allows minors to create accounts on the 18+ platform. This has resulted in minor-aged users being exposed to sexually explicit content and participating in various contests and activities on OnlyFans.
- OnlyFans star hopes subscriber ‘had fun’ filming racy clip after learning he’s a ‘minor,’ Daily Star UK, Lizzie McAllister, April 14, 2023.
The lack of age and consent verification has directly resulted in criminal activity such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM, the more apt term for “child pornography) and sex trafficking.
See the evidence we’ve compiled into this easy to view & download PDF
Child Sexual Abuse Material and Sex Trafficking of Minors
In light of the significant rise in image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) occurring on OnlyFans, such as through “leaks” of content on other social media websites like Twitter, Discord, and Reddit, NCOSE researchers used Disboard, a public Discord server listing website, to see if Discord was hosting servers dedicated to IBSA on OnlyFans. Our researchers were looking for server names indicating IBSA such as “OnlyFans Leaks” or “OnlyFans Free.” However, after only using the keyword search “OnlyFans,” NCOSE researchers were exposed to an overwhelming number of servers containing high indications of CSAM. Close to every third server contained titles, tags, and descriptions suggesting CSAM. These were scattered across the results and had multiple servers with slightly different names.
Additionally, a handful of servers had thumbnails containing actual depictions of child sexual abuse material [VR1] (CSAM). One server, contained a thumbnail depicting a small female child who was roughly 6 years old, lying down with her mouth open holding a fully erect penis. The picture appears to be taken by the man lying down on his back and does not show anything other than his penis and shorts. However, the child’s face is completely visible. This was available as a public Discord server. NCOSE researchers immediately reported these servers to NCMEC and did not enter any of the indicating servers.
See some recent news reports covering this issue:
- Miami-Dade Man Accused of Sexually Assaulting Teen, Posting Footage to OnlyFans, NBC Miami, NBC 6, July 27, 2022.
- Broward OnlyFans creator used site to get child sexual abuse material, deputies say, Local 10, Chris Gothner, March 30, 2023.
- Colorado Springs man arrested in alleged human trafficking of minor, The Gazette, Annika Schmidt, August 5, 2022
- Expert Analysis of Open Source Material relating to Child Sexual Abuse Material and Sex Trafficking occurring on OnlyFans.com, Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative in Consultation with Veteran Law Enforcement Officials, April 3, 2022.
See the evidence we’ve compiled into this easy to view & download PDF
Sex Trafficking of Adults
One recent high-profile case of sex trafficking on OnlyFans is that of the kickboxer and influencer Andrew Tate. The below articles detail the allegations against Tate.
- Andrew Tate’s victims were forced to perform on TikTok and OnlyFans pages he controlled, legal documents say, Insider, Feb 2, 2023
- “Andrew Tate’s victims had their TikTok and OnlyFans accounts controlled by two of his female confidants who threatened to beat them, according to new legal documents out of Romania.
- Sex, lies and video cams: Andrew Tate turned women into slaves, prosecutors say, Reuters, February 2, 2023
- “Tate, an influencer with millions of online followers, urged the Moldovan woman to join him in Romania. . . Romanian prosecutors say, Tate raped the woman twice in the country while seeking to enlist her in a human-trafficking operation focused on making pornography for the online platform OnlyFans, a site that allows people to sell explicit videos of themselves.”
- “Prosecutors say the Tates controlled the victims’ OnlyFans’ accounts and earnings amounting to tens of thousands of euros, underlining concerns among some human rights groups about the potential for the exploitation of women on such platforms.”
- Andrew Tate’s victims were forced to perform on TikTok and OnlyFans pages he controlled, legal documents say, Insider, Feb 2, 2023
Another recent case of a sex trafficking ring on OnlyFans: Couple arraigned for allegedly running multi-state sex trafficking ring through OnlyFans, ABC Eyewitness News, WABC, June 29, 2022
See the evidence we’ve compiled into this easy to view & download PDF
Glamorization and False Promises
OnlyFans glamorizes participation in the sex industry with deceptive promises of empowerment, freedom, influencer status, and quick cash. However, the truth is much grimmer.
Myths about OnlyFans – Debunked:
Myth: “OnlyFans is an easy way to get rich quick.”
Reality: The top 1% of OnlyFans creators make an average of $2,500/month. That is roughly $15/hour before taxes. On average, a McDonald’s Crew Member makes more money than an OnlyFans creator in the top 1%, at roughly $2,600. The average OnlyFans creator makes $180/month.
Myth: “OnlyFans is not dangerous because it is online.”
Reality: Research shows that OnlyFans significantly increased the supply of individuals offering the purchase of in-person sexual access. 34% of surveyed creators reported experiencing adverse mental health effects as a direct result of their OnlyFans participation. Nearly 1/3 of respondents reported knowing when a sex trafficker controlled an OnlyFans creator’s account. See also Threat to Safety and Well-being of Creators.
Myth: “OnlyFans has sufficient safety measures in place.”
Reality: Research shows that reported feeling like OnlyFans did not do enough to protect users and creators on the platform. 11% of respondents knew of minors having accounts on the platform. Respondents collectively knew of 35 minors who had their content sold on OnlyFans and six percent self-disclosed that their traffickers helped them create and market their content.
- Some of the top creators on OnlyFans are stepping down and speaking out against the lies of “empowerment”
See the evidence we’ve compiled into this easy to view & download PDF
Survivor Testimonies
Highlighting survivor voices is crucial to NCOSE. As the reality of exploitation on OnlyFans unravels, content creators are speaking out about their experiences. The following links document experiences of former content creators on OnlyFans.
- Top 1% of OnlyFans And I Quit!, Tracy Kiss, March 28, 2023.
- Why I Quit OnlyFans, Lauren Lexx, March 2023.
- The Reality of OnlyFans, Brett Cooper, February 5, 2023
See the evidence we’ve compiled into this easy to view & download PDF
Fast Facts
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(WARNING: link directs to an Indy100 news articles that contains a sexually suggestive image)
