The Role of OnlyFans in Human Trafficking

Unfortunately, it’s easy for minors to be lured onto the platform so that content can be created. One very common method is via the “Romeo pimp” or “boyfriending” model, in which a romantic partner showers a teenager with affection in order to manipulate them into recording sex acts on OnlyFans. Sometimes, this coercion involves two teens. Other times, it’s a much older person grooming a youth.

An investigator told the BBC that within an hour spent on other social media platforms, he found 10 CSAM images that had first been hosted on OnlyFans. They said, “The youngest was around five years old… Whatever their [OnlyFans’] current methodology, there’s still cracks that it’s still slipping through.”

That experiment also illuminates the risk that a teenager might share content on the service where a predatory viewer can record it and then sell it off-platform to others — again, a form of trafficking.

There’s also an inherently dangerous quality to the platform’s cultural narrative, a narrative where anyone can get rich quick from just a few sexy minutes a day. That story can be immensely compelling to teenagers who may not have the tools to discern that those promises are illusory and illegal.

In reality, the average creator on OnlyFans doesn’t get rich quickly. They make an estimated $180 every month. 73% of the platform’s total revenue comes from just the top 10% of their creators.

Ultimately, the mythos of OnlyFans can normalize sexual experiences that are abusive and risky. This is not to imply that teenagers need to be restricted from all conversations about sexuality, but normalizing sex work in the absence of education on consent, legality, and safety is egregiously harmful.

OnlyFans alone isn’t responsible for the glamorized notions around its platform. In an experiment by the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative, profiles were established purporting to be minors on Instagram, SnapChat, and TikTok. The algorithms in their feeds quickly delivered OnlyFans content, funneling users there with one or two clicks. Serving teenagers this kind of romanticized vision of explicit content creation can lead them onto the platform and into situations where they’re vulnerable to exploitation. Clearly, this is a societally embedded pipeline into a loss of safety for kids, who cannot legally consent to participating in sex work.