Should Onlyfans be banned from social media platforms?
Opinion Piece.
By: Artan Abazi, BPR student.
The site, which has become so popular in the past year, especially during the pandemic is open to anyone, from celebrities to college students, teenagers, but it’s best known for one thing: pornographic content. As the pandemic continues, and people lose their jobs, there are financial hardships and no one knows this better than college students. Many of these students have turned to the OnlyFans platform to pay their tuition and cover other living costs. Creators generate income by charging for monthly subscriptions, tips and livestreams. During the pandemic, OnlyFans users increased from 7.5 million to 30 million.
What is Onlyfans?
OnlyFans is a content-sharing platform, based in London, UK. Creators can use it to offer videos, photos, or one-on-one chats for a price. Currently, Onlyfans has approximately 85 million users and more than 450,000 creators. It was founded by Timothy Stokley in 2016; two years later, he sold a majority stake in the business to Leonid Radvinsky, a Chicago-based Internet entrepreneur with a background in adult entertainment and direct marketing. Onlyfans is a great site for adult performers and sex workers and, lately, celebrities are also using this platform. Cardi B, a former reality TV star turned multiplatinum rapper, reportedly makes 8 million dollars per month on Onlyfans, which is the third-highest total on the platform behind Blac Chyna & Bella Thorne.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, actress, singer, and model Bella Thorne joined Onlyfans in August 2020. In her first 24 hours she earned more than one million dollars in revenue. Many of the top creators spend a lot of time communicating directly with fans. Visitors are encouraged to provide a tip if they want a personalized message.
However, unfortunately, this isn’t always the reality and many young girls are falling victim of the scam on OnlyFans. Many underage girls are subscribing to the site. Usually, it starts from having an Instagram or TikTok account.
So, should OnlyFans be banned from platforms like Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat? While OnlyFans is a great platform for independent adult performers, especially during the pandemic where in-person bookings are no longer possible, it isn’t the place for underage people who do not fully understand the nature of the site and this line of business.
Since teenagers spend a lot of time online, they’re more likely to use their credit card to follow their favourite celebrity on OnlyFans. Teens don’t just subscribe for the adult content, however they create OnlyFans profiles themselves. Seeing adult influencers making cash, many decide to do the same. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary Nudes4sale, many underage minors (primarily girls) sell explicit content on OnlyFans.
Legally, you must be over the age of 18 to sell or distribute explicit content. However, according to this documentary a lot of underage minors sell their content on this platform. Although, OnlyFans requires that creators scan their documents, identification and other personal information.
Why is OnlyFans a virtual danger?
One risk of OnlyFans is that the content can be leaked online, which can cause mental health consequences for the teenagers. Last year, 1.5 terabytes of adult content — 3 million photos or 750 hours of HD video — produced by sex workers and social media influencers was leaked online. These were instances where quick search on Twitter for a popular OnlyFans creator’s name with the keyword “OnlyFans” resulted in uncensored content. Some Twitter users attempted to profit from the leak by offering to sell content to their followers.
According to OnlyFans’ terms of service, user contents belong to the users themselves, and they claimed the leak is not the result of a data breach. Instead, the content was allegedly gathered from a number of sources.
Online Petition
There is currently an online petition that was started on Change.org a year ago by Shelly Taker, a concerned mother. This campaign was started to raise awareness to the dangers of child pornography. Many children are impressionable and like to keep up with the trends — OnlyFans being one of them.
As a parent, Taker believes that children need to be protected and not exposed to pornography via social media sites. There are over two thousand supporters that already signed this petition and Taker hopes that social media platforms will ban OnlyFans to protect children from getting hooked by this trend. Parents need to educate their kids on how dangerous OnlyFans can be and what consequences will it have in their life.
Back to the pandemic — yes it has brought new lifestyles and that includes opportunities for sex workers. This can be a perfect way for them to make money, but it is definitely not a place for underage minors. Social media platforms should take concerned parents seriously and ban OnlyFans from their platforms.
