Nudes 4 Sale

In the digital age, it’s considered rather simple to start your own business online. Some sell their art on Etsy, others advertise vintage clothing on ASOS Marketplace. However, an alternative practice is attracting entrepreneurs around the world. It’s the act of uploading their most intimate images to a virtual audience, in exchange for a monthly fee. A website representative says there are now more than 120 million users registered, and its popularity is growing rapidly. The website is OnlyFans.

I first heard of OnlyFans in 2018, when a girl I knew from my local area began advertising her profile on Instagram. At the time, she was the only person anyone was aware of that was selling such content online. Screenshots of her homepage were sent into multiple group chats I was in, often accompanied with messages such as “would you dare” and “how embarrassing”. At first, I thought the same.

But, as the website’s popularity grew, and more people I knew started using the platform, I began to see OnlyFans as an unconventional, yet interesting new way of earning income.

Besides, 15% of us are sexting nowadays, according to a 2018 study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Why not make some money from it?

Lifestyle and culture magazine VICE even has a regular column called 'Are You Getting Any?', which details how much, or how little, my generation, 'Gen Z', is having sex.

Included in this piece are the voices of 4 women - 3 of whom I consider friends, and 1 I have come to know via social media. I am investigating OnlyFans as a platform with an acknowledgement of my own bias, as I am aware of the money it has allowed my friends to earn when they’ve faced financial hardships.

1 million people globally are using OnlyFans as a method to generate extra income. Founded in 2016, the website is the contrivance of its London-based CEO Tim Stokely, and is a provocative platform that offers content creators the opportunity to monetise and determine their own workload via a subscription service - something unattainable on most social media platforms.

Speaking to Wired in 2019, Stokely stated that: "Uber is a bolt-on to your car just as OnlyFans is a bolt-on to your existing social media" - and he wasn’t wrong. As of March 2021, the representative says they have paid out more than £2bn in creator earnings. Make no mistake; this appears to be just the beginning for OnlyFans, who receive 20% of all money made on the website. According to their help page, this percentage "covers referral payments, payment processing, hosting, support, and all other services".

Creators decide their own monthly rates, which gives them "a feeling of power and control", as creator Tia explains. Tia, who has used the platform since February 2020, made more in her first month on OnlyFans than she does monthly in her day job as a full time retail assistant. I've known Tia for 2 years, and although she credits the platform with helping her financially, it has generated difficulties in her personal life. She notes, "men think if you do OnlyFans, you'll be easy to sleep with. It affects relationships and creates pre-judgement".

OnlyFans Creator, Tia. Image courtesy of Tia Richardson

OnlyFans Creator, Tia. Image courtesy of Tia Richardson

Strikingly, many creators propose a free subscription, often implying that pay-per-view content lies ahead. Upon subscribing to several free accounts, it is clear that many do offer snippets of complimentary content, in order to lure in potential paying customers that desire more. Content creators also can engage with fans privately through direct messaging, this feature often used to sell ultra-exclusive or personalised content. This pay-per-view content averages currently at $5 an image.

The content uploaded by users varies with each creator. Some keep to just promiscuous lingerie imagery and offer ‘tip to see more’ packages. Other creators can offer group sex livestreams, masturbation clips and point of view (POV) sex tapes. OnlyFans give creators the freedom to post only what they are comfortable in producing.

But, there are boundaries. The platform allows countless sexual acts to be shown on the platform, but a line is drawn when creators attempt to overstep the mark. Their limits are displayed in OnlyFans' Terms of Service below:

Although the platform is synonymous with pornography, not all content is not safe for work (NSFW)  - a multitude of personal trainers, chefs and musicians have already taken advantage of OnlyFans’ potential to acquire more earnings.

Famous faces are known to frequent the platform as well. Notably, musicians Cardi B and DJ Khaled offer first look and behind-the-scenes sneak peeks of upcoming projects on their accounts, which each boast thousands of likes.

One content creator, an anonymous straight young male, explains that he joined OnlyFans to afford a PlayStation 5 - now, he claims he could buy several … if he could find them. Not only do his legion of subscribers, primarily older gay men, pay his bills and buy him the Batman statues on his Amazon wish list, they, he claims, "boost his self-esteem", and offer an indispensable distraction from the mundane normalities of mid-pandemic life.

So, what is it about a largely X-rated website that is enticing millions of curious consumers around the world?

For starters, OnlyFans has become somewhat of a phenomenon for the social media generation; so much so, that even Beyoncé name-dropped OnlyFans on a remix of Megan Thee Stallion’s single ‘Savage’ - a mention that reportedly triggered a 15 percent spike in traffic to the website, according to The Daily Beast.

Some celebrities have used the hype surrounding OnlyFans in order to raise awareness of important causes. For instance, the obscure philanthropic efforts of Ansel Elgort made headlines in April 2020, when the actor uploaded a near full-frontal photograph of himself to his Instagram account, captioned "OnlyFans LINK IN BIO". Tactically, the link directed Elgort's eager fans to a GoFundMe appeal supporting frontline workers in Brooklyn, New York.

The image helped raise over $400k.

The Lack of Lovin' in Lockdown

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 114 million jobs were lost in 2020 due to COVID-19 and its subsequent lockdowns. Once the World Health Organisation declared the disease a pandemic in March 2020, many began seeking ways to ensure financial stability. Whilst thousands signed up as content creators on OnlyFans, the boost in registered users was substantial too. OnlyFans told The Economist in a January 2020 creator profile that there were 12 million users on the site - a figure that has increased by 108 million in just 14 months.

You could say there's been a positive transition in how sex work is seen in society - adult film stars Rebecca More and Sophie Anderson, otherwise known as ‘The Cock Destroyers’, have become celebrated internet personalities partly due to their engaging sex education content. Also, a petition supporting former porn actress Mia Khalifa’s bid to remove her 2014 videos has racked up 1.8 million signatures as of April 2021.

Pre-coronavirus, it was easier to meet new people, socialise, and find potential love interests.

However, when the pandemic forced nightspots to close, also halted were first dates, one night stands and other stereotypical sexual endeavours. Due to the restrictions surrounding in-person activities, internet usage rapidly increased. UK regulator Ofcom revealed in June 2020 that adults were spending a record average of 4 hours and 2 minutes a day online, an increase of 33 minutes from 9 months prior, and expressed that "the pandemic has radically changed online behaviour".

When creator Elle, who initially shared content on OnlyFans anonymously, first promoted her own page via Instagram Stories, she was shocked at how many men she knew opted to use their real name - rather than an alias. Elle believes the boost in subscribers that she actually knew was due to the "curiosity" and "boredom" that many were ensuing due to COVID-19 restrictions. I've known Elle for 10 years, since we started secondary school together. She describes her OnlyFans content as "explicit".

OnlyFans Creator, Elle. Image courtesy of Elle Applegarth

OnlyFans Creator, Elle. Image courtesy of Elle Applegarth

For those facing a lockdown, single, and isolated, the internet was prepared to occupy them.

Adult entertainment website Pornhub gave the world 30 free days of its premium content "in an effort to encourage the importance of staying home". Even dating app Tinder utilised social distancing orders by permitting users free access to its once-paid Passport feature, which allows singletons to ‘swipe’ anywhere in the world.

Although someone from Singapore was unlikely to ever meet their quarantine beau from Birmingham, it gave users a playful distraction to speak with strangers facing similar difficulties to themselves in uncertain times.

What made OnlyFans unique was that they didn’t offer any complimentary gestures, yet interest continuously grew. Data extracted from Google Trends, which according to Google scales their data "on a range of 0 to 100 based on a topic’s proportion to all searches", demonstrates that the platform had a steady impact on search engines from 2016 until early 2020. Simultaneously, the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 loomed. Once it reached a new peak of ‘26’ in mid-March 2020, in contrast to the previous 4 years, it has never dropped below the same mark since.

Google Trends data displaying a surge in searches for OnlyFans. Data correct as of April 2021. Source: Google Trends

Google Trends data displaying a surge in searches for OnlyFans. Data correct as of April 2021. Source: Google Trends

For creators experiencing financial difficulties as a consequence of the pandemic, OnlyFans helped "make ends meet", as Bronx-based paramedic Lauren Caitlyn Kwei told The New York Post in December 2020.

Tia agrees, saying that the platform "helped ensure money was coming in" when her shifts were changed at her retail job.

OnlyFans once had a lifetime referral scheme in place for its content creators, in which the referrer received 5% of OnlyFans’ 20% cut for the new creators duration using the platform.

However, in May 2020, the policy was replaced with a 12 month scheme - this prompted creator Ally Hardesty to believe this was due to the increase in sign ups, telling VICE that: "it’s disturbing that OnlyFans chose to make this change in the middle of a pandemic and is punishing the same people who have been the foundation of their growth and success".

Content Comes With a Price

The pandemic appeared to play a part in the popularity boost for the platform, with millions subscribing to creators over the lockdown period. Users wanted to see what content lay behind the paywalls. However, with the surge in registered accounts came the heightened risk of users saving the content for themselves, or further distributing it - without the creator’s consent.

Elle reflects on a time when she was offered a small fortune by an anonymous buyer to produce a personalised video for a group of men in her local area. She politely declined, as she "knew it would be screen recorded and sent into group chats".

Although the creators featured in this project state that their content is distinctly watermarked, the threat of unpaid exposure lingers.

This was demonstrated in the March 2021 ‘hack’ of OnlyFans. Researchers at cybersecurity company BackChannel discovered a post on a hacking forum, in which a member shared a Google Drive folder containing "videos and pictures stolen from hundreds of OnlyFans users".

Redistribution of the exclusive content shared on OnlyFans goes against their Terms of Service, which declares that a user must both:

• "Respect the intellectual property rights of Creators, including by not recording, reproducing, sharing, communicating to the public or otherwise distributing their Content without authorisation."

• "Do not reproduce, print, distribute, attempt to download, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store or transmit any Content, except as permitted under the Terms of Service."

Nonetheless, privacy regarding content shared via social media channels could be problematic, due to the lack of restrictions in place on smartphones. The inability to monitor conversations and imagery being shared without a person's knowledge is a cause for concern.

Founder of Online Media Law UK, Dr. Holly Powell-Jones, explains that "copyright law primarily exists to protect the rights of creators to profit from their own work". This is primarily covered in the UK by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Dr. Powell-Jones continues that:

"There is a general lack of understanding among the public and social media users of copyright law and how it applies online - this is partly why we have so much copyright infringement going on in the digital age. Plus, of course, technology makes it easy. There are often calls for ‘technological solutions’ to this issue to protect people’s copyrighted content online - but currently there isn’t really any way to prevent people from screenshotting material and sharing it elsewhere in practice".

An OnlyFans representative responded to questions surrounding creator protection from copyright, and emphasise their commitment to protecting their creators.

They assure:

"OnlyFans has a dedicated anti-piracy team that provides legal DMCA support. Safety is paramount on the site. All content indeed belongs to the creators yet as a complimentary service, the company issues legal notice on users behalf.

"This procedure is inclusive of all required notices to move any infringement up to litigation if target websites refuse to comply. OnlyFans also notifies the offending domain registrars and hosting services as well as reporting to all major search engines. With a duty to help battle against illegal piracy, OnlyFans is firmly in the fight to protect user content. Takedown success rates this year have been high across offending image hosting sites, torrent providers and cyber lockers."

US-based creator Tonya, however, has a different approach to people who may save her copyrighted content for subsequent further use.

Although she doesn’t condone subscribers stealing her content for financial greed, Tonya believes that, "if someone needs something so badly that they’re willing to steal from someone else, they’ll steal from me or another (creator)". I met Tonya through an OnlyFans creators social media support group, and she started using the platform as it was "something (she) could do in (her) own time". For privacy reasons, Tonya requested that an image of her not be used in this piece.

For Your Eyes Only

Unsurprisingly, there are risks associated with distributing racy imagery of yourself to others on social media - regardless of whether you have an OnlyFans account, or not. There were 2050 confirmed UK reports of image based sexual abuse (IBSA), also known as revenge porn, to the government funded Revenge Porn Helpline in 2020. This was a 22% increase from the helplines’ 2019 statistics, according to data shared with the BBC.

1 in 25 Americans have been victims of nonconsensual image sharing, as stated in a December 2016 report by Data & Society.

In light of social justice movements such as ‘#MeToo’ and ‘Time’s Up’, in which victims of sexual harassment took a stand against their perpetrators, pornography websites came under fire.

This was due to their low-regulation policies, that enabled users to upload content that could be deemed revenge porn.

Strikingly, in December 2020, Pornhub responded to such complaints by acknowledging the website's desire "to be fully transparent about the content that should and should not appear on the platform". They removed a staggering 80% of their content - equivalent to more than 10 million videos - from the Pornhub website.

The redistribution of private sexual content is a criminal offence, as Alistair Parker, a criminal law solicitor at London-based legal firm Brett Wilson, explains:

"(IBSA) is an offence under Section 33 of The Criminal Justice Courts Act 2015, and is the unauthorised disclosure of private sexual photographs of another person, and must be done without their consent. It also has to be done with the intention of causing the individual distress, and is punishable with a period of imprisonment of up to 2 years".

Sympathy appears to be lacking from some on social media for IBSA victims who upload content to OnlyFans, demonstrated in slews of derogatory tweets that target creators.

Using your body as a source of income can prove problematic in your personal life, too. Instagram influencer and OnlyFans creator Ava Louise told LADBible in January 2021 of how her grandmother and aunt 'disowned' her upon learning she used the platform, stating that her grandmother now "refuses to acknowledge (her) existence".

When creators upload content to OnlyFans, they’re doing so to earn income - not to open themselves up to being victims of IBSA. Creator Kim, who has been sharing images on the platform since early 2020, details how she "loves having the control over what (she) posts", never exceeding what she and her partner are comfortable with. I've known Kim for a year, and she describes her OnlyFans content as "provocative, but not explicit".

OnlyFans Creator, Kim. Image courtesy of Kimberley Mole

OnlyFans Creator, Kim. Image courtesy of Kimberley Mole

Trust in the age of online dating and sending nudes online can be difficult, as content can be shared so privately via platforms such as Snapchat, Twitter DMs and Facebook Messenger. 

A recent high-profile case of IBSA involves British influencers Stephen Bear and Georgia Harrison, who are, at time of writing, embroiled in a legal battle regarding content allegedly uploaded to Bear’s OnlyFans account. The content is said to show himself and Harrison having sex on CCTV, the latter unaware it's recording her.

Speaking via her Instagram Stories in January 2021, Harrison condemned her ex-partner, believing she had "no other choice but to go public about this situation, not just for me, but for anyone that has been round (Bear’s house) not knowing they are being filmed". 

Bear denies the accusations, and the case is still ongoing.

Lisa King, director of communications and external relations at domestic abuse charity Refuge says:

“Intimate image abuse can have a devastating impact on women, including those who receive threats to share their intimate images or films. In a survey conducted by Refuge last year, we found that 1 in 14 adults, equivalent to 4.4 million people in England and Wales, have experienced threats to share their intimate images or videos. Even more young women experience these threats, with 1 in 7 affected.

The research demonstrated that threats to share sexual images is undoubtedly a domestic abuse issue – the vast majority of women who experienced threats to share were threatened by their current or former partner. Such threats can result in a woman feeling coerced into staying with an abusive partner.

For years, a gap in the law has meant that threating to share intimate images was not a crime in England and Wales. Our campaigning on this issue means that very soon this will no longer be the case. Last year, Refuge launched 'The Naked Threat campaign' which called on the government to make a simple amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill, criminalising threats to share intimate images. Almost 45,000 Refuge supporters called on the government to make this change.”

An advantage of having an OnlyFans account, as the anonymous male creator explains, is that it "helps sex workers to generate money easily, rather than getting paid for one off (porn) videos or shoots". Creator Tonya also shares that she uses her account to form deeper connections with her subscribers, something many creators would not do. Tonya explains:

"My whole point of being on (OnlyFans) is not to be impersonal and make a quick buck. I want to get to know people, and be a support to them. Some of these guys (Tonya’s subscribers) can’t open up to their friends and families about things that are on their mind. I’m not a counsellor or therapist, but I still want to be there for people."

Whilst this piece was in development, I reached out to several male creators for interviews. All either declined or didn’t respond, except the one man who spoke to me on the grounds that he remained completely anonymous.

Interestingly, the 4 women I approached for interviews were comfortable with their names and stories being shared - this leads me to believe that male creators feel there is a stigma attached to men selling content on OnlyFans, regardless of their age, race, or sexuality.

According to a survey of 25 OnlyFans content creators conducted in February 2021, almost all consider their time using the platform to have been worthwhile.

Although Tia insists that most interactions with her subscribers have been pleasant, "there are a few that can make you quite feel quite awkward, and question if using (the platform) is even worth it".

As a result of cross-promoting her Instagram and OnlyFans accounts on each platform, Tia has captivated the attention of a man she wistfully refers to as her ‘semi-stalker’.

Whilst Tia doesn’t know this man, nor what he looks like, he initially began bombarding her with "harmless", as Tia refers to them, compliments in private messages. They soon turned into declarations of love. Those eventually led to unsolicited images of his penis, showing himself masturbating to images of her, which Tia describes as "uncomfortable, but expected given what I do".

Instagram messages from Tia's 'semi-stalker'. Images courtesy of Tia Richardson

Instagram messages from Tia's 'semi-stalker'. Images courtesy of Tia Richardson

The relentless messaging became a cause for concern when, unbeknownst to Tia, the anonymous subscriber discovered where she both lived and worked. Twice, he sent her images of himself in her street. On one occasion, he took a photograph of Tia working in her retail job - she was "oblivious" that the image was being taken.

Subsequently, Tia blocked the anonymous pursuant on social media, and has since removed him from her OnlyFans. However, there are no preventative measures in place on the platform to assure Tia he won't return.

The Future of OnlyFans

OnlyFans' legacy is still to be determined, yet it has achieved international recognition in the 5 years the platform has been active. Although it began as solely a website for sharing content, OnlyFans TV (OFTV) launched in October 2020, which they dubbed as "a new video streaming platform that lets you watch your favourite OnlyFans creators on any device". The content is available on streaming services such as Roku and Apple TV.

CEO Tim Stokely plans to branch out into other creative industries, telling The Financial Times in April 2021 that "our job is to constantly think of new features that can help creators interact with their fans".

OnlyFans has the potential for longevity, as social media changes and develops in the forthcoming years. A representative for the platform details the recently launched music 'Creative Fund', which aims "to bring a boost and reinforce the importance of an indispensable industry". OnlyFans is encouraging musicians to participate for 1 of 4 £20,000 cash prizes, which will assist them in jump-starting their careers.

The winners will be chosen by rapper Stefflon Don, DJ Joe Goddard, fashion designer Henry Holland, actress Suki Waterhouse, and OnlyFans CEO Stokely himself.

Whatever direction Stokely decides to take OnlyFans next, the world will be watching.

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