OnlyFans and young people: exploitation or empowerment?

2021

OnlyFans and young people - exploitation or empowerment?

VoiceBox, an international youth-led organisation that promotes the voices of 13 to 25-year-olds, has released an interesting report analysing OnlyFans, a relatively new social media platform that is also a content subscription service.

The report investigates the opinions of the platform’s creators and users and assesses the general impression that young people have of this platform. VoiceBox considers this platform to be the most worrisome for parents due to its ease of payment functionality and its association with sex work. This report is an excellent introduction to the platform, its reputation, and its positive and negative aspects as deemed by young people themselves. 

The platform boomed in popularity during 2020 and by December boasted 90 million users – as well as more than one million content creators, up from 120,000 in 2019. 

Although OnlyFans hosts and encourages a variety of content, including fitness experts, make-up artists, musicians and graphic designers, it has become increasingly popular with sex workers. Due to the relative ease and accessibility of the platform – and the perception that it’s possible to make ‘easy money’ through soft porn – many people who weren’t sex workers before have decided to create x-rated OnlyFans accounts.

While many of the respondents pointed out short-term gains – particularly around money and sexual empowerment – young people tended to be unsure, even suspicious, of OnlyFans and its long-term effects. Creators, users and observers alike rightly raised questions that have not been sufficiently addressed by the platform – or indeed those who comment upon it. These questions mostly centre around the impacts upon young people’s: self-esteem and mental health, finances and job prospects, relationships and views on sex.

Read the full report here.