Content warning: This article discusses misogyny, systemic violence, sexual abuse and violence, and child sexual abuse and violence.
Sex work is often referred to as “the world’s oldest profession.” Today, this work is at the forefront of conversations regarding power, agency, and oppression.
When it comes to the social stigma and legal prosecution surrounding the sex industry, it is the workers who bear the consequences — not the producers, agents, and higher-ups of the industry.
Although feminists have long argued that the sex industry is a direct manifestation of the power imbalance between men and women, recent sex-positive movements have sought to strip away shame surrounding the discourse about women’s sexuality. As writer Flo Perry phrases it, “Any kind of porn can be feminist if everyone involved is having a good time, even if they don’t look like they’re having a good time.”
However, growing numbers of young women express feeling disengaged by this form of rhetoric, arguing that sex positivity has not been successful in eradicating or even addressing the patriarchal social structure which led to the need for women’s empowerment in the first place.
Given how the internet has facilitated an infinitely more accessible and expansive world of pornography than ever before, sites like PornHub and OnlyFans are at the core of discussions about female sexuality in the digital sphere.
Is it possible to be sex-positive about business models with oftentimes harmful — if not horrifying — implications for the individuals involved?
The making of an industry
The internet is not the first technology to alter how pornography is created or consumed. The printing press, the invention of photography and film, and the proliferation of video recording have all led to significant changes in our relationship to porn.
However, none of these shifts come anywhere close to the dramatic impact that the internet has had on the porn industry. Online users are free to anonymously access an array of pornography which is seemingly endless and covers every niche and fetish imaginable. The development of webcams allowed users to create and distribute their own explicit videos and images, creating an entirely new genre of virtual sex work with a wider reach.
Watching porn induces intensely high levels of dopamine production, impacting the brain’s capacity to naturally produce the chemical. Over time, this requires an individual to seek out increasingly intense content to elicit a similar reaction from before.
The consequences of having problematic porn use (PPU) — a type of compulsive sexual behaviour disorder — include an increased risk of mental health issues like anxiety or depression. According to the Canadian Centre for Addictions, individuals who struggle with PPU are at a high risk of developing a negative relationship with intimacy, leading to damaged relationships and warped perceptions of sexuality.
Adults are certainly at risk of forming PPU — but so are children. In the US, the average age for first exposure to pornography is 12, while three-quarters of teenagers report they encountered it before turning 17.
Since the adolescent brain is highly impressionable, early exposure to porn can be incredibly detrimental to sexual development. A report published by the National Library of Medicine in 2020 indicates that teenage viewers’ exposure to porn that overwhelmingly depicts violence becomes more likely to think that aggression is a typical aspect of sex.
Take PornHub as an example. It monetizes and predominantly features videos with titles such as “She Can’t Breathe” or “Extreme Choking.” Cases of sexual abuse are not uncommon within the industry, and survivors expressed that PornHub prolongs their suffering by keeping the footage of the assault posted online.
The media we consume plays a significant role in informing how we view ourselves and how we interact with the world around us. Since the majority of porn objectifies women, reinforces stereotypes of submission, and normalizes violent behaviour, it is concerning to think about how this may impact the collective mentality of its audience.
By choosing to participate in the sex industry, or find pleasure in pornographic content, sex positivists attempt to reclaim these aspects of pornography. However, I find it difficult to consider such a practice as empowering when the line between empowerment and oppression in sex work is blurred.
Some sex-positivists, like Swedish film director Erika Lust, have made laudable attempts to reclaim certain aspects of pornography by filming from a woman’s perspective. There are also multiple online porn platforms which feature content with a greater focus on women’s pleasure.
While this genre of pornography is certainly a step in the right direction, it should not be mistaken for the broader porn industry, which remains far from progressive.
The sex industry normalizes the sexualization of young women. Teens exposed to porn might be illusioned into thinking that it’s an easy way to make money, and therefore, may be enticed to participate.
Anytime minors are involved in a commercial sexual activity — which includes online sexual exploitation — the Ontario government automatically classifies it as sex trafficking. Even when it comes to individuals of legal age, it is difficult to determine if pornographic content was produced consensually or nonconsensually. Moreover, the culture surrounding pornography, which normalizes subjugating women and fetishizing violence in media, has made it much more difficult for people to recognize instances of sexual abuse.
Although many people do participate in the porn industry willingly, to ignore its connections with the dark realm of sex trafficking would be grossly irresponsible. Public awareness is the first step in the fight against these incredibly harmful practices.
A new contender
OnlyFans — created in 2016 and popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic — presents a different format of online sex work. Creators upload private content onto their accounts, charging a subscription fee to anyone wanting to engage with their profiles and view their content.
This business model is certainly appealing to many: for a 20 per cent commission on creator earnings, it allows creators to have more personal control over the videos and images being posted and removes unnecessary middlemen like pimps or agents. As of 2024, OnlyFans has more than 305 million users and 4.11 million creators.
That being said, the bar for a safer alternative to PornHub is pretty low and OnlyFans is nowhere near absolved of its own human rights violations.
It’s one thing for adult women to willingly post pornographic content online — regardless of whether we deem it empowering or not — but minors are on OnlyFans as well. In 2021, BBC conducted an investigation which demonstrated that children were not only accessing the site but uploading content as well, bypassing their age of majority restrictions and demonstrating the flaws in the website’s age verification system.
Moreover, while some of the content on OnlyFans is uploaded by teenagers, the UK’s National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has also found increasing proof of child trafficking on the platform. Because most content on OnlyFans is hidden behind a paywall, it’s easier for already trafficked individuals to be exploited without the scrutiny of a wider audience.
According to BBC News, multiple children have reported to the police about their images being posted to the site nonconsensually, including one teen who revealed that her face had been edited onto another person’s body.
Many models on OnlyFans promote their content through social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram. Considering that social media apps are primarily popular among teens and young adults, some concerns can be raised about the dangers of promoting sex work as an attractive and profitable profession.
One anonymous girl who reached out to Childline — the British equivalent of Canada’s confidential 24-hour mental health service Kids Help Phone — added that she had been on OnlyFans since she was only 13. She stated that this was an easy way to make money and expressed admiration for the amount of Instagram followers that popular creators had amassed, even saying “I wanna be just like them.”
But who are these Instagram-famous OnlyFans influencers?
Perhaps the best example is 20-year-old Sophie Rain, who made $43 million in her first year on OnlyFans. Rain boasts over 11 million followers on TikTok, and in 2024, she established the ‘Bop House,’ a mansion in which she and other OnlyFans influencers create TikTok content together.
Their videos consist of viral dances and trends, although they also do not hesitate to flaunt their private jet or collection of sports cars. The portrayal of OnlyFans as a profitable profession is apparent: one of their videos features the caption “Dance if the Bop House made $10 million collectively in the month of December.”
Looking at the comments under these videos, it is clear that many TikTok users see these creators as aspirational figures. One person wrote, “They’re literally set for life” on a video. Another noted, “the bop house girls are actually my favourite tiktokers.”
There are many risks involved in porn production that young women may not be aware of when they initially enter the industry. Just because someone has reached the age of majority does not necessarily mean they are fully ‘grown up.’ Individuals who have not achieved a certain level of maturity may be more vulnerable to certain tactics used by abusers, including coercion or blackmail.
Additionally, luxurious lifestyles are far from the norm for the average OnlyFans creator. In reality, most creators reportedly earn between $150 and $180 a month. The top one per cent of creators make around a third of all the money on the platform, while those in the top 10 per cent take home nearly three-quarters of OnlyFans’ total profits, earning at least $100,000 monthly.
Social Rise — a toolkit for aspiring OnlyFans creators who want to promote their content, including guidance on leveraging platforms like Reddit — provides a wide range of insights into OnlyFans’ user breakdown.
According to their data, women constitute up to 84 per cent of all creators on OnlyFans, while men comprise 71 per cent of subscribers. The largest age demographic is young adults between 18–34, although it’s important to note that these figures reflect the platform’s overall trends and may not fully capture the diversity of content and creators.
While reviewing information on Social Rise’s website, I came across something unsettling. Under a subheader titled “Need a break? Check out the accounts our readers subscribed to the most today,” there was a table presenting the profile pictures, usernames, subscriber counts, and subscription costs of various creators. One creator, labelled “Kayla #1 teen,” stood out to me.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the bio on her account read, “I just turned 18, so I’m finally old enough for this site! I’m excited to explore myself with you… anything goes now!”
Social Rise was the very first link to appear in my Google search for more information about OnlyFans, and I was taken aback by how its content appeared to tap into exploitative language and imagery often associated with underage or newly adult themes.
Danielle Bregoli, also known as Bhad Bhabie — the internet rapper behind “Gucci Flip Flops” — had countless fans eagerly awaiting her 18th birthday when she would be legally able to join OnlyFans and post content.
The oversexualization of young women is not without consequences, as it can perpetuate the harmful belief that a woman should cultivate her sexual appeal over her selfhood.
A “24-hour challenge”
In the context of our society’s complex relationship with sexuality and media, 23-year-old OnlyFans creator Lily Phillips recently made headlines after attempting to sleep with 100 men in one day.
In a YouTube documentary with 9.1 million views, YouTuber Josh Pieters followed Phillips in the weeks leading up to her attempt.
In one scene, Pieters asks Phillips if she considers herself a feminist. She replied affirmatively explaining, “Guys are always going to sexualize me, so I may as well try to profit off it.” She acknowledges that, while she enjoys her work, it also brings up complex feelings about how it may perpetuate negative gender stereotypes: “It’s hard because you’re being selfish but you’re also not helping the situation.”
Later in the video, Pieters asked Phillips if she had considered the possibility that some of the men she would be having intercourse with might have HIV. Phillips admitted that she wasn’t fully informed on how HIV is transmitted.
The situation became more complicated when some of the men who had signed up to participate cancelled at the last minute, which increased the risk of untested participants joining the shoot.
Beforehand, Phillips shared that attempting this challenge had been her “fantasy” for a long time. However, afterward, she revealed that the experience was more intense than she had anticipated, explaining that she had disassociated throughout the day. She became visibly upset and cried before eating dinner alone. This raised concerns about her emotional well-being, particularly considering the lack of apparent support from her pay-rolled staff during such a taxing experience.
Phillips is set to attempt another extreme challenge, aiming to break the world record by having sex with 1,000 men in 24 hours this month. Cases like that of Lily Phillips — who has earned two million UK pounds in the industry as of December, 2024 — demonstrate how a constant demand for excessive content frequently outweighs concerns for the physical and mental well-being of those involved.
Terms and conditions apply
In different forms, porn has been part of human culture for centuries — but what does its present landscape look like?
It is no stretch of the imagination to say that pornography has never been more pervasive. The phrase “sex sells” remains relevant, with the porn industry valued at $97 billion USD globally.
While platforms like OnlyFans may give creators more control over their content, safeguarding it remains a significant challenge. Once uploaded, content may be copied, distributed, and replaced without consent, violating creators’ control over their own image and intellectual property.
If we intend to bring about meaningful societal change surrounding women’s sexuality, the first step is to acknowledge the conversation with nuance. Some individuals choose a profession in sex work freely, while others are compelled by external circumstances. Regardless of their backgrounds, sex workers should not bear the blame for the exploitative structures within the pornography industry.
American feminist Carol Hanisch once stated, “the personal is political.” Often misunderstood, this phrase highlights how women’s personal activities, particularly those involving oppression, are rooted in broader societal and political structures. Hanisch argues that women’s problems are political problems, and addressing them requires systemic change.
Moreover, sex education is a crucial component in maintaining a balanced relationship between society and sensuality. By ensuring that school curricula discuss safe sex, consent, and the dangers of excessive pornography consumption, teenagers are given the necessary tools to navigate their own sexuality in a healthy manner.
In this context, the porn industry’s damaging and misogynistic elements can be seen as a symptom of a broader cultural problem. Despite advancements in the feminist cause, we have yet to fully challenge the standards of violence and objectification that continue to be upheld by patriarchal systems.
Editor’s note (February 8, 12:15 pm): This article has been edited for redundancy.
