A creator getting stalked across the globe by a fan, someone finding a video of themselves getting a bikini wax, a guy planning a threesome with a creator on their first date without her consent—these are just a few of the less than ideal situations that have happened with OnlyFans.
In case you missed it, OnlyFans is a subscription-based social media platform that permits users to sell and/or purchase original content.
Since OnlyFans was started a few years ago, commercial sex industry professionals have basically taken over the site, especially during the financially uncertain times of the pandemic.
Related: Is Making An OnlyFans Worth It?
Now, starting an OnlyFans has been viewed as a safe, lucrative way to make money from the comfort of your own home, and it’s widely believed to be more ethical than porn sites.
But is that the reality? Is it too good to be true? Has our culture’s quick, mass social acceptance of OnlyFans overshadowed some of the risks of the site?
Here are some real stories of what OnlyFans creators have experienced, or some generally sketchy things that have happened on the site.
Disclaimer: No matter if it’s a safe or lucrative site or not, the following information is not intended to shame those who have made money selling content on OnlyFans. Rather, the following content is intended to be an awareness-raising resource that details some major but lesser-known downsides of the platform.
1. OnlyFans model stalked around the world by a subscriber
In June 2020, OnlyFans content creator Abigail Furness visited her parents in Kent, England, for her 20th birthday party when an obsessive 37-year-old OnlyFans subscriber showed up at her parents’ house.
A couple of days later, Abigail was shopping in Brighton with a friend when she spotted Spears. Her and her friend ran into a shop to hide, but Spears found them. He professed his undying love to Abigail and told her he wanted to be with her until he was kicked out of the shop by the cashier and scared away by a group of men who Abigail had asked for help.
Of the situation, Abigail said, “I was petrified and felt sick.”
Related: The Dark Side Of OnlyFans Most People Don’t Know About
That same week, Abigail tried to escape, flying to Ibiza with a friend for a three-month work trip. Two days into the trip, however, Spears messaged Abigail saying he was on the island. And later that same night, Abigail saw Spears staring at her through a window outside of the bar she was in.
Read the rest of her wild story here.
2. OnlyFans creator’s uncle said he liked her content
It’s common for porn performers or OnlyFans creators to try and keep their jobs a secret from family or friends, and it’s common for their secret to get found out.
What isn’t as common, though, is the response this relative had to one porn performer.
Karlie Brooks performs in explicit content across porn sites, and she also shares her explicit content on OnlyFans. She got this cringe text from her uncle after he found her content:
“Hey kiddo, This is your uncle. I think I might have stumbled across a video of you today…very nice. Do you happen to know Riley Reid? Also do you have an OnlyFans? My friend wants to know.”
Screenshot of the text Karlie shared to TikTok, retrieved from NYPost.
Side note, Riley Reid was one of the more popular porn performers in the mainstream industry until she announced her retirement.
Read the full story of what happened here.
3. Man kidnapped and threatened woman unless she posted sex tape to OnlyFans
A Florida man is facing several charges after police say he kidnapped and battered a woman, then threatened more violence unless she created an OnlyFans account and uploaded a video of herself engaged in sexual activity with him and another woman.
According to police, Demarko Spears, 30, abducted a woman after he learned through Snapchat that she went to a strip club without him. He then showed up at her home, assault her, and abduct her, drove the victim around throughout the day and trying to force her to make an OnlyFans account. He reportedly tried to steal her paycheck from her job and told her he would be the only one to make money off of her OnlyFans content.
The victim tried to flee the vehicle multiple times, and when she finally did, Spears tackled her to the ground, injuring her and grabbing her phone and identification card. He was able to flee the scene.
Related: How OnlyFans Reportedly Facilitates And Profits From Child Sex Trafficking
Fox13 reports that Spears was arrested the next day and is facing charges of extortion, strong-arm robbery, felony battery, grand theft, false imprisonment, and tampering with a witness.
While more information is needed about this case, the details that have been released so far sound like he was allegedly trying to induce a commercial sex act through force and coercion. This is the very definition of sex trafficking.
Read more details about this case here.
4. Guy asked OnlyFans model for a threesome on their first date
Describing the worst date of her life, Ebony Kay—an OnlyFans content creator—said that she was on a first date with a man when it came up that she did OnlyFans.
“It was all cool, and a while later he went for a cigarette and came back with a ‘proposal’ for me… He went on to ask me if I wanted to have a threesome with a hotel cleaner because he had went looking for someone to ask.”
She immediately told him she wasn’t interested and left. She couldn’t believe that he left her for over an hour to ask the first person he could find for a threesome.
Read more about her experience, here.
5. “Fan” hid in OnlyFan model’s attic, filmed her while she slept
An alleged stalker is accused of breaking into the New Hampshire home of his favorite OnlyFans model, camping out in her attic, and recording her as she slept.
Mauricio Damian-Guerrero is currently facing four counts of burglary, WCVB5 reported. Officials have also said he could face additional charges.
According to court documents, the 20-year-old suspect drove nearly 400 miles from Bensalem, Pa., to the New Hampshire home of a woman he met through OnlyFans.
Related: Real Cases Of OnlyFans Content Creators Getting Stalked By Fans
He was taken into custody on Feb. 9, as he tried to climb out of the victim’s attic and onto her roof. That night, the woman said she awoke to see Damian-Guerrero standing in the doorway of her bedroom, according to the newly unsealed documents.
Following his arrest, the suspected stalker confessed to stealing her key and then making a copy of it at Home Depot so he could easily enter her home. Investigators said that Damian-Guerrero broke into the residence on several occasions and recorded the woman as she slept in the nude.
Multiple videos of the victim were found on the man’s phone, according to police. Authorities also found a Tile Bluetooth tracking device the suspect said he planned to place on her car.
The full story of this creepy case is here.
6. Woman found a video on OnlyFans of her getting a bikini wax
A TikToker claims that her waxer shared a video on OnlyFans of her receiving a bikini wax without her knowledge.
“Okay so this is about the girl who posted my goodies on her OF page, doing my wax,” the poster said in the video.
NY Post reports that she texted the waxer after seeing a snippet of the video on Instagram. She asked the waxer if it was her in the video as she noticed her tattoos.
Here’s part of their text exchange, shared by the woman on TikTok:
Text exchange between waxer and woman. Credit to awkwardddblackkkgirlll on TikTok, retrieved from NY Post.
“And she was like, ‘oh my god, yes I am so sorry. I meant to call you and ask you if I could post it.’ I said, well when you gonna call? It’s still there, I paid the $11 to see if it was me. She posted from the part where I lay down to get my wax to the part where she had me in butterfly position and everything,” the poster explained.
Then the poster claimed that the waxer tried to keep the video up after being caught by claiming she would lose tips if it was taken down.
Related: BBC Investigation Of OnlyFans Allegedly Finds Lax Moderation And Failure To Prevent Underage Content
The waxer asks the poster why she was upset because “it’s a nice video.” But the woman was not okay with it, telling the waxer was using her body for profit.
Read the full story of what happened, here.
7. Management companies forced OnlyFans creators to post nudes
Some OnlyFans content creators pay management companies to help with the workload of managing their account.
But sometimes, management companies coerce OnlyFans models to produce more explicit or hardcore content than they’re comfortable with, and in this case, post nonconsensual content on their behalf.
An OnlyFans model planned to post bikini photos and is now suing Los Angeles-based social media management company Unruly after discovering they sold an image of her and her exposed breast that had been taken without her knowledge or consent while she was changing during a photo shoot organized by the company. She said she’d been clear with Unruly from the beginning that she didn’t want to share any nude content.
“I don’t even know how much they sold it for, who they sold it to—if it was just the one person or thousands of people. I was crying for so long.”
Another influencer said Behave, another social media management company, shared one of her nude videos on the main feed of her OnlyFans page, disregarding her wishes for an extra fee and ID from anyone who wanted to access it. The company also shared another private photo of her on another person’s account. Since her accusations, Behave has demanded she pay them $400,000 for breach of contract.
Read more about coercive management companies here. It seems to happen a lot, based on how many OnlyFans models are speaking out.
Not as safe as it seems
OnlyFans content creators are especially susceptible to harassment, online abuse, and stalkers, among people with other ill intentions. Because many share their names, locations, and identifying photos on their profiles, it’s no wonder content creators face issues on the platform.
For anyone who thinks of OnlyFans as an ethical porn site, what is OnlyFans doing to hold subscribers accountable and keep content creators safe?
Many pro-porn advocates who recognize the harms and damages of the mainstream porn industry and mainstream sites now advocate for porn consumers to get their content from alternative sites that put more control in content creators’ hands.
But no site is perfect, unfortunately, and many non-mainstream porn platforms still can have nonconsensual content—including underage or abusive content.
OnlyFans has become one of those main non-mainstream sites that many porn advocates say is a solution to the issues of nonconsensual content on porn sites. And while OnlyFans takes more precautions than many other sites, it is still clearly not exempt from these issues.
Related: How Porn Can Fuel Sex Trafficking
Despite being advertised as an ethical alternative to porn tube sites, OnlyFans has also been found to host child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual content.Titheradge, N., & Croxford, R. (2021). The children selling explicit videos on OnlyFans. BBC News Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57255983Copy OnlyFans claims to have a robust system for preventing abusive content, including verifying content creators’ age, yet an investigation by the BBC reveals that OnlyFans’ age verification process has not been able to efficiently prevent child pornography from being uploaded to the site.de Gallier, T. (2020). The hidden danger of selling nudes online. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/5e7dad06-c48d-4509-b3e4-6a7a2783ce30Copy
Many underage creators have been found to use fake identification to create an account on OnlyFans, with one 14-year-old even using her grandmother’s passport.Titheradge, N., & Croxford, R. (2021). The children selling explicit videos on OnlyFans. BBC News Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57255983Copy And regardless, OnlyFans does not require uploaders to verify the age or consent of all participants—only the account owner—which means that nonconsensual content can be easily uploaded to the platform.OnlyFans. Account approval/account application requirements. Retrieved from https://onlyfans.com/help/3/18/73Copy
Add that to all the issues that have happened with the site, OnlyFans doesn’t seem as safe and issue-free as a lot of people think.
To learn more about how OnlyFans reportedly perpetuates sexual exploitation, click here.
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