Study: TikTok accused of helping performers promote sex industry content to girls
How performers signal paid content
TikTok does not allow users to mention OnlyFans or link directly to it, and its rules prohibit sexual solicitation, including requests to share explicit images. However, the report says performers use suggestive gestures, emojis and euphemisms to point followers toward adult material available on other platforms.
Researchers describe this content as safe for work, while saying it can serve as marketing for pornography hosted elsewhere. Performers build audiences on TikTok and other social networks, where subtle references can help them promote content for sale.
Study examined TikTok recommendations
The study, titled “TikTok to OnlyFans pipeline,” was carried out by Cease, a UK campaigning organisation, and Australia’s Collective Shout. Researchers spent months viewing posts from selected sexfluencers and following recommendations generated by TikTok’s algorithm.
Some posts presented wealth as a benefit of creating adult content, using images of cash, large homes, private jets and expensive cars. One headline cited in the report claimed its creator owned such things at 23 because of 250,000 men.
Earnings and calls for change
OnlyFans data indicates its top 5,000 creators have earned more than $1m each since the platform began in 2016. The report estimates average annual earnings for the site’s 5 million registered performers at about $1,000.
Tankard Reist said the research followed concern that OnlyFans performers Sophie Rain and Ari Kytsya had large TikTok followings among teenage girls and were promoting the benefits of making pornography. The report’s authors want existing bans on showing explicit pornography to under-18s extended to posts promoting or related to the sex industry.
Key points
- The report says TikTok performers use indirect signals to market adult content sold on other platforms.
- Researchers examined selected sexfluencers’ posts and TikTok’s recommendations over several months.
- The report estimates average OnlyFans performer earnings at about $1,000 a year.
- Its authors want restrictions for under-18s to cover posts related to the sex industry.