TikTok is facing scrutiny over allegations that its platform is being used to draw young women and teenage girls towards the online sex industry, with performers on OnlyFans allegedly using seemingly harmless lifestyle videos to promote their paid adult content elsewhere. A study by UK-based Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (Cease) and Australian campaign group Collective Shout has found that some of OnlyFans' most popular young female creators use coded language, emojis and suggestive gestures in TikTok videos to direct viewers towards their sexually explicit content on other platforms. The findings, reported by The Guardian, are based on a year-long examination of non-explicit TikTok posts by popular OnlyFans performers. Researchers also followed recommendations generated by TikTok's algorithm to understand how such content was being circulated.
Although TikTok does not allow users to promote OnlyFans directly or share links to the platform, the study found that creators had developed ways to get around these restrictions. They allegedly use everyday videos featuring shopping trips, pets, baking, skincare and makeup routines to hint at the availability of adult content for sale elsewhere. Some performers use the word "corn" instead of "porn", while others place a corn emoji alongside a star emoji to avoid triggering content moderation systems. The report also highlights the use of seemingly innocent 'get ready with me' videos, commonly known as GRWM, to make indirect references to pornography. The researchers described this as a "TikTok to OnlyFans pipeline", arguing that the platform is helping adult content creators reach a much wider audience, including teenagers.
The study also found that several viral videos presented selling sexual content on OnlyFans as a route to wealth, financial independence and a luxurious lifestyle. "The one of the most pervasive messages across these posts is that selling sexual services on OnlyFans gives you a fabulous life – a life filled with freedom, fun, friendship and lots of money," the report stated. Some videos featured images of cash, luxury homes, private jets and expensive cars, accompanied by captions suggesting that young women could achieve financial success by selling adult content. Other posts portrayed OnlyFans as a way out of poverty and unemployment. According to the researchers, performers often shared stories of how joining the platform had transformed their lives and helped them support their families. Opening an account was presented as a way of escaping difficult financial circumstances and acquiring expensive possessions that women and their families could not otherwise afford.
However, the report cautioned against assuming that such earnings were typical. While OnlyFans data shows that its top 5,000 creators have earned more than $1 million each since the platform was launched in 2016, the average annual earnings of its estimated five million creators are believed to be around $1,000. Melinda Tankard Reist of Collective Shout criticised TikTok for allowing such promotional content to circulate. “an industrial-scale digital pimp funnelling girls into the sex industry”, she said, describing the platform's role. She added, “It is our view that young women and girls deserve to be protected from a predatory industry grooming them to be producers of explicit content.” Tankard Reist said the research was commissioned amid concerns that popular OnlyFans performers, including Sophie Rain and Ari Kytsya, had built large TikTok followings among teenage girls while promoting the financial benefits of producing pornography.
Rain gained prominence through videos filmed at the Bop House, a luxury pornography production house in Miami. The property is home to a rotating group of women who create and sell sexual content on OnlyFans. Videos announcing auditions for new members are also shared on TikTok, where aspiring recruits post suggestive dance videos and tag the Bop House. The report further highlighted how OnlyFans performers use their social media popularity to secure mainstream brand partnerships. Their TikTok content can include promotions for everyday products such as pet food, burgers and pineapple juice, alongside advertisements for sex toys and condoms. Kytsya, who describes herself as a “mattress actress”, was appointed a brand ambassador for Urban Decay, a cosmetics brand owned by L'Oréal and popular among teenagers. In advertisements that attracted millions of views on TikTok, she promoted makeup products using references to their performance on mattresses.
The researchers have called for existing restrictions on showing pornography to people under 18 to be extended to content that promotes or is associated with the sex industry. Responding to the findings, a TikTok spokesperson said, “TikTok strictly prohibits the sharing or showing of sexual content and we use advanced technologies to enforce our community guidelines. In addition, our systems are designed to prevent age-inappropriate content from reaching teens.” An OnlyFans spokesperson said, “OnlyFans is a platform for people aged 18 and over and we have strict onboarding processes to prevent minors accessing the platform.”
