TikTok accused of promoting adult industry to young girls
What's the story
TikTok has been accused of normalizing the sex industry by allowing "sexfluencers" to promote pornographic content on its platform. A report by researchers from Cease (Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation) in the UK and Collective Shout in Australia found that popular young female performers on OnlyFans have been using coded references in their non-explicit TikTok videos. These references are hidden in "girly lifestyle content" such as shopping trips, pet playtime, baking sessions, or skincare tips.
Evasion tactics
How content is coded to bypass platform's restrictions
Even though TikTok prohibits sexual solicitation, including requests for explicit images, the platform still distributes content from popular OnlyFans performers.
The study observed how hints about adult content are hidden in popular TikToks featuring OnlyFans stars doing their hair and makeup for "get ready with me" posts.
To avoid blocking, performers sometimes use euphemisms like "corn" instead of "porn," or add the corn emoji next to a star emoji.
Research findings
'Glamorous life' marketed in posts
The researchers spent months sifting through posts from several key "sexfluencers" and following TikTok's algorithmic recommendations.
In viral posts, OnlyFans performers revealed their earnings from selling sexual content on the platform.
The report noted that one of the most common messages in these posts is that selling sexual services on OnlyFans leads to a glamorous life filled with freedom, fun, friendship, and wealth.
Misleading narratives
Some posts show 'rags to riches' transformation
Some posts presented OnlyFans as a solution to poverty and unemployment, with performers sharing their rag-to-riches stories.
The report said that opening an OnlyFans account was marketed as a way of "rescuing women and girls from bleak, underprivileged lives."
This narrative was reinforced by images of cash, big houses, private jets, and luxury cars under captions like "how it feels knowing I own all of this at 23 thanks to 250,000 men."
Financial disparity
Average earnings for performers only $1,000 a year
While OnlyFans's data shows that its top 5,000 creators have made over $1 million each since the platform's launch in 2016, the average earnings for its five million registered performers are only about $1,000 a year.
Melinda Tankard Reist from Collective Shout slammed TikTok as "an industrial-scale digital pimp funneling girls into the sex industry."
She stressed that young women and girls should be protected from a predatory industry grooming them to be producers of explicit content.
Platform's stance
TikTok denies allegations, authors call for extension of existing bans
Responding to the allegations, a TikTok spokesperson said, "TikTok strictly prohibits the sharing or showing of sexual content and we use advanced technologies to enforce our community guidelines."
They also claimed their systems are designed to prevent age-inappropriate content from reaching teens.
The report's authors have called for an extension of existing bans on explicitly pornographic content to include posts promoting or related to the sex industry.