OnlyFans gives women the chance to earn money by making porn. Sex traffickers also use the platform to abuse and exploit them, say police and prosecutors. The accused range from social media influencers to cash-hungry boyfriends. “I don’t think I’ll ever be fully healed,” said one victim.
On an August morning in 2022, a young woman slipped out of a house in suburban Wisconsin and dashed to a waiting police car. Her hands shaking, she told officers it was the “most brave thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
For nearly two years, her boyfriend had held her captive, prosecutors say. She feared he’d kill her if she tried to leave. But just days earlier, after he’d poured hot grease down her back, she started plotting her escape, secretly messaging family and friends to alert police.
The young woman later explained her desperation to detectives: Almost every night, her boyfriend had forced her to record sex acts on camera to sell online. Among his chosen outlets was OnlyFans, the hugely successful website famous for porn.
It can help, yes - but a large percentage of the 38 to 49 million modern day slaves still exist in otherwise fully legal businesses.
Awareness of slavery is still really low amongst many people. It’s going on everywhere, not just in the sex business and is very difficult to stop.
Fun fact: the majority of people trafficked in the world are for sex purposes, so if you make it far easier to shut down that market, it damages all the other slave markets too
I get that you’re trying to bring awareness or whatever but both comments so far read more like “not worth legalizing sex work when other slaves still exist”