OnlyFans proves that you are never better served than by yourself

In mid-August, OnlyFans sex workers were shocked when the site announced its plan to ban adult content. But luckily for them, the decision was put on hold 5 days later. In any case, this is an event that shows that the internet sex industry is not a stable sector at all.

A similar problem had already arisen in 2018 when the Backpage.com site closed, an event that proves that the platforms used by sex workers can disappear without warning. The risk is great for the thousands of people who rely on these sites for a living. With the existence of illegal content including minors or non-consensual relationships, many sites today are threatened with censorship, which does not bode well for sex workers.

With this instability in adult content platforms, a lot of sex workers are now thinking about finding other ways to make money, some are even thinking about starting their own platform. For example, Lena, an adult content creator, said she personally knows a lot of sex workers who are in the process of setting up their own websites. Their goal, she says, is to make sure their content is accessible across multiple platforms, and they are also focusing on how to protect their source of income if one of the platforms goes missing.

Several challenges to overcome

Even though the ideal for a sex worker on the web is to have their own site, there are still some challenges that must be resolved before you can get there. According to Lena, the challenge is to find a site that will host adult content. Most sites that don’t require advanced programming skills don’t want to work in pornography.

Other than that, when the site is established, the owner will have to work hard to make it known. Lena explains that it takes marketing knowledge, but sex workers are experts at it. However, a site requires time and resources. It will take time and money to invest, and that may be too much for someone who just wants to live on and is already struggling financially.

Vixen Temple, a sex worker from Aotearoa, New Zealand, says she would like to build her own site, something that looks like OnlyFans with paid access where her services are easily accessible. However, she is worried about the means of payment. According to her, VISA and PayPal are “not friends of sex.” If they detect something having to do with paid sex services, they will block it right away. It is therefore necessary, according to her, that they find other means to receive the client’s money.

In addition to that, there are also the FOSTA, or Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and SESTA, or Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, which were passed in 2018. These laws make it possible to hold platforms accountable if there is content relating to sex trafficking. This has not at all encouraged banks and payment platforms to work with sites hosting adult content.

The advantages of having your own site

Although it is quite difficult to create your own site, many sex workers today are breaking away from centralized platforms and gaining more independence.

According to Kezia Slater, who has been in the industry for 8 years now, she hopes to create her own site with an email newsletter in the coming months. For her, this is the way to have more stability, but it only works if you already have traffic to attract people. She is thinking of creating more non-pornographic content for platforms like Twitch, TikTok or YouTube in order to attract more people.

For Allie Awesome, who has worked in the porn industry for 9 years, the important thing is diversification. She explains that platforms like PornHub and OnlyFans have taught them that platforms come under attack and that to survive you have to be flexible. She thus builds her own site so that her fans can find her and so that she does not worry about losing her account.

In any case, even if we begin to doubt large platforms like OnlyFans, many still choose to use them while remaining cautious. Some others have decided to use competing sites like Fansly or ePlay, but these are still centralized platforms, and therefore risky platforms.