A The Trap of self-exposurethe organization warns of the lack of awareness among teenagers and young people that these platforms carry out sexual exploitation when it comes to minors. The trap in the title of this report, which complements that of Catching Nets, is the promise of easy money and a commercial strategy aimed at attracting girls to put their bodies on display and boys to be consumers. The study underscores the difference between digital sexual self-exposure and sexual exploitation. The first term refers to situations in which it seems that it is the same creatures or adolescents who take the initiative, freely, to record themselves practicing sexual activities in exchange for a perceived benefit, be it financial, material, emotional or symbolic.
I’m with who I want and I earn what I want”
Adolescent a OnlyFans
In reality, the platforms enhance this self-perception of freedom with strategies that are capable of making invisible the pressures, inequalities and power dynamics to “whitewash pornography and child exploitation”, explains Ona Lorda, head of the organization’s childhood policies in Catalonia. Thus, self-exploitation or digital over-exploitation are forms of sexual exploitation and, in the case of minors, there is no legal consent under any circumstances until the age of sixteen, because it is “an asymmetric power relationship”, he continues.
“I am with whom I want and I earn what I want. I am accepting and, even, I can fall in love,” says a teenager interviewed by Save the Children. Another who uses OnlyFans assumes her ability to decide: “It’s something I’ve chosen and if something happens that I don’t want, because I’ve accepted it, I’ll put up with it.” This normalization verbalized by these two girls is also expressed in percentages: 71% of the young respondents did not identify the sale of content as sexual exploitation and therefore do not consider themselves victims. One in three young people legitimately see making money sharing intimate images.
Creators and consumers
How do these platforms do it? They invest technology and efforts to propose two ways according to gender. Girls are told that sharing sexual and erotic images gives them “empowerment and social advancement”. That’s why they look for them as “creators” of erotic content. Instead, the message to boys is different and is addressed to them as consumers of this content or even as mentors and agents. According to Lorda, in this way the pattern of prostitution is reproduced, in which men act as pimps and women provide the body. “This is digital pimping”, the expert emphasizes.
These are asymmetric relationships, this is digital pimping”
Ona Lorda Responsible for Children’s Children’s Children’s Childhood Policies in Catalonia
The platforms claim that uploading images to the internet gives teenage girls “a false sense of security”, points out Lorda, although, on the contrary, the reality is that the danger is real: a quarter of the victims of sexual exploitation started on OnlyFans, according to police data. At this point, the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Department of Social Rights have conspired to detect pederasts on the networks and in the summer it was announced the creation of a joint commission to sweep the internet.
The advertising algorithm
Teens and teens don’t come to OnlyFans or adult dating sites directly, the advertising algorithm intervenes. Almost half of those surveyed by the NGO in favor of children’s rights claim to have received sexual messages or advertisements while browsing networks such as TikTok or Instagram.
Faced with these situations, Save the Children asks that the draft law for the protection of minors in digital environments restricts the capacity of this kind of networks to end the current “gap of information about the risks” they entail. For Lorda, it is essential to regulate such important elements as age verification to avoid deception, at the same time that she values “prevention” to raise awareness of families, schools and teenagers themselves and the importance of sex-affective education. And he points out that the images shared today “are not easily erased” and can haunt users and cause a big impact on mental health in a few years.
Helplines for children and teenagers
