Editor's note: This story contains a disturbing description of possible online child abuse.
An experienced child exploitation investigator told Reuters he reported 26 accounts on the popular adults-only website OnlyFans to authorities. It said the accounts appeared to contain sexual content featuring underage teenage girls.
“What was shocking was the scope and scale of it,” said Matt WJ Richardson, head of intelligence at the Canadian Open Source Intelligence Centre, who noted that many of the accounts included more than one woman he suspected was underage.
Within a day of reporting to authorities on Dec. 16, all accounts had been removed from OnlyFans, said Richardson, whose organization trains law enforcement and government agencies in open source intelligence. to help fight crimes such as human trafficking and child exploitation, it said.
Richardson said he reported 26 accounts containing suspected child sexual abuse (CSAM) content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. which is a clearinghouse in the US For tips related to CSAM
Some accounts are linked to each other through promotional posts. It suggests those accounts may be controlled by the same person or group. Richardson said.
The image on the account was of a woman with physical characteristics typical of someone under 18, Richardson said. Most have narrow hips and lack physical growth, he said. Many people have narrow shoulders or appear to be “Less than five feet tall,” he said.
Sexually explicit images of minors are banned in most countries. Including the United States UK and Canada and goes against OnlyFans' rules on the website. OnlyFans says it prohibits content that exploits or abuses anyone under 18, even if adults. “Pretending” to be under 18 years of age
The U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) told Reuters that Unable to comment on reports sent to the tip, NCMEC generally says it will attempt to confirm whether reported web pages contain child sexual abuse or exploitative content. When receiving the warranty The company hosting the content is notified. It is up to the company whether to remove or block the content or not. Moreover, all tips will “Forwarded to appropriate law enforcement agencies for possible investigation,” NCMEC said.
In response to the story's findings, an OnlyFans spokesperson said the company has OnlyFans has a “zero tolerance” approach to child sexual abuse content on the platform and has “rigorous onboarding processes to ensure that all creators are over 18 years of age.” OnlyFans works closely with NCMEC to “investigate any reports detailed information they received from others about our platform,” the spokesperson said.
She did not answer questions about why 26 accounts were removed only after Richardson's report.
OnlyFans says it reviews all content. and quickly removes and reports suspected child sexual abuse content when discovered. The company has a “pre-detection team” that uses technology to detect content that “It is highly likely to be for children,” CEO Keily Blair said in a speech in August. OnlyFans invests heavily in content moderation, Blair said, which allows it to “focus on keeping the community safe and maintaining the community for adults. OnlyFans also says that all content is ultimately reviewed by human reviewers.
The spokesperson noted that OnlyFans generated 347 reports to NCMEC in 2023, “far fewer than the millions of instances reported by other social media platforms where users can remain anonymous and where content is not publicly available.” inspection”
OnlyFans' 4.1 million content creators typically sell inappropriate photos and videos for a monthly subscription fee. with one-time payment The company keeps one-fifth of the revenue. Subscriptions effectively place a paywall around almost every OnlyFans account. This makes the website difficult to monitor.
In the July investigation Reuters used US police and court records. to document 30 complaints to law enforcement agencies that child sexual abuse content appeared on OnlyFans between December 2019 and June 2024. The case files reviewed by Reuters refer to more than 200 explicit videos and images of children, including Some adults who have oral sex with young children
OnlyFans told Reuters at the time that NCMEC had “full access” to the site behind its paywall, but NCMEC said access was “limited” to OnlyFans accounts that reported to the tipline. or connected to the case of missing children In addition, NCMEC also said that It “does not proactively monitor, moderate, or otherwise attempt to broadly moderate content” behind the OnlyFans paywall.
Lollipop and milk bottle emoji
In the past few months Reuters separately examined non-explicit public profile photos, bios and posts of OnlyFans creators who shared nearly identical promotional language in their posts. Access to this material is open to the public without a paid OnlyFans subscription.
Female creators on 49 accounts have non-explicit profile photos that appear childish. Based on input from three people with professional experience in identifying child exploitation. Including Richardson. Richardson said the 26 cases he reported to NCMEC overlapped with four of those identified by Reuters.
Eric Silverman is a researcher at Culture Reframed, an organization focused on raising awareness about the dangers of pornography to youth. It said the 49 profile pictures caused serious concern.
“Their appearance, the wide eyes, the innocent expression, the pouting, fingers in the mouth, these are all visual signs of childhood,” he said. “Even if everyone is 18 years old or older, you still have to face the problem. That OnlyFans benefits from sexual depictions of women who appear to be underage.”
The accounts dated back several months to December 2023. All 49 accounts were removed after Reuters contacted OnlyFans about the discovery.
A company spokesperson said that OnlyFans verified usernames obtained by Reuters. “In all cases, the creator's government identification documents were verified and verified by a third party, which confirmed the documents were authentic. and all individuals are over 18 years of age.”
The company did not answer questions about why the 49 accounts were removed. OnlyFans also did not respond when asked to specify. “Third Party” Verifying Documents
Reuters was unable to confirm the ages of the women on the profiles of the 49 accounts or whether their photos had been digitally altered. OnlyFans' website says verified creators can post content they created. by its own AI, but must disclose it using the hashtag #ai, for example. None of the 49 accounts identified by Reuters had hashtags or language marking their use of AI.
The public details of those accounts often include emojis such as teddy bears, lollipops or baby bottles in non-explicit profile photos. Some women wear their hair in braids or braids. Other people wear braces. Many people refer to themselves with diminutive words such as “lek,” “small,” “small” or “mini.”
Some describe themselves as “shy” or “naïve.” One profile description reads, “If you come to my page. That means you love an inexperienced little girl like me!”
One profile picture is of a woman. Dress in tight clothing. rainbow mesh shirt and described it on her OnlyFans page as A “little princess” who “may look innocent” but is looking “A man with good experience”
“She doesn't even look 15,” said Laurie Cohen, CEO of Protect All Children from Trafficking, or PACT, a US non-profit organization. that is dedicated to eliminating the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children, said
“It was a very disturbing image,” said Cohen.
'This is not small'
Richardson said the 26 accounts he reported suggested possible coordination by content creators.
OnlyFans creators typically have a public profile with one or more photos. And members can log in to view inappropriate content related to that creator. But in the cases examined by Richardson, the creators often posted advertisements with images of various other women, some of whom appeared to be underage. and were linked to the women's OnlyFans accounts, he said.
“This is not a small scale. It's not like one or three or four,” Richardson said. “How many people are there out there?”
In the 26 accounts Richardson reported on Dec. 16, the OnlyFans creator's profile picture showed what appeared to be an adult woman, he said, but photos posted within the accounts included images of women who Suspected of being underage along with their OnlyFans account name.
“Some of them appeared to be very young and small,” he said.
He said some of the content in the 26 accounts may be “traditional CSAM” – sexually explicit photos taken when the woman was a girl. But posted when she was 18 or older, they would still violate laws governing child sexual abuse content. Three legal experts told Reuters.
Richardson previously conducted research on OnlyFans.
In 2022, he and other researchers reported that they found creator profiles with “General indicators” of child sexual abuse or sex trafficking content Including keywords and other languages Soon after their report was published US lawmakers One recorded the report in the congressional record. It is the official chronicle of parliamentary proceedings.
Among the 49 public profiles reviewed by Reuters Many of the account names contain words or variations of words such as “little,” “little,” “sweet,” or “lolita.” These names, when combined with a photo of a young woman, It can be used to advertise child sexual abuse material. Experts consulted by Reuters said
These posts sometimes refer to misogyny in schoolgirls or other child-focused terms. For example, one person wrote: “Bad girl @(account name redacted by Reuters) ran away from school.” It continued: “Follow and punish her!” The account was removed by December 17, a day after Reuters contacted OnlyFans about its findings.
Bios or posts on the accounts identified by Reuters often contained references to women who were 18 or had recently turned 18. “I waited to turn 18 for a long time so I could register on Onlyfans, and here I am. ” Read the profile of one woman. which, according to Cohen, looks younger than her age.
“Her face had a fullness that is often associated with youth. She had disproportionately large eyes, and children tend to have larger eyes on their faces compared to adults,” said Cohen.
Even though the girls were actually 18 years old, child exploitation experts say that is still a problem. This is because these images indicate that they may be underage. “It creates a desire for younger, younger bodies,” says Cohen. “This type of behavior normalizes pedophilia.”
It is unlikely that a person can be successfully prosecuted for child sexual abuse in a situation where an adult is posing as a minor. This is because the governing rules generally focus on the actual age of the participant. Three legal experts told Reuters.
Among the 49 accounts reviewed by Reuters Creators often use nearly identical language to describe themselves or specific sexual acts.
“I don't like loud parties or clubs. I'm a homebody who loves watching Netflix and chilling. It's my weekend,” one woman wrote on her profile. Another uses strikingly similar language: “I'm not a big fan of loud parties and clubs. I'm more of a homebody, you know? Netflix and chill, that's my idea of the perfect weekend.”
As of mid-December Reuters has documented more than 150 instances of posts from various accounts. Use the same or nearly identical language. Many of the posts were distributed among 25 of the 49 accounts Reuters examined. They also shared the same emoji.
The half-dozen posts all claim to be written by different creators. Promised like that “This beauty will play with her tight hole just for you.”
Many people promise to have “A beautiful doll for your ardent desire” or a woman who “Now I live alone and need new care.”
(So Szep and Eisler reported from Washington, Marshall from London. Brad Heath contributed reporting from Washington. Editing by Julie Marquis)
