THE DIGITALISATION OF THE SEX WORKER INDUSTRY

An inside look into the transformation in which this industry has gone through...

By Holland Gatson, Laila Bekhit, Michele Maddren and Tyrone Harrison

DIGITALISATION OF THE INDUSTRY

_{A deeper look into the transformation in which the sex worker industry has gone through...}

The role of digital technologies, such as the internet, has become a huge tool in “facilitating growth in sexual commerce” (Jones, 2015)
In the 21st century, the internet shapes the experiences of sex workers and how they use technology to maximize profits and reduce risk exposure
The Internet is an important technological development for sex workers, as it has made it more accessible to “schedule appointments, screen clients, and/or market services” (Jones, 2015)
The Internet has “exponentially increased the ability of sex workers to (a) reach a large numbers of potential clients with informative advertising, (b) build reputations for high quality service, and (c) arrange discreet assignations in which screening methods can be used to reduce the risk of discovery by police and others” (Cunningham & Kendall, 2011)
The digitization of sex work began through the changes from traditional sexual commerce, such as changes to how “services are delivered, performed, branded, marketed and sold” (Jones, 2015)
There are elements which makes online sex work more advantageous for both sex workers and customers - for instance, online sex work can be more safer for all parties involved, there are better wages for sex workers, and advanced advertising to traditional sex work.

ONLYFANS

_{The current most popular online sex site...}

WHAT IS ONLYFANS?

OnlyFans is an online platform and app that was created in 2016 with the intent for content creators to monetise their profession by posting content that you can’t get anywhere else. OnlyFans allows for authors, artists, entrepreneurs, influencers, celebrities and porn stars, sex workers to sell their content to fans. Since OnlyFans allows for people to post content that would get them banned otherwise on sites like Instagram and Facebook, sex workers and porn stars are able to make money and interact with their followers (influencermarketinghub.com, 2022).

WHAT ARE THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF ONLYFANS?

According to influencermarketinghub.com

According to influencermarketinghub.com

HOW HAS THE USE OF ONLYFANS INCREASED?

Users, 18 and older, pay for individual content (photos, videos and live streams) or with a monthly subscription. During the COVID-19 pandemic more accounts were created because of the lockdowns taking people out of work. According to The Guardian, “Use of OnlyFans exploded during the pandemic, going from 7.5 million users last November to 85 million now.” (Bosley, 2020). The growth of our digital world, especially during the pandemic, allowed for people to still make a living while also providing entertainment during times of isolation and social distancing. In addition, mobile apps make OnlyFans even more accessible for creators and users.

According to Google Search Trends.

According to Google Search Trends.

CAMGIRLS

_{A look into the live side of digital sex work...}

A Camgirl is a female performer who models on pornographic websites or streams explicit content live over the internet in exchange for payment. The name says it all, Camgirls were created for women to be the performers and men the viewers.

Most Camgirls feel that the experience is intimate, personable and real so they do not associate with the term ‘pornstar’ (strictlymodels.com, 2022)

Viewers give requests to the Camgirls with a tip giving these performers an incentive to satisfy their viewers. There are basically no limitations to what these performers can or want to do on camera so it is ultimately up to how comfortable they feel fulfilling these requests. The fact that these performers are behind a camera gives them a sense of protection because they can reject requests or turn off their camera whenever they would like.

According to a Cosmopolitan article titled “9 Things You Always Wanted to Know About Webcam Girls”, an anonymous webcam model revealed, “a lot of guys can't even sit there and watch her without saying mean things to her, and many of them don't tip either.” Additionally, this model claimed that, "female cam models get a lot more money than male cam models (duh)" (Moore, 2015).

Chaturbate... the most popular Camgirl website https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/chaturbate.html

Chaturbate... the most popular Camgirl website https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/chaturbate.html

ESCORTS

_{How digitalisation has influenced marketing and the safety of escorts...}

How has the digital era influenced escorts?

Of all escorts 42.9% are women while 57.1% are men with the average age of employed escorts being 35. Roughly, 13% of all escorts are LQBTQ+. Most important to note, the gender pay gap is very small with female escorts earning 99 cents per every dollar a male escort makes (Zippia, 2022)

"There’s a lot of competition in our industry, and social media allows us the chance to really stand out"
- Abbey (Founder of Courtisane)

Digital platforms allow for escorts to create online profiles for customers to view and book with online. Abbey, the Founder of Courtisane, a London Escort Service revealed, "The best escorts are both classy and sexy and this comes across very clearly on their profiles. They also manage to inject aspects of their personality, showing off their fun and flirty or smart and sassy side, essentially creating a brand for customers and fans to identify them with." The digital world allows for those in the escort industry to correct misconceptions and to market themselves better. Since escorts have primarily been in person with the transition to online profile viewings and bookings, escorts are able to view the profile of the person they are meeting with prior to actually being in person. This could help reduce rape culture and unwanted sexual acts.

Bonton, One of New Zealand's Premier Escorting Companies

Bonton, One of New Zealand's Premier Escorting Companies

INCOME FOR THE CREATORS

_{Looking into the average incomes for Only-Fans creators, Cam-Girls and Escorts...}

ONLY-FANS = When looking into the only-fans community, income is very varied depending on how popular you are as a creator. For example, the top 1% of creators make 33% of the overall Only-Fans Income and the top 10% of creators earn 73% of all the money. Therefore, the average income of an Only-Fans creator is only $180USD a month (Influencermarketinghub.com, 2022). The majority of these top creators were also found to be famous outside of Only-Fans before they entered the platform which could be seen to have led to this success (Domash, 2022). This can be seen below:

CAM-GIRLS = Income for Cam-girls differs depending on the content in which the individual produces, as well as the requests in which they agree too for tips. Below is a graph showing the average earning for cam girls within America, shown in USD, (Ramer, 2022).

ESCORTS = In New Zealand, Escorts usually earn between $60 to $300 an hour and can choose the amount of hours they are willing to do (Stuff, 2022). The rate per hour is often shown on the website in which the escort is working alongside. However, this is the mean income for escorts within New Zealand. When looking into premier escorts within New Zealand, rates begin at $750 an hour with escorts being able to be booked for up to 12 hours which can be upwards of $6500 (Bonton, 2022). These premier escorts are usually based in one city such as JulietGirls being based in Auckland, so these rates are not inclusive of the travel fees (JulietteGirls, 2022).

INCOME FOR THE COMPANIES

_{Diving into the Revenue of Only-Fans , Cam-Girls and Escort Companies...}

ONLY-FANS = When looking into Only-fans as a business, it was found that the company takes 20% of each subscription in which a creator receives (Wei, 2022). By the end of 2021, Only-Fans as a company only fans had a revenue of $932 million which was 162% growth from the previous year (Spangler, 2022). It is predicted that this growth is expected to continue due to the popularity of the website (Statista, 2022).

CAM-GIRLS = Finding information about the revenue for Cam-girl companies/website was rather difficult as this data isn’t published. However it was found that the biggest Cam-Girl website; Chaturbate, takes 50% of the creators income from their live sessions (CamGirls, 2022).

ESCORTS = Data regarding the revenue of escorting companies is extremely hard to find. However, information was found through an interview done with an ex-escort; Natalie McLennan. When asked about how much her agency makes she stated “The booker — whoever organizes the appointments, which is either over the telephone or the Internet — makes 10 percent off the top, then it’s split 50-50 between the girl and the agency.” (Celizic, 2022).

OBLIGATION & EXPECTATION

_{How far is too far?}

OBLIGATION - How far is too far?

With the emergence of digital sex work, there is an expectation set upon sex workers who feel obliged to fulfil the wants of their customers. An ethical issue arises with this, as there is a lack of support/laws enforced on digital sex work regulations. If online sex work is your primary job one may feel obliged to fulfil the wants of buying customers in order to make ends meet.

EXPECTATION - How far is too far?

Recently in our digital age, there is an expectation for those who are young celebrities to start up an OnlyFans as soon as they turn 18. This was seen with Charli D’Amelio. This is detrimental to the star themself as they feel as though they only have an audience due to their sex appeal. It is also detrimental to young girls who follow stars like Charli D’Amelio because it gives them the idea that looks and a women’s sex appeal is what matters.

POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES

_{The pros and cons of the digitalisation of this industry...}

POSITIVES

The digitization of sex work on platforms such as OnlyFans and Twitter supports sex workers safety according to (Hamilton, Barakat & Redmiles, 2022)
It allows for sex workers provide virtual peer support and mutual aid to each other via online forums ( Doorn and Velthuis, 2018)
Given a new way for workers to operate their business which supports less violence and rape culture to a certain degree
In the 21st century, many sex workers use the internet to advertise for clients, communicate with them, screen out bad clients and in some cases collect deposits or payment.
Furthermore, the digitization of sex work is so accessible for both workers and customer, so in times such as Covid, there is no risk of workers losing jobs/money.

NEGATIVES

Digital advertising helps sex workers have more control over their work but new kinds of abuse were also tech-facilitated (Sanders, 2016)
Sex work is highly stigmatized and a majority of sex workers are migrants, trans people and overwhelmingly women (Hamilton, Barakat & Redmiles, 2022)
Which means these minority groups are overwhelmingly in danger of the new tech-facilitated abuses and harassment of the internet.
There are issues such as unsecure Ip addresses, lack of online privacy and stalking online which perpetuate the cycle of harassment faced by sex workers offline.

A deeper look into some of the positives and negatives...

Interviews with current and ex online sex workers

CASE STUDY

_{How Bella Thorne influenced the OnlyFans Community...}

Bella Thorne crashed the OnlyFans site after making $1 million in 24 hours. With large following and celebrity status she was an example to other celebrities and influencers how easy it is to make quick cash. After the site crashed, OnlyFans slowed down their payment terms and set caps on how much creators can charge for content.

“Imagine suddenly going from a weekly paycheck to a monthly paycheck,” tweeted OnlyFans creator Erika Heidewald. “People have bills to pay. Kids to feed. Many people, including content creators and sex workers, live paycheck to paycheck. How are they going to pay their bills this month?”
(Noor, 2020)

The sex worker communities deserve to be consulted by platforms like OnlyFans before they change rules for content creators. Sex workers don’t have the same privilege and leverage that celebrities, like Bella Thorne have. They rely on this work to pay their bills and especially through the COVID-19 pandemic when it was actually a way to make money through a time of unemployment.

For more detail on Bella Thorne's experience, here is a video...

THE RED UMBRELLA MOVEMENT

_{A look into a protest within the sex worker industry...}

What is the Red Umbrella movement?

The red umbrella movement was founded in 2010 by Audacia Ray. This project aims to removes violence surrounding the idea of sex work and also creating more of an inclusive industry that is repspected as an official occupation (Holston-Zannell, 2020).

“ I work to reframe public dialogue on the impact of stigma and discrimination on people who trade sex for things they need”
- Audacia Ray (Smith, 2018)

What does the Red Umbrella symbolise?

Since the beginning of the movement, the red umbrella has evolved into a global symbol and icon for sex workers' rights. It stands for strength and resistance and represents protection against the mistreatment and intolerance experienced by sex workers.

How does the digitalisation of the sex worker industry, fit into the Red Umbrella movement?

By being based online, it adds a level of protection for the sex workers as individuals as: the risks of sexual assault are reduced, the workers can feel more comfortable saying no as they have the safety of being through a screen, and these online sites can be used as a platform to further promote the sex worker industry and create a community for individual sex workers.
Although the digitalisation of this industry promotes this red umbrella movement, it comes with risks of privacy and security. The digital era has made it very easy to distribute content without asking for consent. For example, a porn company called GirlsDoPorn was recently sued by 22 women. These women were originally recruited on Craigslist for a modelling job but instead were forced into a 30 minute sex performance on camera that was uploaded to GirlsDoPorn website and Pornhub without their consent (Hargrove et al., 2019)

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Celizic, M. (2022). Former call girl opens up about the industry. TODAY.com. Retrieved 19 September 2022, from https://www.today.com/news/former-call-girl-opens-about-industry-2D80555180.

Cunningham, S., & Kendall, T. D. (2011). Prostitution 2.0: The changing face of sex work. Journal of Urban Economics, 69(3), 273-287.

Domash, A. (2022). 25 Best Celebrity & Famous OnlyFans Accounts - LA Weekly. LA Weekly. Retrieved 20 September 2022, from https://www.laweekly.com/celebrity-famous-onlyfans/.

Hamilton, V., Barakat, H., & Redmiles, E. M. (2022). Risk, Resilience and Reward: Impacts of Shifting to Digital Sex Work. arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.12728.

Hargrove, D., Payton , M., & Jones, T. (2019, February 8). Uncovering a San Diego porn scheme: Deception, humiliation follow online ads. NBC 7 San Diego.

Holston-Zannell, L. (2020). Sex Work is Real Work, and it's Time to Treat it That Way | News & Commentary | American Civil Liberties Union. American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 22 September 2022, from https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/sex-work-is-real-work-and-its-time-to-treat-it-that-way.

Influencermarketinghub.com. (2022). What is OnlyFans? - OnlyFans Stats, Users, Earnings & More. Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved 21 September 2022, from https://influencermarketinghub.com/glossary/onlyfans/.

Jones, A. (2015). Sex work in a digital era. Sociology Compass, 9(7), 558-570

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JulietteGirls. (2022). Juliette's Girls | Premier Escort Agency in Auckland. Juliette's Girls. Retrieved 21 September 2022, from http://www.juliettesgirls.co.nz/.

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Noor, P., 2022. A Thorne in the site: the Bella Thorne and OnlyFans controversy explained. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/aug/31/bella-thorne-onlyfans-what-happened-explained> [Accessed 22 September 2022].

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Sanders, T., Connelly, L., & King, L. J. (2016). On our own terms: The working conditions of internet-based sex workers in the UK. Sociological Research Online, 21(4), 133-146.

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