Three U.S. lawmakers and two in Britain called for tougher safeguards against online sexual exploitation after a Reuters investigation this week identified more than 140 police complaints of nonconsensual pornography on OnlyFans, the popular adults-only website.
"It is absolutely unconscionable," U.S. Representative Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican, said in a statement about the abuses alleged in the complaints.
"These findings confirm what my office has known for years: Americans are being sexually exploited on OnlyFans," said Wagner, who sponsored a federal law passed in 2018 that allows victims to sue websites that knowingly host abusive commercial sex activity. “Congress and federal law enforcement must do more.”
Through public records requests to the largest U.S. law enforcement agencies and a review of court cases, Reuters identified 128 cases in which adults complained that sexual content featuring them had been posted on OnlyFans without their consent between January 2019 and November 2023. A Florida woman, alleging a video of her rape was posted and sold on OnlyFans, filed a lawsuit in November 2022 against the platform under federal laws including Wagner's.
In the UK, where OnlyFans is based, Reuters documented 18 complaints of nonconsensual pornography appearing on the site.
"Social media platforms have become a safe harbor for predators," U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said in a statement to Reuters. "Rape victims – including children – are not only violated at the time of their assault, but they are victimized over and over again with the rapid spread of their abuse material online. Even worse, the platforms profit from this activity. That's unacceptable."
U.S. Representative Jennifer Wexton, a Virginia Democrat, called for greater accountability for perpetrators to ensure "we are protecting the rights and lives of all victims and survivors."
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