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Gulf Insider
12-07-2025
- Business
- Gulf Insider
Sweden Cracks Down On OnlyFans - Users Face Up To A Year In Prison For Paying For Online Sexual Content
The X-rated social media platform OnlyFans is experiencing real growth, with revenue, content, and user numbers all on the rise. The site's over 4 million 'creators' sell content – including images, videos, and personalized chats – to more than 300 million subscribers, or 'fans.' It's primarily a sex site, and claims that the platform isn't powered by porn are usually accompanied by winks and nods to the contrary. OnlyFans keeps a 20% cut of what users pay, boasting $1.3 billion of revenue in 2023. It's a lucrative approach to monetizing porn consumption, but the platform just hit a legal roadblock in a seemingly unlikely country. Sweden, which in 1971 became the second country in the world to formally legalize all forms of pornography, has not been as soft on prostitution. In 1999, the country criminalized the purchase of sex, but not the sale, in efforts to protect vulnerable women from facing stiff legal consequences. That policy will now apply to the virtual world. As of July 1, Swedes could face up to a year in prison for paying someone for personalized online sexual services, including sexting and video content. The new law also criminalizes promoting or profiting from others who perform sex acts for payment on demand, forcing OnlyFans to pull out of Sweden. In a country known for libertines more than prudes, the law passed with broad, cross-party support. 'The idea is that anyone who buys sexual acts performed remotely should be penalized in the same way as those who buy sexual acts involving physical contact,' said Gunnar Strommer, Sweden's Justice Minister and a member of the Moderate party. The U.S. has drawn a harder line on in-person prostitution than Sweden. Excluding certain counties in Nevada, it is illegal to both buy and sell sex in America. But OnlyFans – which exploded in the U.S. during the pandemic – remains legal in all 50 states, allowing Fenix International Limited, the London-based firm that owns OnlyFans, to profit from the sale of millions of sext messages and live video chats. A growing number of bipartisan lawmakers are citing concerns about the role of social media in online sex trafficking. Some are calling out OnlyFans by name. 'Americans are being sexually exploited on OnlyFans,' said U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican. 'Congress and federal law enforcement must do more.' In 2018, Wagner sponsored the FOSTA-SESTA Act, which Donald Trump signed into law. The bill gave federal and state prosecutors more authority to go after websites on which sex is sold, even holding platforms and Internet service providers responsible for user-generated ads related to sex work. But the FOSTA-SESTA Act mostly targets traffickers who use the internet as a recruitment or facilitating tool, whereas Sweden's law prohibits the purchase of virtual prostitution (that is, paying for sex from sex workers who provide their services in the virtual space) as well as profiting from virtual prostitution. With Trump back in office, Wagner and like-minded lawmakers appear eager to enact stricter regulations. If Sweden's new law were replicated in the U.S., OnlyFans' earnings would plummet. Roughly a quarter of the site's content creators are American women, and nearly two-thirds of the platform's revenue is generated in the U.S., according to the most recent data. Many sex workers say that criminalizing online prostitution is illogical because it will only result in women working in more dangerous in-person settings. A number of human rights organizations also argue that prostitution should be legalized because it grants sex workers greater access to legal protection and healthcare while also helping law enforcement better differentiate between the consenting and the coerced. Some European governments agree, including Belgium, which last December granted sex workers formal labor rights, entitling them to sick leave, maternity pay, and pensions. Some are unionizing, and many more are opting to ditch the brothel scene and work from home. As for trafficking, OnlyFans argues that they have invested in AI tools and ID verification systems to ensure that only of-age, consenting adults are participating on the site. It is true that OnlyFans has invested more into such measures than most other social media platforms or porn sites. But despite these filters, there are still reports of abuse and trafficking occurring on the site, which OnlyFans says is the result of only a few bad apples. Many industry advocates say that lawmakers seeking to regulate the online sex trade are simply anti-porn religious zealots. But few U.S. lawmakers are signing on with Utah Senator Mike Lee, who is currently on his third attempt since 2022 to ban pornography nationwide. Rather, most speak of the issue in terms of the need to curb trafficking – mirroring the narrative of many Swedish lawmakers. Sanna Backeskog, a Swedish politician and proponent of the recent law, insists she has no interest in being the porn police. She said, 'This is about digitalized prostitution, where the boundaries between pornography and human trafficking are blurred.' As lawmakers in the U.S. and Europe seek to clarify those blurred boundaries, some say Sweden is on the right track, that regulations will curb demand, and trafficking will go down. Others say the law will only make things worse as more prostitutes revert to doing their work in the dark. The appetite for online sexual interactions is growing, and OnlyFans is reportedly on sale for $8 billion. The platform's current owners hope that nations (especially the U.S.) won't mimic Sweden's recent law. After all, how else would OnlyFans continue to flourish in such a hot market?
Euronews
22-06-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Adult content creators warn new Swedish law ‘takes away safest option'
A new law in Sweden that makes it illegal to buy custom adult content will take effect on July 1. But the content creators say it makes their profession more dangerous. The new updated legislation makes it so anyone who purchases online sexual content (sexual acts performed remotely with no ty physical contact) or operates a website that makes it easier to get in touch with adult content creators could be imprisoned for up to one year. Sweden's updated laws are the latest in a series of restrictions to digital porn, like France's age verification law that saw Pornhub temporarily stop operations there, the US' Take it Down Act or the EU's directive to ban sexual deepfakes by 2027. 'The idea is that anyone who buys sexual acts performed remotely should be penalised in the same way as those who buy sexual acts involving physical contact,' Gunnar Strommer, Sweden's Justice Minister, told the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Swedish adult content creators told Euronews Next that the government should reconsider the new law because it could push some of them to more unsafe types of content creation. 'This is just the beginning' Amanda Breden is a Swedish online adult content creator who's been using online platforms such as OnlyFans for her business, amassing roughly 33,000 followers over the last four years there. Her business model includes a subscription-based channel where, for $10 (over r€8) a month, users can get access to a large collection of adult images and photos that she's created. Her second free channel generates income through custom content requests that she gets through direct messages (DMs) from fans. The channel is also something that her husband Max works on, doing the accounting, the payroll and the camerawork. 'The [Swedish] law doesn't just affect me as a creator - it takes away the freedom to do what we want with our own lives,' she told Euronews Next. 'People may not realise that this is just the beginning,.' she added. Euronews Next reached out to OnlyFans and Pornhub, two major online platforms for adult content. Both said they would comply with the laws in Sweden but did not elaborate on how they would. OnlyFans has less than 45 million monthly users in the EU, according to the latest transparency report. Pornhub sees about 26.1 million monthly users in the EU, it's website says. 'OnlyFans can save many women from the streets' The law wouldn't affect Breden too much, she continued, because she has other streams of income, including a hotel and cafe in Sweden. What is a concern for her is if OnlyFans starts 'blocking' Swedish creators 'because they're afraid of being sued or accused of pimping.'. 'I would actually argue that OnlyFans can save many women from the streets and from pimps who try to control them,' Breden said, noting that it lets creators choose the type of content they sell and that they are able to work from home. Emma Larsson, an adult content creator, told the European Sex Workers Rights Alliance (ESWRA) that it would push content creators like herself into more unsafe workplaces. 'Our income will decrease so much that we'll be forced to offer services and fulfil requests we would otherwise never agree to,' she said in a pressrelease. 'This law will push us into dangerous situations and take away our safest option.'. 'A dangerous European precedent' The idea behind Sweden's updated law, according to the government, is to 'strengthen protection against sexual harassment,' fraud against the elderly and crimes with gender as a hate crime motive. Advocates and adult content creators say there's a general misunderstanding of the rules that platforms already have in place to curb dangerous sexual content. OnlyFans says in it's content moderation policy that it uses a combination of human and automated filters to determine which content creators cannot be verified as over 18+, that are generated by artificial intelligence (AI), violent or extreme content, and that consent has been given, among other criteria. 'I've had several videos removed, even though they were just harmless roleplay,' Breden said. 'You're absolutely not allowed to even hint at anything that could be seen as 'forced' or similar.'. Advocacy groups are also concerned about how the laws would be enforced. The European Sex Workers Rights Alliance said there are risks that the police could be empowered to search phones, computers, and online accounts that are linked to the creation of online adult content. That then raises 'serious issues around digital surveillance and privacy, especially for vulnerable groups like sex workers already facing discrimination and criminalisation.'. 'This law would set a dangerous precedent across Europe,' the press release reads. If the government is concerned about safety, Breeden said the company could instead increase the age limit to 25 from 18 to access adult content sites like OnlyFans.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sweden to hire prison cells in Estonia for up to 600 inmates
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden will send up to 600 criminals to serve their sentences in an Estonian prison under an agreement announced by the government on Wednesday aimed at reducing pressure on the country's overcrowded jails. From July next year, Sweden will be able to send men over 18 who are convicted of crimes ranging from murder to sexual offences to the prison in the Estonian city of Tartu. The agreement needs to be approved by parliament in both countries. "The whole prison will be placed at Sweden's disposal," Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told reporters. "Sweden's prison system .. is under tremendous pressures and in that situation needs a plan for expansion to deal with that." Sweden will pay 8,500 euros ($9,680) a month per inmate, a saving on the average 11,500 euros a month cost in Sweden. A wave of gang-related violence over the last decade has led to tougher laws and sentencing in Sweden pushing up the prison population. In May, around 7,300 inmates were held in 5,235 cells - an occupancy rate of 141%, figures from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service showed. Including standby accommodation, the occupancy rate was 96%. The Prison Service reckons 30,000 people could be locked up in Sweden in 10 years. Belgium and Norway have hired prison places in the Netherlands. Denmark has an agreement with Kosovo, a move heavily criticised by Danish human rights experts. ($1 = 0.8783 euros)
Reuters
04-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Sweden to hire prison cells in Estonia for up to 600 inmates
STOCKHOLM, June 4 (Reuters) - Sweden will send up to 600 criminals to serve their sentences in an Estonian prison under an agreement announced by the government on Wednesday aimed at reducing pressure on the country's overcrowded jails. From July next year, Sweden will be able to send men over 18 who are convicted of crimes ranging from murder to sexual offences to the prison in the Estonian city of Tartu. The agreement needs to be approved by parliament in both countries. "The whole prison will be placed at Sweden's disposal," Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told reporters. "Sweden's prison system .. is under tremendous pressures and in that situation needs a plan for expansion to deal with that." Sweden will pay 8,500 euros ($9,680) a month per inmate, a saving on the average 11,500 euros a month cost in Sweden. A wave of gang-related violence over the last decade has led to tougher laws and sentencing in Sweden pushing up the prison population. In May, around 7,300 inmates were held in 5,235 cells - an occupancy rate of 141%, figures from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service showed. Including standby accommodation, the occupancy rate was 96%. The Prison Service reckons 30,000 people could be locked up in Sweden in 10 years. Belgium and Norway have hired prison places in the Netherlands. Denmark has an agreement with Kosovo, a move heavily criticised by Danish human rights experts. ($1 = 0.8783 euros)
Straits Times
04-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Sweden to hire prison cells in Estonia for up to 600 inmates
Sweden to hire prison cells in Estonia for up to 600 inmates STOCKHOLM - Sweden will send up to 600 criminals to serve their sentences in an Estonian prison under an agreement announced by the government on Wednesday aimed at reducing pressure on the country's overcrowded jails. From July next year, Sweden will be able to send men over 18 who are convicted of crimes ranging from murder to sexual offences to the prison in the Estonian city of Tartu. The agreement needs to be approved by parliament in both countries. "The whole prison will be placed at Sweden's disposal," Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer told reporters. "Sweden's prison system .. is under tremendous pressures and in that situation needs a plan for expansion to deal with that." Sweden will pay 8,500 euros ($9,680) a month per inmate, a saving on the average 11,500 euros a month cost in Sweden. A wave of gang-related violence over the last decade has led to tougher laws and sentencing in Sweden pushing up the prison population. In May, around 7,300 inmates were held in 5,235 cells - an occupancy rate of 141%, figures from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service showed. Including standby accommodation, the occupancy rate was 96%. The Prison Service reckons 30,000 people could be locked up in Sweden in 10 years. Belgium and Norway have hired prison places in the Netherlands. Denmark has an agreement with Kosovo, a move heavily criticised by Danish human rights experts. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
