OnlyFans is not exclusive to - only fans
I remember being 14 years of age when a guy from school had asked me to send him a nude photo. At this point in my life, I only had a digital camera and a crappy flip phone that made it near impossible to even send a picture of my cat to someone. I remember really liking this boy at the time but reminded myself that the consequences of sending a nude photo to him could tarnish my image if the photo was ever seen by my friends. I knew it wasn’t worth it to send him a picture of myself at the time, but now, with all the tools we have with the internet and smartphone, it is not only easier to send nude photos but there are now more incentives to send nude photos — money.
OnlyFans is just one of a few web services that allow people to publish nude and private content that only its subscribers (people who pay) can access. The website only claims about 20 percent of utilized creators’ income, leaving many of its users with enough money to buy a house. As refinery describes it, OnlyFans is “mainly utilized by people who work in porn.” This utilization by people working in porn extended to people known as “social media influencers,” as much of their content creation was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Users can often be found posting nude photos of themselves, showing off their chests and posting in seductive poses, wearing little to no clothing.
To start an OnlyFans profile, users simply create an account using their Twitter or Gmail credentials and begin posting the web address to their OnlyFans pages on their TickTok or Instagram bios.
It seems easy and risk-free, right? Wrong.
What many OnlyFans users fail to realize is the details in the fine print. By agreeing to start an OnlyFans page, users agree to have their personal information, including their name, address, or birth date. More importantly, the photos posted on the site’s platform will be shared with third parties. Additionally, what forbids a person from taking a photo of someone else’s phone screen displays a nude picture? While one person may subscribe to an OnlyFans profile, more than just the subscriber may access the user’s content.
If you were to send a nude photo to a special friend or partner, would you agree to have them send that photo to someone else, i.e. a third party, or allow them to have other people take pictures of their phone’s display screens? I would assume no because this would be an example of a breach of trust.
The creators of OnlyFans are breaking their user’s trust by not making their privacy statement more accessible and being more transparent about how they share their users’ information. Based on the ethical decision-making model, the creators of OnlyFans should implement The Common Good approach and not just think about their investors. The Common Good Approach “suggests that the interlocking relationships of society are the basis of ethical reasoning and that respect and compassion for all others — especially the vulnerable — are requirements of such reasoning.” The users who created content to even make the website such a popular service for some, are vulnerable and they are not being protected by the service providers of OnlyFans.
The creators of OnlyFans should be ensuring their users have read the web services privacy statement and be able to confirm that its users are actually aware of the risks and consequences of posting nude content with their services. Rather than think about the information they sell to third party services, at their users’ expense.
References
Elpa, A. (2020, June). I Became A Cam Girl Because Of COVID-19. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/onlyfans-cam-girl-coronavirus
University, S. (2015, August). A Framework for Ethical Decision Making. Retrieved November 18, 2020, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/a-framework-for-ethical-decision-making/
