For years, social media platforms and YouTube have been criticized for quietly serving explicit material to users. In one of the most recent instances, Meta was found running Instagram ads that promoted child sexual abuse material, some of them featuring AI-generated imagery, and was ordered by the Indian government to take them down. But there are plenty of other ways that sexually explicit material is promoted through seemingly harmless social media apps. The latest addition to this sordid chain of events is TikTok.
According to research conducted by the UK’s Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) and Australia’s Collective Shout, TikTok has become a funnel for promoting adult content hosted on platforms such as OnlyFans. Titled “The TikTok to OnlyFans Pipeline: How TikTok is promoting, normalising and glamourising the sex industry,” the report is the result of a year-long investigation into how OnlyFans is being normalized on the platform.
“After more than a year immersed on the platform, I’ve concluded that TikTok acts as an industrial-scale digital pimp, funnelling girls into the sex industry through a frictionless pipeline,” Melinda Tankard Reist, Movement Director at Collective Shout, said in a press statement. The report details numerous ways in which OnlyFans content is covertly promoted on TikTok, a platform with a high proportion of young users.
Corn emojis, glitzy auditions, and a link in the bio
According to the report, certain creators slip coded references to their OnlyFans accounts into seemingly harmless lifestyle content, such as “get ready with me” videos, shopping hauls, and even baking or pet clips. Performers may use the word “corn” in place of “porn,” or pair a corn emoji with a star emoji. These accounts also lean on emojis, gestures, and suggestive usernames that nudge viewers toward the links in their profiles, and eventually to explicit material on sites like OnlyFans and Fansly. TikTok isn’t the only platform where such patterns exist, either. To this day, it’s easy to spot the same tactics across YouTube, Instagram, and even Snapchat.
Many of these videos also flaunt a lavish lifestyle, with cash, big houses, private jets, and expensive cars, all supposedly paid for by OnlyFans earnings. That messaging only acts as a potent lure for more young women to consider joining the platform. Back in July, a News Corp investigation reported that underground agents were approaching underage girls on social media, promising them fame and money on OnlyFans once they turned 18.
Researchers also found that TikTok hosts audition videos for the Bop House, a Miami-based production house whose rotating group of women sell sexual content on OnlyFans. Would-be recruits respond by posting sexually suggestive dances tagged with Bop House recruitment. These accounts don’t explicitly promote OnlyFans, but their subtle hints can easily guide viewers there.
“TikTok strictly prohibits the sharing or showing of sexual content and we use advanced technologies to enforce our community guidelines. In addition, our systems are designed to prevent age-inappropriate content from reaching teens,” TikTok said in a statement shared with The Guardian.
This won’t be the first time that TikTok has landed itself in hot water. The company is already facing multiple investigations and lawsuits accusing it of building an addictive algorithm that serves unhealthy content to young users, often worsening their body image, self-esteem, and mental health issues.