‘I’m selling sex online to save money for a house’
More and more young people are turning to the online sex industry, and with student debt, a non-existent jobs market and low salaries, is it any wonder why,
Jack Newman is a webcam model. Some might call him a pornstar, others a sex worker, but according to Jack: “I’d always call myself a cam model because that’s someone who strips off in front of a webcam and does what people ask for money – and like, that’s what I do.” At 18 years old, he still lives at home in Dorset with his parents – they don’t know that when Jack tells them he’s going to his room, he is in fact going to perform sex acts on himself for paying customers who find him predominantly through Twitter. When we
speak, Jack seems like any other teenager – he’s funny, relaxed, confident but not overconfident, and very open when it comes to explaining what persuaded him to give the online sex industry a go: money. And not just a bit of pocket money, but an annual salary.
The number of teenagers, students and young adults turning to sites such as OnlyFans and JustFor.Fans, social media platforms where users pay to view photos and videos, has grown considerably in the past year. When I speak to Steve Pym, head of marketing at OnlyFans, he confirms that of the community’s more than 450,000 content creators from around the world, almost 33 per cent are between 22 and 25 years old, and 29 per cent are between 18 and 21 years old (there are two further age brackets – both account for significantly lower numbers of members.) This not only makes these age brackets the site’s most popular, but also its most lucrative. “We’ve seen an influx of content creators across all different ages but it’s definitely the younger ones who find their way to the platform most easily,” Pym says. “We hope that we can offer an income opportunity to anyone who is facing financial hardship due to the coronavirus.”
Pym says lockdown has seen business boom with “monthly signups increasing from 15 per cent to 75 per cent in the last few months alone”, but thinks there’s more to be said about why younger people join these online communities. “Because we allow creators to earn a living remotely, it’s especially useful for students and young professionals who may not have as many opportunities to earn a living wage. And if they already have an established fan base through another social media network such as Instagram or TikTok, they now have the opportunity to monetise that following,” he tells me. “There’s also something to be said for content creators being able to create a far deeper interaction with their fans and deliver a richer and more authentic content mix, free from brand endorsements, campaigns and YouTube advertising commissions.”
The growing trend was even explored in this year’s hugely popular Netflix series The Stranger, through a storyline that includes Absolutely Fabulous actress Jennifer Saunders. Saunders’ on-screen daughter, Kimberley, is found to be a member of an online “sugar daddy” website on which she posts explicit content in return for huge sums of money. Her explanation: to avoid the large debt she will incur simply by going to university and getting a degree.
The popularity of OnlyFans, which was founded in London, speaks for itself. The platform, set up by Essex entrepreneur Timothy Stokely in 2016, was originally intended to be the next stage in influencer marketing – where people are paid to advertise products and make premium content to post on their social channels. The premise was simple: if fans of influencers were really fans, they’d pay a subscription fee to see the best of the best in terms of the content their idols produced.
This very quickly led the site to become a hotspot for adult creators, who could charge customers for explicit posts they can't share on more public platforms such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Pym says
OnlyFans is a “50/50 split between adult entertainment and lifestyle, beauty and fitness influencer content”. So how did OnlyFans become the go-to for the online sex industry? “In the beginning, we saw a huge pick-up in the adult industry, an industry that is notoriously entrepreneurial, so it was no real surprise to see that they were among the first to catch onto the huge opportunity that OnlyFans offers to content creators,” Pym tells me. “Adult creators also found a home here due to our more progressive policy towards content creation without discrimination.”
Not everyone uses these kinds of sites, though. Jack, for instance, is freelance. He advertises his services on Twitter, asking people to direct message him, where he then organises private Skype or Snapchat sessions after someone has safely wire-transferred him money. He says he doesn’t have a set price list and tends to charge people “based on the vibe” he picks up from their conversation. When I ask what a day in the office, or bedroom, looks like, it’s clear that the bulk of what Jack does is corresponding masturbation – and although he identifies as “mostly heterosexual”, he says the large majority of customers that approach him are men, which he “doesn’t mind doing for money, because it’s all online”. The “gay for pay” sector of the online sex industry is a huge part of its success, because – as is the case with someone like Jack – there is more opportunity to make money if you’re able to fulfil someone’s sexual fantasy without actually having to do something you wouldn't in real life.
While he doesn’t feel comfortable sharing an exact figure for his monthly earnings, he does say that he’s expecting to earn £20,000 by the time he celebrates one year on the job
Like many of the young people now signing up to be a part of the flourishing online sex industry, Jack was lured by the promise of quick money, and lots of it. “I just saw people on YouTube talking about how they’d set up OnlyFans accounts and how they were earning loads of money off it,” he explains. “I work a parttime job on the side of college but it doesn’t fulfil me – financially or mentally to be honest – whereas this gives me a proper income and means I can really start thinking about the future.”
He’s only been in the game for three months when we speak, which is why he says he hasn’t yet transferred his services onto a more official platform like OnlyFans, though he “intends to pretty soon if things carry on the way they’re going”. While he doesn’t feel comfortable sharing an exact figure for his monthly earnings, he does say that he’s expecting to earn £20,000 by the time he celebrates one year on the job. To put that into perspective, graduate-jobs.com estimates that in 2020, the average starting salary for a recent university leaver is between £21,000 and £25,000 per annum.
For Jack, university isn’t an option – largely because of the debt he’s seen friends rack up while studying in various cities across the UK. “I’ve got loads of mates who are at university now and they’re really struggling to live comfortably as well as pay for their accommodation, rent and food,” he tells me. “And that’s before they’ve even had to think about paying off their student loan after they leave.” Comparing his situation to theirs, he says: “When I think about what I’m saving versus what they’re spending, I just can’t help but think uni isn’t for me – I’m sure anyone I know would rather be earning the money I am as opposed to spunking it all on just, like, living.”
He isn’t wrong. Last year, it was reported that those planning to begin higher education as of September 2019 would experience some of the worst debt in history, thanks to a hike on student loan interest, which is forecast to rise by £4.2bn to £8.6bn a year by 2024. The Labour Party highlighted the government figures as an example of the “eye-watering” debts being accrued by students and young adults, and said it could mean a steep decline in the number of people opting to go to university. People like Jack.
Alongside his part-time job, Jack is completing a year-long apprenticeship, which means he isn’t totally reliant on his lucrative online business. Despite this, he admits he doesn’t consider his cam-modelling career a “long-term thing” because it’s “actually quite mentally draining performing for people – I don’t think anyone thinks about that”. That’s not to say he won’t take full advantage of its benefits to lay the groundwork for what’s to come. “I think a lot of people might see what I do and think: ‘Oh, he’s probably just trying to earn loads of cash and spend it all straight away,’ but that’s really not the case,” he says. “I’m doing this with my future in mind. I’m earning this money to save for a house, not to go out and spend it all on drugs.” Which is, ironically, he points out, something most university students do with their government-issued loans.
Generation Z (loosely defined as those born between 1997 and 2012) have been categorised as financially intelligent for some time now. Data explored by The Independent last May shows they are the generation least likely to use the “bank of mum and dad” and most likely to have savings worth more than £1,000. This label does not come without hard work and graft, though. As Jack suggests: if he doesn’t work to secure these safety nets for himself, who will?
In the BBC documentary Nudes4Sale, which was released in April, similar questions were asked. Viewers are introduced to various teenage girls and young adult women who make a living off selling sexually explicit content on various social media platforms, chiefly OnlyFans. At one point, we meet 24-year-old Beth, from the northwest, who feels there are limited job opportunities in her area outside of retail and hospitality for young women such as herself that “offer decent pay”. When probed by the show’s presenter about why she made the decision to go into the glamour and then sex industry, she replies matter-of-factly: “There’s no other job where I can earn this much in at my age, unless I become a drug dealer.”
The programme also suggests that how someone earns a living reflects their socioeconomic status. Lauren goes on to explain how growing up she always wanted to be a glamour model. When asked if there’s anything else she’s ever thought about doing, she says no. In a sense, we’re asked to believe that people only enter the sex industry because they feel they have no other choice but to. This seems somewhat reductive though – what about those who consciously choose this field as a career, not because they feel they have to but because they want to?
At 21-years-old, she sits in OnlyFans’ top 8 per cent of earners around the world. Since joining the site a year ago, she has climbed the ranks and now charges $11 for a standard subscription fee
Georgina Johnson is a sex worker. Not a porn star, stripper, prostitute or adult content creator. “No, I’m a sex worker and I’m happy to call myself one,” she says, “because even though I’m not meeting people in person, I’m still selling sex online and gaining money from my body.” She is the epitome of the modern-day page three girl: curvaceous, glamorous makeup, some tattoos and piercings. Georgina reminds me of the former glamour model Jess Hayes, who appeared in – and went on to win – the first series of ITV2’s Love Island when it was rebooted in 2015, in that both are open, honest and completely unashamed of what they do, because they enjoy doing it.
Georgina has a level 3 diploma in public services; originally her plan was to join the army when she finished college. Alongside her work online, she holds a full-time position in a local gym. No job prospect compares to her role in the online sex industry though, she says, because “gaining money from her body online” pays far better and affords her more freedom. Like Jack, Georgina joined OnlyFans on the basis of wanting to earn money quickly. “I had no debts to pay or anything like that but the money aspect intrigued me a lot,” she says. “When I started I wasn’t making more than a ‘regular job’, but the more I promoted online the more interest I had from others.” She says her friends “are very supportive and understanding”, and so are her family. “I told my mum and dad after a month of having an account and they accepted it and just told me to stay safe.”
At 21 years old, she sits in OnlyFans’ top 8 per cent of earners around the world. Since joining the site a year ago, she has climbed the ranks and now charges $11 for a standard subscription fee to her page, and $5 per minute for any customised video that a “fan” requests. The kind of content she creates varies: “I cater to most fetishes, I play with toys, I do custom requests and there are some duos I have done with other female workers too,” she tells me. While she’s lucky that most of her fans have fairly “normal” requests, she says, there are often those that are more… niche. “I’ve been asked to video myself pooing, but I declined because I didn’t feel comfortable doing it,” she says. How far would she go? “I don’t really have limits online. But I draw the line at meeting up with anyone, no matter the amount of money someone offers, because I feel like that could put me in danger,” she tells me, “but fair play to anyone who does do that in this line of work.”
The once-definitive line between online and offline sex work has become blurred in recent months as countries around the world have been forced into lockdown – and sex with anyone outside of your own home became illegal in multiple countries, including the UK. Since the coronavirus pandemic began, a huge number of “traditional” sex workers of all ages have had to take their services online. Has the pandemic affected business for Georgina? “I’ve had more time on my hands to create content which is bringing in more sells so yes it has helped,” she says, “but on the other hand, some of my customers have had to unsubscribe from my channel due to losing their jobs and no longer having enough money. It works both ways I guess.”
As with the majority of industries in the 21st century, sex’s future is likely digital. Nobody can say when this will happen, or be sure that avenues such as street prostitution will ever fully die out, but it’s no coincidence that a fast-moving online industry appeals to teenagers, students and young professionals, all of whom are technologically advanced and strive to achieve at a much quicker rate than older generations. Unlike Jack, Georgina sees and hopes for longevity in her work: “I’m young and have loads more to give in this space,” she says proudly. And, of course, there are some people who get into the game and never really leave.
Sean Pratt is an OnlyFans OG – happy to call himself a content creator, sex worker or, quite simply, “someone who’s on OnlyFans”. He joined the platform when it first launched and now sits in its top 0.6 per cent of earners. When we speak pre-lockdown, he’s about to board a plane back to the UK from a month
long holiday in Bali. Judging by his social media posts, it was a trip that many students and young professionals can only dream of one day being able to afford.
Sean, who appeared on the MTV reality series Ex on the Beach in 2017, is now 29. He seems to embody what newcomers to the online sex industry aspire to be: well-off, living a life of luxury and professionally in demand. He’s very practical about his career and what it means to him – “Like most things within the social media market, nothing lasts forever … the market is so flooded now, I reckon I have another year or two left before I’ll invest my earnings elsewhere” – but also extremely proud of what he’s achieved: “I work hard to look how I do and it’s nice to be appreciated for the efforts I make. Plus my family and friends all really support my life choices.”
The former reality star began his journey as a sex worker by selling used boxers through Instagram, after various followers began messaging him with offers upwards of £75 for a single worn pair. Now the proud owner of his own largely successful underwear brand Blanc and someone people consider to be one of OnlyFans’ biggest financial success stories, it’s clear to see why any young, impressionable first-timer is enticed. “Almost everyone is getting in on the industry now because even the people who once slagged it off have realised it’s hard to ignore a job where it’s so easy to make so much money,” Sean tells me, “and let’s be honest – money talks.” Thinking about the conversations I’ve had with him, Jack and Georgina, it’s hard to disagree.
As the coronavirus lockdown begins to ease, school leavers and university graduates will be thinking about the first step in their career – but how are they expected to navigate one of the toughest job markets and economies there has ever been? The answer to that isn’t clear. What is clear is that it is entirely understandable that students and young professionals make up the majority of those vying to be the next self-made star, in the no longer sordid business of selling nudes online. Sean’s right, money absolutely talks – especially to those placed in the cruellest of financial situations.