“I don’t understand why people are paying so much money for this,” she told the BBC. There is a range of content on the site but it is best known for pornography, and requires users to be over 18. After paying IDR 50,000 child porn with photo proof of transfer, Jack immediately sent 441 videos measuring 150 gigabytes.
Why do individuals watch child pornography? (Child sexual abuse material)
- This situation shows the vulnerability of children to become victims of networks of pornographic criminals who make huge profits from their innocence.
- To trade in porn videos and other products, users had to register as members of the online marketplace.
- Childline counsellors have come across a number of cases in which under-18s, some of whom are vulnerable, reference their use of OnlyFans.
BBC News has discovered that under-18s are also appearing in explicit videos on accounts run by adults in violation of OnlyFans’ guidelines. Caitlyn says it was stated “everywhere” on other online accounts that her daughter was 17. There is no obligation for a website to investigate, but OnlyFans told the BBC it checks social media when verifying accounts. According to Firman, it is not only users and the government who must strive to minimize negative content and harmful effects on digital platforms. Platform providers are also responsible for ensuring that their services are friendly and safe for all people. Child pornography videos are widely circulating on social media, closed groups, messaging applications, and the dark web.
Many youth who look for this content do not realize that it is illegal for them to look at it, even if they are a minor themselves. Where multiple children were seen in the images and videos, we saw that Category C images accounted for nearly half. In these images the children are often displaying their genitals and are with another child who may or may not also be displaying themselves. Some adults form ‘friendships’ with minors online with the intention of eventually meeting to sexually abuse them. The process of developing a relationship with a child with the intention of sexually abusing them is often called ‘grooming’, a series of warning signs in a person’s behaviors that can increase a child’s vulnerability and their risk of being sexually abused. The Organization for Pornography and Sexual Exploitation Survivors (PAPS) is a nonprofit organization that offers counseling on how to request deletion of online child porn images and videos.
Saving children from sexual predators in the digital age
Lawmakers, meanwhile, are passing a flurry of legislation to ensure local prosecutors can bring charges under state laws for AI-generated “deepfakes” and other sexually explicit images of kids. Governors in more than a dozen states have signed laws this year cracking down on digitally created or altered child sexual abuse imagery, according to a review by The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Laws like these that encompass images produced without depictions of real minors might run counter to the Supreme Court’s Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition ruling.
Excuses such as “they’re smiling so they must be okay” ignore that these children and youth are being told what to do by adults, may be threatened to do this, and are not legally able to consent. Having CSAM available online means that children are re-victimized each time it is viewed 1. The dataset was taken down, and researchers later said they deleted more than 2,000 weblinks to suspected child sexual abuse imagery from it. Hundreds of these videos are offered freely via social media and payment is via digital wallet or bank.
BBC News also heard of other cases of underage children gaining access to OnlyFans. Leah stopped posting on OnlyFans, but her account remained active on the site four months later, with more than 50 archived pictures and videos. In a statement, OnlyFans said that Leah’s ability to access the site was an “oversight”, and her fake driving licence did not trigger a red flag. It said her account was approved during a transition “from one effective ID and age verification system to a new exceptionally effective” one. In a statement, OnlyFans says it could not respond specifically to the anonymous reports we were told about without the account details.
For those working in child protection, it’s so important to be clear and direct in our language to ensure we are best able to protect all children. A spokesperson for Stability AI said that man is accused of using an earlier version of the tool that was released by another company, Runway ML. Stability AI says that it has “invested in proactive features to prevent the misuse of AI for the production of harmful content” since taking over the exclusive development of the models. A spokesperson for Runway ML didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP. Those numbers may be an undercount, however, as the images are so realistic it’s often difficult to tell whether they were AI-generated, experts say.
