INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)
ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS | Volume IX Issue XI November 2025
note that OnlyFans functions as an online community providing social support to creators, and this community
dimension may facilitate more individuals considering content creation as viable, especially in contexts of youth
economic precarity.
However, the nature of this "personal knowledge" merits scrutiny. Substantial differences exist between someone
directly confiding their OnlyFans participation versus discovering this information indirectly or accidentally.
Are students openly sharing their platform involvement with close circles, or are they inferring participation
through indirect clues? This distinction has implications for understanding actual normalization levels versus
mere awareness.
The normalization also raises concerns highlighted by Anciones Anguita and Checa Romero (2025), who warn
about erotic content platform promotion influences on adolescents who may lack maturity to fully understand
long-term implications of creating sexual content online, including digital permanence, exploitation risks, and
psychosocial consequences.
These results situate within broader contexts of the "creator economy" and "uberization of work" conceptualized
by Aránguez (2023). OnlyFans represents a specific manifestation of contemporary labor trends where workers
assume increasingly individual risks in exchange for theoretical autonomy and flexibility.
Hamilton et al. (2022) identify economic motivations, autonomy, and creativity as primary drivers for OnlyFans
creators. However, economic precarization of young generations may mean many creators engage not through
genuinely free choice but economic necessity disguised as entrepreneurship. For many students, traditional labor
options, part-time retail or service jobs offer low wages, inflexible schedules, and few development
opportunities. Against this backdrop, OnlyFans may appear attractive: work from home, self-imposed schedules,
potential for higher income. Yet this comparison obscures particular risks of digital sex work, including content
permanence, personal security risks, and exploitation potential.
Buasirithanarat and Yensabai (2024) underscore urgency for developing public policies protecting digital
workers without restricting freedoms, requiring simultaneous consideration of labor rights, exploitation
protection, and freedom of expression.
Sánchez-Valtierra et al. (2024) document how social networks impact adolescents' psychological well-being
through mechanisms—social comparison, external validation, exposure to potentially harmful content—relevant
for OnlyFans. Creators may experience pressure to produce increasingly explicit content, face harassment, or
experience emotional consequences of commodifying sexuality. Consumers may develop unrealistic
expectations about relationships and intimacy, as noted by Lawlor et al. (2024).
How does OnlyFans use—whether as creator or consumer—affect university students' romantic relationships
and friendships? Conversations about monogamy, fidelity, jealousy, and trust become complicated when
relationship members create or consume OnlyFans content. Data about personal knowledge of creators suggests
these conversations are occurring in university social circles, though they remain mostly invisible to researchers
and educators.
This study's aggregated data likely obscure significant gender differences in how students know, consume,
morally perceive, and relate to OnlyFans. Existing literature suggests OnlyFans, while technically accessible to
any gender, is heavily feminized in both creator base and public perceptions. Future studies should disaggregate
data by gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic level, religiosity, and political ideology to capture these
asymmetries and provide nuanced understandings.
If practically all university students know OnlyFans and half personally know creators, educational institutions
should consider whether and how to address this reality. Rather than promoting or condemning, institutions could
provide critical frameworks helping students understand economic, legal, psychological, and social dimensions
of digital platform work. Higher education could equip students with tools for making informed decisions about
participation in these digital economies.
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