{"id":639407,"date":"2026-06-15T06:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639407\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T06:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:52:08","slug":"onlyfans-agents-exploit-creators-while-taking-half-their-earnings-bbc-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639407\/","title":{"rendered":"OnlyFans &#8216;agents&#8217; exploit creators while taking half their earnings, BBC finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Leanne later discovered it had been sold for less than $40 (\u00a330).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It just made me feel so disgusting and so degraded,&#8221; she says. She is no longer posting on OnlyFans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">OnlyFans has known about concerns regarding over-exploitative OFMs via media coverage, but we also know of at least one creator who has directly tried to make the company aware.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Riley alerted the platform to discussions in OFM Empire that suggested agents were buying and selling creators&#8217; contracts without creators knowing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The tactics of these groups consistently grow more and more exploitative,&#8221; she wrote in an email to the OnlyFans support team in 2024, seen by the BBC. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She was asked to provide evidence, and sent links to OFM Empire and screengrabs of messages on the forum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There was not enough evidence for OnlyFans to take action, she was later told.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If you are affected by any of the issues in this story, help and support is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/actionline\/\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">at BBC Action Line<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Any bad actors exploiting creators&#8221; should be reported to OnlyFans, and where necessary the police, the platform told the BBC, so they &#8220;can be held accountable and appropriate action can be taken against them to protect our creator community&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The UK&#8217;s anti-slavery commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, says OnlyFans has a legal duty to protect users from illegal content and to act swiftly to remove it when it becomes  aware.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s alarming that cases of exploitation are being reported but appear to be not properly acted on,&#8221; she says when we show her Riley&#8217;s emails. &#8220;That raises serious concerns about whether OnlyFans is meeting its legal duties to protect users.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lyons says she is &#8220;already engaging with&#8221; Ofcom &#8211; the UK watchdog for online safety &#8211; and policymakers, who &#8220;need to pay much closer attention&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">OFMs should face greater scrutiny and potentially be licensed, she adds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ofcom told us that testimony from victims featured in this investigation was &#8220;deeply concerning&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Regulated sites and apps, such as OnlyFans, must assess the risk of their services being used to facilitate the commission of offences,&#8221; it said in a statement. &#8220;Any offences which take place entirely offline, however, are not caught by the Online Safety Act.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lily Phillips, one of the highest earning UK creators on OnlyFans, says a lack of regulation around OFMs creates &#8220;a dangerous space where vulnerable people can be taken advantage of&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;People realise how much money you can make from OnlyFans. So, you know, everyone wants a piece of the pie, especially men\u2026 they want their little piece,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sophie Kemp, from Kingsley Napley law firm, says OnlyFans has a duty of care to its creators and, based on our evidence, she believes &#8220;it is only a matter of time before OnlyFans faces claims of negligence from creators who have suffered harm&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rebecca says she wanted to prove her old agency wrong by making a success of her work OnlyFans. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She is now signed with an agency where the content is handled by women, which she says makes her &#8220;feel a lot better&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Being an OnlyFans creator &#8220;is not going to be a forever thing&#8221;, she says, and one day she hopes to have made enough money to perhaps own her own horse-riding school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leanne later discovered it had been sold for less than $40 (\u00a330). &#8220;It just made me feel so&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-639407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}