Over 100 Congress members across party lines are urging the Department of Justice to launch a child sex abuse investigation into the content hosting platform OnlyFans.
According to a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the lawmakers are concerned with the sale and distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) occurring on OnlyFans.
“We write today to call your attention to potentially illegal activity, including child sexual exploitation, that [OnlyFans] is facilitating,” the lawmakers wrote. “We request the U.S. Department of Justice investigate the content sold on OnlyFans.com, as well as the policies, or lack thereof, that OnlyFans employs to report instances of CSAM or child exploitation on their platform,” the letter continued.
The lawmakers also note in their letter that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has found that the level of child exploitation and amount of CSAM on OnlyFans has consistently risen over the last several years. The organization reported that it was aware of 10 cases in which missing children were “associated with content sold on OnlyFans” in 2019. In 2021, however, NCMEC has already identified at least 80 cases of content involving missing children being sold on the platform.
In 2021, the NCMEC also labeled OnlyFans as one of the “top contributors to online sexual exploitation in the United States,” the letter asserts.
The letter was signed by 102 Democratic and Republican members of congress. The effort was helmed by Representative Ann Wagner (R-MO). Among the signatories are Representatives Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Sylvia Garcia (D-TX).
OnlyFans is a social media platform that ”is inclusive of artists and content creators from all genres and allows them to monetize their content while developing authentic relationships with their fanbase,” the platform’s website says.
According to The Christian Post, in February, OnlyFans was also added to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s annual Dirty Dozen list. The list names the top 12 businesses and organizations that the NCSE says profits off of sexual exploitation.
Photo courtesy: Glenn Carstens Peters/Unsplash
Kayla Koslosky is the former Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket newspaper. She has also contributed to IBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com.