An urgent call for increased funding for preventative education in schools, PRUs and youth centres is being made by Oasis Domestic Abuse Service in response to an alarming rise in online sexual exploitation.
The service, which has operated in Thanet for 30 years and has now expanded to North Kent and Medway, says frontline teams started seeing cases of clients being coerced into creating sexually explicit content on platforms such as OnlyFans last year and this has been escalating.
The charity has seen 18 clients who have experienced various forms of this abuse in the past year and says those impacted are predominantly younger female who are not in education, work or training, and for the most part don’t recognise that what they’re experiencing is coercion and sexual exploitation.
The issue was raised by Oasis young persons’ domestic abuse advisor Keira during the Violence Against Women and Girls conference held in Margate last month.
The conference, chaired by East Thanet MP Polly Billington, was organised by Cllr Joanne Bright alongside the MP, East Thanet Labour Women’s Branch, Oasis Domestic Abuse Service, POW Thanet and other partners.
‘Disturbing increase’
Keira told The Isle of Thanet News: “We’ve been seeing a disturbing increase in women we support being coerced into online sexual exploitation.
“We’ve had about 18 clients who have experienced various forms of this abuse in the past year, and it’s heartbreaking because they often don’t realise they’re being exploited.
“This type of abuse, like all abuse, can happen to anyone but we do see a correlation with clients who aren’t in education, employment or training being at increased risk of being pimped by perpetrators.
“Several of our clients have been manipulated into creating online sexual content and monetising their bodies on platforms like OnlyFans and a lot of them have had intimate images taken without consent, often accompanied by threats of online distribution by their abusive partners or relatives.
“I can’t stress enough how important it is that we educate young people – in and out of state education – about healthy relationships, online safety, and values around love and respect, from an early age.”
Ms Billington spoke about the issue in Parliament this week as part of a discussion about the Online Safety Act and the illegal content duties that came into effect last week.
She said: “The domestic abuse charity Oasis in my constituency has alerted me to the appalling situation whereby young women are being coerced into setting up OnlyFans accounts to generate income. Will the Secretary of State outline what steps he is taking to ensure that the sector can root out coercion and exploitation?”
Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, responded: “Oasis, a great charity, is lucky to have (Polly) here in the House of Commons as a voice for its work and for the need to make radical changes to keep people safe online.
“I can assure her that the situation she describes breaches several aspects of law, including the need to take down illegal content. I will be watching closely, as she will, and working with her to ensure new powers and those that are coming online are effective and that we adapt to these challenges in future.”
OnlyFans platform and measures
OnlyFans is an online platform and app created in 2016. With it, people can pay for photos, videos and live streams via a monthly membership. There are some 350million users of the platform worldwide. The OnlyFans age limit is 18+
OnlyFans says it works to combat modern slavery and human trafficking and is “committed to building the safest digital media platform in the world.”
The platform adds: “We closely inspect images, text, and sound files to look for possible indications of force or coercion. We also use IP tracking to determine upload locations and patterns.
“In this way, our technology and our people work together to report suspected modern slavery and human trafficking. When suspected, we pass this information to law enforcement and non-governmental organizations (NGO) to help identify the perpetrators.”
However, last year a Reuters investigation found women who said they had been deceived, drugged, terrorized and sexually enslaved to make money from the site.
The findings were based on redacted U.S. police complaints and international court files, lawsuits and interviews with prosecutors, sex-trafficking investigators and women who said they’d been trafficked.
And in February, a Daily Mirror investigation found more than 1,500 crimes linked to OnlyFans had been reported to 38 police forces in the UK in the last five years.
Yesterday, regulator Ofcom (the Office of Communications) fined the provider of OnlyFans, Fenix International Limited, £1.05 million for failing to accurately respond to formal requests for information about its age assurance measures on the platform.
Firms are required, by law, to respond to all statutory information requests from Ofcom in an accurate, complete and timely way.
‘Deeply concerned’
Oasis CEO Claire Williams says such exploitation needs to be tackled with early intervention, educating children on the dangers of coercion and manipulation.
She is calling for funding for preventative work, stricter online regulations and a halt to glamourising sexual content.
She said: “We are deeply concerned about the rising trend of online sexual exploitation, particularly affecting women and girls in our community. And we’re thankful MP Polly Billington recently brought this issue to Parliament, highlighting the urgent need for action.
“This needs to be tackled at many levels and early intervention is an absolute priority for me as CEO. Children need to be equipped with the right knowledge and resources to understand the dangers of coercion and manipulation from a young age – in particular those who are unknowingly at risk of becoming victims and those who are unknowingly at risk of perpetrating.
“While our teams are slowly getting back into schools, we don’t have the capacity to deliver lessons and workshops on healthy and unhealthy relationships across Kent and Medway.
“So, to address this growing crisis, we are urgently calling for increased funding for preventative education in schools, PRUs and youth centres, starting at primary level.
“We also want to see stricter online regulations and a shift away from the glamorisation of sexual content, which creates and normalises distorted perceptions of relationships, consent, boundaries and gender norms, and has huge – and I mean massive – ripple effects in our culture and society.”
Signs of online sexual exploitation to watch for include:
- Sudden changes in behaviour or mood
- Unexplained gifts or money
- Increased secrecy around online activities
- Withdrawal from friends and family
- Displaying signs of anxiety, depression, or self-harm
Most cases of sexual exploitation go unreported due to shame, fear, or lack of awareness.
Get help
For those seeking help or information around violence they or someone else is experiencing behind closed doors, Oasis Domestic Abuse Service is here to support you.
The helpline is 0800 917 9948, available Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 9:30am – 11:30am, 12:30pm – 2:30pm, and Thursday, Friday 9:30am – 11:30am.
They also have a virtual East Kent drop in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10am to noon on 07856 856278.
Find out more about their work in Thanet at oasisdaservice.org
