U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) led a bipartisan letter with 101 of her colleagues calling on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the prevalence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the website OnlyFans.com.
“We write today to call your attention to potentially illegal activity, including child sexual exploitation, that this website is facilitating,” Rep. Wagner and the lawmakers wrote in an Aug. 10 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “We request the [DOJ] 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 presence of CSAM on OnlyFans “is undeniable,” wrote the lawmakers, citing data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which in 2019 indicated it was aware of 10 cases involving missing children associated with content sold on OnlyFans and this year so far has identified at least 80 cases in which missing children were linked with OnlyFans content.
“Moreover, in 2021, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) named OnlyFans one of the top contributors to online sexual exploitation in the United States,” wrote Rep. Wagner and her colleagues.
The lawmakers also noted that it appears OnlyFans does not have adequate safeguards or protocols in place to notify the proper authorities when CSAM is found on the website. They requested that the DOJ investigation also focus on the prevalence of CSAM on OnlyFans, the pervasiveness of missing or abducted children linked to content on the website, and the use of direct messaging on the site to solicit prostitution, among other items.
Earlier this week, NCMEC, NCOSE, and Awareness is Prevention endorsed the lawmakers’ letter.