Millionaire model Lily Phillips says regulation is needed but no one is listening as a new documentary exposes the widespread corruption going on by those who manage and control the content creators06:03, 15 Jun 2026Women are being threatened, attacked and even trafficked on OnlyFans, according to a new BBC investigation into the £2.5bn British tech company.‌Journalist and presenter Amber Haque spoke to more than 60 content creators and discovered many were being exploited by the managers they’d signed with to help grow their subscriber base and earnings. The programme found that 83% of the women they surveyed had been pressured to make more explicit content than they were comfortable with, while 60% had been threatened or blackmailed when they tried to leave.‌It also found widespread allegations of exploitation, coercion and violence, and the potential for modern slavery committed by some of the agencies which have sprung up to manage many of the platform’s creators.‌The adult content website launched a decade ago and saw its popularly soar during lockdown. It claims to champion empowerment and independence, especially for the women making the intimate content, which ranges from lingerie shots to x-rated sex videos.But the BBC current affairs team found that many managers were taking control away from the women, who were getting locked out of their own accounts and seeing payments diverted away from them. Managers typically take a 50% of the women’s earnings but one woman in the film said said hers was taking 100%, meaning she didn’t get a penny.‌But some who complained or tried to leave found they received serious threats of violence - and even death - to themselves or their children. Other intimidation took the form of fake legal letters and threatening to tell family members they were on OnlyFans.Amber and the BBC team discovered that the managers were also sharing control tips on how to deal with any client who was not being fully compliant. After infiltrating their online chat forum, OFM Empire, they saw men advising each other to “scare the bitch” and “tell her some bullshit” or “break something with a baseball bat”.Single mum Rebecca, 25, from south Wales joined Only Fans last year and said within a few weeks of taking on an agency she was being pressured to move into real-life sex work as an escort.‌After worrying they were going to take more than the agreed 50%, she changed her passwords and denied access, but soon received threats. “A lot of verbal abuse, phone calls, sending me my own address, telling me they’re going to swing me and my daughter round by our hair, that they’re going to have me and my daughter wrote off,” she explains.The situation worsened when a brick was thrown through her window and two weeks later two masked men broke into her house and attacked her leaving her covered in bruises and fearing for her life. She didn’t tell the police her suspicion that her former agency was behind it. “I was too scared to say anything, to say any names,” she said, claiming she has “no bad blood” with anyone else.‌Amber describes her story as “the most horrifying” she’d come across, adding: “This was a world built on pressure and control, where extreme advice had been carried out in real life.”Another young mum, Leanne, weeps as she tells how she was pressured to go from posting lingerie pictures to making an explicit video - which was then sold for a paltry $36 rather than the agreed $250. “It made me feel so disgusting, so degraded,” she cries.Even the biggest names on the site, who can earn in excess of £100k a month, are calling for change. Lily Phillips is now a multi-millionaire thanks to OnlyFans but says men “get jealous” when women make large amounts of money through sex work. Saying there needs to be more regulation when it comes to management, she explained: “That is the dangerous space - where vulnerable people can be taken advantage of.”‌Lily, 24, says she would like to do more to highlight the problems but wasn’t sure where to start. “As sex workers, people don’t really take what we say seriously,” she said. “We need help and we need regulations in our industry but people don’t really care, because they don’t see us as human.”Sophie Kemp, head of public law at Kingsley Napley, tells the film that change is long overdue. “What struck me the most is how systematic this is. This isn’t isolated bad behaviour by just a few managers, there’s coercion, deception and potentially human trafficking. Managers are conducting potentially criminal behaviour on a wide scale.”She says it won’t be long before the company finds itself in court. “Given the evidence I’ve seen, and the law that is developing in this area, it’s only a matter of time before OnlyFans faces claims of negligence from creators who have suffered harm because of the systems and the eco-systems which OnlyFans has created.”‌Andrew Wallis, CEO of anti-slavery organisation Unseen, agreed: “We’ve seen physical violence against people, we’ve seen harassment, threats, coercion, taking an individual and turning them into a commodity for the sole purpose of making money. Take that as a whole and we would say that is a pattern of trafficking, of modern slavery.”International human rights lawyer Matt Jury said OnlyFans bosses "turning a blind eye" to what was going on with exploitation all comes down to money. “They know that acting on these these types of complaints and taking action is going to cut into their bottom line.”MP Tonia Antoniazzi chairs an all-party parliamentary group on commercial sexual exploitation and branded OnlyFans “the biggest pimping website that exists”. She says the company needed to be held to account, and fast. “I would like to see a select committee look at OnlyFans as it stands now, and create legislation around this area because it’s a whole new world.”‌Stars who use OnlyFans include Kerry Katona, who claims she made £1million after selling pics of herself. Hollyoaks star Sarah Jayne-Dunn was unceremoniously sacked from the soap after bosses discovered she was flogging racy snaps, while Kate Moss' sister Lottie is also on the platform along with Love Island hunk Adam Collard and former EastEnder Daniella Westbrook.Amber, 32, said her aim was to raise awareness about what was happening behind the scenes. “A lot of people will have no idea this is going on, I didn’t. That’s all you can hope for is to start a ball rolling to raise awareness. It's on the authorities and the industry to do what they will with the information.”‌OnlyFans claims it has nothing to do with third party management agreements. A spokesperson told the film: “OnlyFans was designed to empower creators to control and monetise their content. We take the safety of our users incredibly seriously and invest heavily in measures to protect our community, including strict onboarding processes, payment controls and ongoing account moderation.“The allegation we ‘turn a blind eye’ to these issues is unfounded...many creators choose to work with reputable third parties who assist them with the promotion and operation of their online presence and social media accounts. OnlyFans’ relationship is with our Creators and Fans and we are not connected with, and do not endorse any third parties including management agencies.”Insisting that the tech firm meets the requirements of the Online Safety Act, they added: “Anyone exploiting our community should be reported to us and to the police.”Article continues below- OnlyFans: Inside the Machine, airs on BBC3 at 9pm tonight, on BBC1 at 10.55pm and is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.