Valery loves her body. In her semi-nude figure, her curly hair and the tenderness of her features she discovered an opportunity to make a living selling erotic cut photos and videos on the internet, which made her give up leaving Venezuela.
Like her, other young Venezuelans have found in the sale of sexual content a way out of the economic crisis that plunges the country with the world’s largest oil reserves in seven years of recession and the highest inflation in the globe.
“I was crazy to leave because I wasn’t living well (…). Now I want to stay in Venezuela thanks to OnlyFans,” Valery López, 20, told AFP on this social network, which was born as a platform for ‘influencers’, but which has resulted in a kind of adult and pornographic content center.
Launched in 2016 in the UK, OnlyFans works with creators who set the cost of a subscription and pay 20% commission.
Valery had an attractive source of income there: “I can afford it [la mejora de] my teeth, buying me clothes … “, says this young woman who has just had an orthodontic treatment.” Who is earning $ 500 or $ 1,000 a month right now? No one “.
Its channel has more than 50 subscribers, all foreign. Each is charged $ 10 a month, six times the minimum monthly income in Venezuela, pulverized by hyperinflation and the constant depreciation of the local currency.
This is a point highlighted by Abel Saraiba, psychologist and coordinator of the NGO Cecodap, focused on the rights of children and adolescents.
“In other countries where there is no humanitarian emergency there has been a rise in consumption” of content from platforms like OnlyFans, Saraiba notes. “But in our context we can give it an additional dimension (…), to what extent [una persona] would he adopt such a risky modality if he had other work options? “.
– “Tender face” –
It all started for Valery with a “completely” nude photo on Instagram, with so many interactions that she discovered a business opportunity.
Her boyfriend, an architect with whom she has been in a relationship for three years, helped her open the account at OnlyFans.
“I’ve been in it because I really like it (…) and I like money more, a good combination,” he says.
Many fans of this 1.50m tall, green-eyed woman who sometimes paints freckles on her cheeks think she is a minor.
“They think I’m a girl, they think I lie to them” about age, she says with a laugh. “They like to look tender and that OnlyFans is very perverted (…), with my tender face, that I don’t break a plate.”
This is not the case with Valery, but a documentary by the British media BBC found evidence that children under the age of 18 are illegally selling content on this network, which had a giant boost with the coronavirus pandemic.
OnlyFans has 90 million subscribers and more than a million content creators, the company told AFP. Half of its creators, in April, generated adult material, acknowledged its head of operations (COO), Thomas Stokely, on the site BuzzFeed.
“It seems to be a safer way of generating income than others at higher risk such as prostitution,” Saraiba stressed. “But you don’t really think that once a content is published (…) you can lose control, that others can take control of it.”
It just so happened that OnlyFans videos ended up on platforms like YouTube.
The platform claims to have identity verification mechanisms as well as the rule to investigate “immediately” any allegations of abuse.
– “Search for alternatives” –
Brandon Mena, 20, took a break from his education career because he could no longer afford the private university he attended: his income plummeted drastically with the pandemic.
With a soft voice and shy look, Brandon was a waiter in nightclubs. “But the pandemic hit us and lasted in our pockets and we had to look for other alternatives,” said the young man, often dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved gray sweater, dressed very differently from his sexual photos.
His account on OnlyFans has not taken off, but several acquaintances “have managed to form a cheap flat” with this tool.
He does want to emigrate: “I don’t see myself here.”