Sweden is considering making OnlyFans illegal.
Well, not just OnlyFans. But there is a bill set to be introduced this summer that could impact how OnlyFans can work in the country.
It’s not a surprise that Sweden is one of the first countries to consider such a law. After all, they are the country that radically changed the way many other countries viewed and legislated sex work.
In 1999, the country decided to change the way they looked at prostitution. While most countries prosecute the sex worker (the one who is selling sex as a service), Sweden’s new law instead criminalized the purchase of sex. What this meant is that sex workers in the country no longer feared prosecution. Instead, it was the people who sought the sex workers who had to be afraid.
The goal of this shift in the way the country not only prosecuted prostitution, but thought about it as a concept, was to shift the burden from the people (primarily women) who were forced into the trade to the people (primarily men) who created the demand for it. The principle behind this effort was that it is “shameful and unacceptable that, in a gender equal society, men obtain casual sexual relations with women in return for payment.”
This concept spread to other Nordic countries like Iceland, Norway, and France, leading it to become known as the “The Nordic Model” or “The Equality Model.” These countries want to frame prostitution as a systemic gender issue, not just a transactional one, using four pillars as the framework: prosecuting clients, decriminalizing sellers, offering exit support, and shifting public attitudes.
And now they want to apply that concept to digital sex work, including OnlyFans.
The bill that is being considered later this year wouldn’t ban subscription-based sites like OnlyFans, or even cam sites or other sex work friendly platforms. Instead, like the original law, it would criminalize the purchase of sex services done online.
That means that people could still buy pre-recorded content that OnlyFans or other digital sex workers create on their own, but if they order bespoke or custom content they could face prison time.
But some don’t think that bill goes far enough and want to totally ban sites like OnlyFans. That includes the chairwoman of the umbrella group representing women’s groups, Annika Strandhäll.
Strandhäll recently explained why she wants OnlyFans banned: “It is a forum where sexual services are also sold. Prostitution or the sex trade is constantly taking new forms, and it is important that politicians and legislators keep up with the developments that are taking place.”
But many wonder if this kind of law will be effective in any sort of way. After all, many still wonder just how effective that groundbreaking 1999 law was. Sure, it did help to shift the stigma away from sex workers and to their clients. But it isn’t clear if that actually reduced the number of sex workers in the country or if it just drove the entire industry into hiding.