A new BBC documentary airing tonight (June 15) describes Manchester as one of the UK's epicentres of the OnlyFans community while also exposing the dark world of third-party OnlyFans managers who exploit their clients.
The programme begins at a promotional shoot in the wealthy suburb of Hale in Trafford, where a mansion has been converted into an OnlyFans content house. The filming has been organised by digital entrepreneur Jordan Smith and his Rebel management agency.
The BBC's investigative journalist, Amber Haque, arrives in the middle of things at the property's driveway. It's here that scantily dressed male and female content creators pose for the cameras in front of supercars.
Speaking to a shirtless creator called Connor, the 23-year-old says on a good month he makes 10,000 US dollars a month on OnlyFans, which works out at around £7,500 – an impressive figure he still feels dissatisfied with.
We then meet OnlyFans manager Jordan, who takes us on a tour of the mansion's uniquely themed rooms, decked out to give each its own 'vibe'. It should be noted that the OnlyFans managers in the documentary are not officially affiliated with the online platform, but private individuals (commonly referred to as OFM in the digital/creator economy) who promise to increase the money OnlyFans models make if they sign up with them.
Throughout the documentary, Jordan is the only OFM to agree to speak with the BBC. Jordan justifies his role as an OFM by saying that as creators become popular and gain large numbers of subscribers, more aspects of their business need to be handled, including increased marketing to continue growing their following.
However, the BBC investigation reveals how some men are being encouraged to become OFM on social media. This is done by so-called entrepreneurs who sell a dream of making fast money off the back of OnlyFans creators, in what Amber says looks like a ‘legitimate corporate offshoot of the manosphere’.
We're then taken to central Manchester and its sky-scraping residential tower blocks. It's here that the investigation claims entire floors of some of the towers are taken over as dedicated content rooms and social media pods, with creators and managers moving into the tower blocks themselves.
It's in one of these apartments, which dizzyingly overlook the city, that we meet Gia Clarke, who has been on OnlyFans since it first launched in 2016. She's described as being in the top 1% of earners on the platform and says she earns around £5,000 per month.
Choosing not to be represented by a management company, Gia reveals her inbox is inundated with prospective managers. In a live call with one of the managers, he tells her she should be making much more money than she is and says that if she signs up, they will triple her income, but they will take a 50% cut of her net revenue.
Gia is cynical about management offers and has heard of "predatory" practices by some management companies. The documentary reveals that management companies taking a 50% cut of creators' earnings is standard, and that the cut can reach 70%.
Gia is also interviewed again later in the programme alongside adult performer Lily Phillips, who also produces content for OnlyFans. Lily tells the BBC of the "horror stories" she has heard when it comes to management companies, and says it's her belief that girls in the industry don't get more guidance or safeguarding regulations, as sex workers are not even seen as human beings at times.
The programme discusses a world of third-party OnlyFans managers (OFM) where creators report being pressured to produce increasingly explicit content and, in some cases, to participate in escort work to increase their income.
The documentary shows that female creators who join management companies are often instructed to hand over control of their OnlyFans accounts and even their bank details. One model recalls receiving abusive messages after telling a management company she was leaving, and shows photographs of bruises she says she sustained after two masked men came to her door and attacked her.
The documentary also reports that OFM are encouraged to use exploitative tactics on a Telegram channel with thousands of members in order to increase earnings. Research for the documentary indicates that 83% of 60 creators surveyed said they felt pressured to produce more explicit content, and 60% reported being threatened when they tried to leave their agency.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, the documentary's investigative reporter, Amber Haque, explained why she thinks Manchester has become such a haven for OnlyFans creators.
She said: "The tabloids have often called Manchester the UK hub of OnlyFans, but we have no way of quantifying that, obviously. It's just when I wanted to look into it, I was hearing on the ground that Manchester was quite a hotspot for it, both for creators and for management."
"The high-rise skyscrapers in Deansgate, in Salford, they contain a lot of influencers and people making money off the internet in a variety of forms... and a version of that is people becoming OnlyFans creators."
"And I think, for me, being a born and bred Manc, we know that this is a city of grafters. It's always had an entrepreneurial spirit, it's always welcomed people making money from a variety of ways in the city."
"And I think it's got a strong influencer economy at the heart of it, and that kind of growing creator scene. It is more affordable, relatively, than London, surrounded by different working-class cities. And so I think it feels in some ways like a perfect environment, especially because it's such an international city now, for this kind of like zeitgeisty, growing industry to take hold."
Amber also elaborates on the "surreal" experience of visiting the mansion house in Hale that had been converted into a content house for OnlyFans creators.
"Hale's the kind of spot for the rich neighbourhoods, a lot of footballers live in there, you know, your Cheshire Housewives, that kind of thing," said Amber.
"So maybe not a lot of people would expect that a content creator party would be happening behind closed doors in one of the mansions there."
"It did feel like stepping into a different world and it was sensory overload and a lot to take in at first with the supercars and content in all of these rooms."
Amber explains how content creator parties are held to market creators on social media and encourage people to visit their OnlyFans pages.
Adding: "A lot of the creators and OnlyFans people I met had really normal jobs before. One of the lads was a barber, another was a nurse who worked in palliative care. Quite ordinary sort of backgrounds and lines of work, finding themselves in this industry."
"I think it speaks to a lot of stuff going on in the country right now with the cost-of-living crisis, graduate job crisis, that this is a new way of making money now in the world. It's not just an online thing anymore, it's definitely a real-world thing that is happening in Manchester."
This sense of becoming an OnlyFans creator as a viable economic option for many creators, especially women, is sold as an attractive, lucrative career. However, Amber says this just isn't the case for most creators.
"I meet Lily Phillips in the documentary and she's one of the biggest names in the UK," said Amber.
"They see people like her and Bonnie Blue and people of that kind of ilk making hundreds of thousands, millions a year on OnlyFans and think that that's a realistic sort of number that you can get to. For a lot of people, it isn't."
"I say in the documentary, most people actually earn just over a grand a year, which is nothing. It's very hard to make a living off that. But if you put the work in, if you do that marketing stuff like I saw at the content house, there is potential to earn a fair bit of money on OnlyFans."
"I think we now need to accept, no matter what people think about people's life choices and, I guess the explicit content side of it is a whole different conversation, that this is a new way of making money online now and it's quite accepted in some ways."
Yet, with the rise of unregulated OFM platforms controlling creators' careers, the documentary exposes a seamy world where OnlyFans models are subject to a hidden ecosystem of exploitation and abuse by many who claim to have their best interests at heart.
Amber says she hopes viewers will watch her documentary with an "open mind", adding: "I think there's been a lot of documentaries about OnlyFans which are about the sex work side of it, kind of judging people's life choices."
"I wanted to come into this with the idea that this is a new way of making money online, it's happening. But what's actually happening behind the scenes, beyond the online face we see with influencers? How are these real people actually making money?"
"I hope that people now see there is a whole ecosystem that's grown around it and, ultimately, that is why we wanted to put this evidence that we had found to these experts, to these human rights lawyers, to work out and ask those questions about who is ultimately responsible for protecting people."
"Because some people might see the headline and think that this is going to be a documentary about sex, but actually it's about money, it's about power, it's about entrepreneurship, modern work."
"And I guess when these platforms grow so quickly that entire industries develop around them, how do we keep up pace and make sure that we protect people, and that there's transparency over things?"
An OnlyFans spokesperson said: “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.
“OnlyFans meets all of its duties under the Online Safety Act.
“OnlyFans’ safety by design approach helps catch bad actors trying to abuse our platform. Anyone exploiting our community should be reported to us and to the police.
“In the UK, where a creator requests a payout from their OnlyFans account, our third-party payment providers undertake Confirmation of Payee checks when processing that payment. Where this check is not successful the payment will be rejected.
“In addition to our own proactive safety controls, if anyone raises a concern about a Creator’s account, we will immediately restrict the account, conduct an investigation and take action to ensure the Creator is in control of their OnlyFans account.
“We work closely with law enforcement to support investigations and with charities and expert groups to continuously evolve our safety features.”
OnlyFans: Inside the Machine is on BBC Three at 9pm and BBC One at 10:55pm. It is available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
