'Icky and heartbreaking': The $2 per hour worker behind the OnlyFans boom

A Philippines-based woman has described how "heartbreaking" it is to get less than $2 per hour pretending to be a much better paid OnlyFans models in online chats.

The platform works by linking creators of explicit content to users, who pay a subscription to access their material and chat online.

However, while high-profile creators can earn large sums of money, the job of interacting with fans - and attempting to sell them images and videos - is often done by low-paid people, employed by third parties, such as the person the BBC spoke to.

A union representing such workers - known as "chatters" - told BBC News it was concerned about the "largely unregulated nature of this type of online work".

OnlyFans, which generated $7.2bn (£5.3bn) revenue in 2024, declined to comment but its terms of service state that its business relationship is solely with the content creator.

'It's really not pleasant'

The BBC is not naming the woman it spoke to in order to protect her identity.

Employed by an agency used by the model she was pretending to be, she says she first took up this type of work to support her family during a period of lower income, earning under $2 per hour and working an 8hr shift five days a week.

She would be set targets to earn the model hundreds of dollars worth of sales of pictures and videos during her shift.

The most popular creators on the platform claim to earn millions of dollars per month.

A more recent period of chatting work with a new agency offered improved conditions and pay, though still less than $4 an hour.

She said she knew the work would involve explicit content - but even so "sexting" was unpleasant.

"It's kind of icky when you think about it, because you'll have to do sexting a lot of times, like, several times in an hour because, you know, you'll be talking to several fans all at once".

She said the people she chatted to often seemed "really nice" but were obviously lonely, making the whole process feel sad, especially as she was not the person she was pretending to be.

That dishonesty troubled her, she said,

"Technically, I'm scamming them, because I'll be sending all those photos and videos to them, and I'm just after the sale," she said

Indeed the use of chatters has lead to legal cases against OnlyFans and the agencies who employ them, by users and law firms who feel the practice is deceptive. So far none have succeeded.

Some fans the chatter said would ask for "really weird, kinks or fetishes" which she could generally tolerate - but not always.

"There are days where I feel like, 'what the hell am I doing here?' because there are days that it would really take its toll on you".

Asked if she felt exploited, she described accepting an under two dollars an hour pay rate as "not her finest hour".

"It's really not pleasant, you know? You're going to question yourself. Your morality, even, and even your conscience," she told the BBC.

"It's really kind of heart-breaking, especially knowing that the agency is getting way more," she added.

Poor worker protections

The chatter also described concerns about potential legal risk in taking on the work, given relatively tough anti-pornography laws in the Philippines.

The BPO Industry Employees' Network or BIEN is an independent union representing workers in the outsourced business process jobs in the Philippines.

Mylene Cabalona, its president, told the BBC that "while the Philippines does have relatively strict laws regarding pornography, our main concern as a union is the largely unregulated nature of this type of online work".

This raised, she said, serious concerns about workers' exposure to "potentially egregious or harmful content, as well as a lack of clear guidelines on safety, accountability, and worker protection".

But there were also advantages to outsourced digital jobs, including chatting, which could, Cabalona said, allow workers to earn income from home, while supporting clients or platforms abroad.

"These jobs can also offer higher potential income compared to some local entry-level jobs and provide opportunities to develop skills in digital work," she noted.