TikTok accused of becoming a gateway to the online sex industry for young girls

TikTok is facing scrutiny over allegations that its platform is being used to draw young women and teenage girls towards the online sex industry, with performers on OnlyFans allegedly using seemingly harmless lifestyle videos to promote their paid adult content elsewhere.A study by UK-based Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (Cease) and Australian campaign group Collective Shout has found that some of OnlyFans' most popular young female creators use coded language, emojis and suggestive gestures in TikTok videos to direct viewers towards their sexually explicit content on other platforms.The findings, reported by The Guardian, are based on a year-long examination of non-explicit TikTok posts by popular OnlyFans performers.

Researchers also followed recommendations generated by TikTok's algorithm to understand how such content was being circulated.Although TikTok does not allow users to promote OnlyFans directly or share links to the platform, the study found that creators had developed ways to get around these restrictions.