The Daily Telegraph’s chief TV critic has accused the BBC of promoting the selling of sex as a “valid career choice”.
Commenting on the corporation’s recently broadcast ‘OnlyFans: Inside the Machine’ documentary, Anita Singh said that while posting explicit content on the platform “is safer than standing on a street corner”, it should not be legitimised at taxpayers’ expense.
Produced for BBC 3, a channel targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, the documentary reported allegations of exploitation, coercion and violence carried out by self-styled OnlyFans managers against people selling sexualised images on the online platform.
E-pimping
Singh criticised the programme for “taking an entirely sympathetic view of the ‘content creators’ involved”.
She expressed no surprise that “exploitative ‘managers’” worked essentially as “online pimps”, remarking: “Many of these managers are unscrupulous and disrespectful of women, the documentary explains. You don’t say!”
The paper’s Arts and Entertainment Editor observed: “And who’s this popping up to dispense sage advice? Why, it’s Lily Phillips, the porn star who was famous for filming herself having sex with 101 men in a day”.
Responding to Philips’ statement that “as sex workers, people don’t really take what we say seriously”, Singh commented, “Don’t worry, Lily, the BBC does.”
‘A dangerous lie’
Writing in The Daily Telegraph in April, Charlotte Divine shared how she was left “depressed and broken” after joining OnlyFans as an 18-year-old.
Tempted by the money she believed she could make, Divine posted explicit content on the platform. Although she ‘brainwashed’ herself into thinking it was okay, it led to a drug addiction in an attempt to escape her unhappiness.
Now, after quitting drugs and leaving pornography behind, she struggles in the knowledge that her videos have been uploaded to websites where she can never remove them.
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