Challenges for Adult Content Creation in the Digital Age: What After Platform Pressures?

As major platforms succumb to increasing pressure from payment processors, adult content creators find themselves facing an uncertain future, wondering about their next destination. Following itch.io's decision to remove thousands of pages of adult content, creators in this field felt an intensified sense of betrayal, exhaustion, and fear. The list of platforms allowing the sale of this type of content is shrinking, and there's no guarantee that the remaining platforms will maintain their current policies. But now, with their livelihoods directly threatened, many creators and their communities have begun to mobilize in response, seeking new paths for continuity and prosperity.

Creator Responses and Platform Volatility

For some, the response was to organize extensive lobbying campaigns against payment processors to urge them to reverse their decisions and allow itch.io to host the content it previously supported. In contrast, others decided to abandon volatile platforms entirely and rely on their own websites. Meanwhile, a third group found the solution in making their works available for free if direct sales were no longer possible.

What adds to creators' frustration is that itch.io's decision was not entirely surprising. This platform is just one link in a chain of platforms that initially welcomed adult content, only to backtrack later under pressure from payment processors. These creators found themselves on an arduous journey, moving from Tumblr to Patreon then to Gumroad, and each time the rug was pulled out from under their feet.

Impact of Restrictions and Legal Challenges

When adult content creators are forced to constantly search for new platforms, their work is significantly affected. They have to put their paid projects on hold to create new accounts, delay publishing dates, and bear the costs of additional subscriptions or services, in addition to other administrative burdens that drain their time and resources.

Some creators have now chosen to create their own websites. But even with freedom from platform restrictions, owning a private website does not guarantee absolute security. In the United Kingdom, for example, the recently activated Online Safety Act mandates digital platforms to implement "robust age verification checks" to prevent children from accessing pornographic or "harmful" content, placing a significant technical and legal burden even on individuals.

US Legislation and History of Platform Bans

Similar laws to the Online Safety Act in the UK have also slowly begun to spread in the United States. The US Supreme Court recently ruled that age verification laws do not violate the First Amendment , opening the door for many states to impose age verification tools on adult content websites. These tools can be expensive and raise serious user privacy concerns. Instead of complying, major sites like PornHub decided to suspend their services in states implementing these laws, an option individual creators may also be forced to take.

Creator platforms have repeatedly forced adult content creators away. In 2017, Patreon tightened its rules regarding sexual content, prompting many creators to abandon the platform and turn to Gumroad. Then, in late 2022, Gumroad banned almost all sexually explicit material , causing another mass exodus. This continuous migration of creators across platforms, fleeing bans, can be traced back to one site that was the initial spark: Tumblr.

The Role of Payment Processors and the Importance of Community Support

In every case, payment processors like Stripe, PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard were the primary drivers of these strict actions. While all payment gateways prohibit the sale of illegal material, many platforms take excessive measures, banning content that is legally permissible to avoid intensive scrutiny and the additional costs required to host such content.

To mitigate the impact of these shocks, creators often turn to their communities, whether composed of other creators or their fans. These communities serve as information networks for exchanging news about creators' new destinations, and more importantly, they provide a vital means of psychological support and empathy.

Conclusion: An Unstable Future

There has never been a stable time for online adult content creators. For them, it seems unfair that they joined platforms like Tumblr, Patreon, Gumroad, and now itch.io, places that tolerated their work, only to find these safe havens taken away from them, often without warning or any opportunity to object, leaving them with fewer resources to earn a living.

The majority of these creators are ordinary individuals with bills and obligations, struggling in a difficult global economy. And when a person has a body, a camera, and an internet connection, why shouldn't they try to leverage their assets and talents to secure their daily bread?