A Growing Problem With OnlyFans: Addiction

Addiction to pornography has been studied for years now, but Carly Lewis writes about a relatively new facet of the problem—one embodied at OnlyFans—for the Cut. Her interviews with sex therapists suggest that addiction to the platform "has become increasingly worrisome." The issue isn't straight-up porn, where men pay to see explicit photos or videos. It's more about the "parasocial fantasy" involved—subscribers pay to receive texts and messages from OnlyFans personalities (or a staffer paid to impersonate the personality), and often these messages are not sexual in nature. In short, they're paying "not only for pleasure but for companionship, or for the comforting illusion of it," writes Lewis.

The story talks to men who have gotten hooked and wound up spending hundreds of dollars a month, quickly eclipsing five figures in damages. It also talks to their partners. Those addicted run the gamut, from timid men who struggle to meet women in real life, to those suffering from depression ("I didn't see much of a future for myself, so I didn't care what I spent," says one), to those in seemingly normal relationships who got lured by the jolt of receiving clandestine messages at all hours of the day from a performer. "People certainly feel in love with the women they're interacting with," Nancy Tricamo, a psychotherapist in New York City, tells Lewis. "It becomes a relationship in their mind." (Read the full story.)