Porn websites are looking a lot more SFW recently, what happened?

Whether you’re looking at the ManyVids homepage or scrolling through OnlyFans Twitter account, you’re probably surprised about the lack of genitals you’re coming across. Aren’t these websites built on the backs of sex workers, where is the sex? Online pornography restrictions are increasing due to anti-porn rhetoric and legislation, targeting by religious groups, and increased payment processor restrictions. In addition to that, social media also continues to close in on sex work dominated websites by flagging certain links to these websites, shadow-banning the creators that utilize the websites, and even banning some creators simply for linking back to these websites. So what’s the deal? Why are these websites “giving in” to going safe-for-work?

A “SFW” landing page actually helps protect sex workers

While it may sound a bit backwards because you expect the sites you work for to promote and share your content, safe-for-work landing pages for pornography heavy websites actually do more to protect sex workers than they may appear. Religious and anti-porn groups that are looking to target a pornography website for “exploitation” will have a much harder time doing so when the homepage is covered with makeup tutorials rather than flat out porn, and while intermingling pornography with safe-for-work video content can lead to mild confusion for buyers of adult content, this extra padding between our content and anti-porn lobbyists can be the safety net that a website needs to secure things like payment processing, traffic, and less censorship for linkbacks. While the SFW stuff isn’t every performers cup of tea, if you notice a site you frequent for selling is utilizing a SFW landing page then it can be a good opportunity to throw up an introductory video or Q&A so you can still absorb some homepage exposure.

Appearance doesn’t matter if the traffic is there

A large concern for many performers is that the push of SFW on porn websites will “scare away customers” or confuse them, when realistically this likely isn’t a large problem. If the traffic remains on the website than a single page on the website shouldn’t be the “end all be all” of whether you decide to utilize a website. Of course, if a website allows their SFW content push to influence the traffic that adult videos receive, then it becomes an issue. Limiting exposure to pornography outside of behind a paywall can actually be a very positive thing for a website and you’ll notice websites with more restrictive rules on nude content outside of a paywall will tend to have a higher “spending average” and customers will also tend to be understanding about nudity being behind paywalls.

SFW and NSFW content comingling allows for lower payment processing fees

The reason that porn websites charge a high percentage to process payments for content is that NSFW/pornographic content is generally regarded as “high risk” due to the frequency of chargebacks associated with pornography. By comingling SFW and NSFW content, it provides websites with the ability to negotiate better processing fees and could theoretically provide a higher earning percentage on the performer end.