Guarding Against Image-Based Abuse can Enable Better Working Conditions on Adult Platforms
Image-based sexual abuse is rife in the digital sexual economy, driven in part by platforms’ longstanding failure to protect workers. As sex work increasingly moves online, platforms like OnlyFans and AdultWork are facing growing scrutiny. For too long, the data rights of sex workers—like their labour rights—have remained largely invisible. Yet in this context, data privacy is a core component of working conditions. Alongside activists in the sex workers’ rights movement, The Fairwork Foundation is helping to bring data justice and digital labour rights into public focus.
Towards Fairwork Sex
The Fairwork Foundation is an NGO on a mission to transform the working conditions of platform workers. By establishing a framework of core principles, gig economy platforms are rated based on Fair Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management and Fair Representation. On the 15th of May, Fairwork will unveil a novel framework for platform-based sex work through a public launch event and webinar. This historic addition to the Fairwork umbrella addresses a significant unmet need for an extremely marginalised community.
Much like Image Angel, the objective is to enhance the safety of platform-based sex work by establishing fundamental digital labour rights. The 10 Fairwork Sex Work Principles were co-produced with industry experts, including our founder Madelaine Thomas, between 2023 and 2024, incorporating 79 survey responses and 34 interviews. Four major platforms—OnlyFans, AdultWork, Streamate, and Chaturbate—were closely examined. The authors explored the challenges workers face and how platforms influence their working conditions. These principles, outlined in Table One, reflect the findings and insights gathered through this participatory research.
| Pay |
| 1.1 Workers are paid on time and for all completed work |
| 1.2 – Chargebacks and banking discrimination are mitigated |
| Conditions |
| 2.1 – Health and safety risks are mitigated |
| 2.2 – Ensures safe working conditions |
| Contracts |
| 3.1 – Clear terms and conditions are available |
| 3.2 – Workers are supported when clients break contractual rules |
| Management |
| 4.1 There is due process for decisions affecting workers |
| 4.2 There is equity in the management process |
| Representation |
| 5.1 – Workers have access to representation, and freedom of association |
| 5.2 – There is collective governance or bargaining |
Table One: 10 Fairwork Sex Work Principles
Enhancing Fair Conditions and Contracts by Regulating Intimate Image Abuse
Image Angel can enable platforms to score highly under Fair Conditions and Fair Contracts. Fair conditions incorporates experiences of abuse and harassment on platforms, including sexual violence and doxxing, which refers to the malicious exposure of sex workers’ identities online. Intimate image-based abuse—the non-consensual sharing of explicit content—is not only a grave form of sexual violence but also a tactic of doxxing, weaponised by abusive consumers to threaten, control, or expose the identities of sex workers. in a context troubled by extensive stigma and criminalisation, this can severely compromise safety and wellbeing,
To date, platforms have offered no protection against image-based abuse and have often failed to respond adequately to reports by workers, despite the illegality of this practice. In addition, platforms themselves have been known to non-consensually share workers’ intimate data for third-party profit. Through state-of-the-art deterrent technology, Image Angel adds invisible watermarks to images when they are opened or downloaded. These marks are unique and traceable, deterring misuse and making it easier to hold offenders accountable. This provides essential protection against unauthorised distribution or sharing. Systemic invisibility has allowed consumers of sexual services and adult platforms to commit these offences with impunity. Platforms that adopt Image Angel can demonstrate stronger compliance with Fairwork principles, while protecting workers.
Data Privacy as Labour Right
This also applies to Fair Contracts. Beyond consumers, platforms themselves must be held accountable for both failing to protect sex workers and profiting from this novel form of sexual abuse. Image Angel helps platforms meet the criteria for Fair Contracts by addressing core contractual failings identified across major platforms. The report revealed significant contractual shortcomings across all four platforms. Workers lacked clear guidance on what content is permitted, faced retroactive disciplinary action due to sudden terms-of-service changes, and received little to no support when their content was stolen and reposted. There was also widespread uncertainty about how personal data is stored, shared, and used—leaving workers vulnerable and without recourse.
By enabling traceable digital watermarking, platforms can now clearly outline ownership and control over content, key components of contract clarity. It also empowers workers to understand and track how their data privacy is protected, helping platforms fulfil obligations around data access, retention and third-party sharing. As terms of service change, platforms that implement Image Angel can also demonstrate proactive safeguards, improving trust and legal defensibility. This reduces harm and equips platforms to deliver on their contractual responsibilities, while earning a higher Fairwork rating.
Protection and Recognition for Sex Workers
It is essential that sex workers are recognised and protected as a highly at-risk group from from image-based sexual abuse. The persistent stigma surrounding their work compels many to protect their anonymity. However, experiences of image-based abuse can undermine that anonymity, placing individuals at risk of psychological trauma and endangering their physical safety. The range of server-side technologies developed by Image Angel has the power to rapidly transform this reality, finally offering the protection this industry so urgently deserves.
