HUMAN RIGHTS
As billion-dollar webcam industry booms, models suffer at hands of Colombian studios
Advocacy group Human Rights Watch interviewed 50 models working in adult webcam studios for a new report that exposes widespread exploitation and abuse.
Webcam studios across Colombia have subjected models to horrific abuses and facilitated the creation of child sexual abuse material, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
Models interviewed for the report stated that they had been coerced by the studios to perform sex acts that they did not wish to perform, pressured to stream for many hours without breaks, and suffered physical and mental harm from working in dirty, cramped cubicles.
“Sex work is work, and sex workers deserve the same labor protections as all workers under international human rights law,” said Erin Kilbride, the author of the report. “Our investigation uncovered concrete steps that US and EU-based webcam platforms need to immediately take to address both labor and sexual exploitation.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 50 models working in studios across Colombia, which has a large webcamming industry, as part of its report. The models broadcast performances — which may include sexual content, but do not always do so — in exchange for payment or tips. Models can stream on these platforms from their own homes, but some choose to work for studios to have privacy or access to a computer and Internet connectivity. Both the platform and the studio take a cut of the models’ revenues, leaving the performers with as little as 10 percent of the income generated by their performance, the report found.
Adult webcamming is a billion-dollar industry that employs thousands of people. Some of the large Internet platforms that stream the content produced by these studios are making massive profits: the Cyprus-based Stripchat, one of the platforms widely used by the Colombian models interviewed by HRW, made over $100 million in gross profits in 2022, according to documents available on Cyprus’s corporate registry. Hungarian billionaire Gyorgy Gattyan also made the bulk of his fortune from LiveJasmin, a platform he founded that was highlighted in the report, according to Forbes. (The subscription-based service OnlyFans, while not mentioned in the report, also paid its owner, Leonid Radvinsky, a staggering $1 billion in dividends from 2021 to 2023.)
Models told HRW researchers that their studio managers had coerced and threatened them to perform sex acts for clients that they did not want to do. Some studio managers accepted clients’ requests for specific sex acts on the model’s behalf, before models had a chance to consent; in some cases, models reported being sexually assaulted on camera by their managers in response to client requests.
Most of the models interviewed, 49 out of 50, said that they had never seen or signed the terms of service to create their accounts on the platforms they used. The studios had seemingly accepted the terms on their behalf. This meant that the models lacked basic information that would inform their decisions about taking breaks or accepting client requests. In the absence of proper information, most models streamed for 8 hours or more at one time, sometimes without breaks to eat or use the bathroom. The studios often pressured models against pausing their streams, and in some cases fined models when they did so.
“They would take my room away and give it to a girl who made more money, or tell me to take my dress off since I normally stay clothed and they’d said I should get naked to make more,” said one model quoted in the report. “One thing in this job is that you always have to pretend to be happy.”
The studios’ practice of creating and maintaining control of the models’ accounts also enabled the creation of child sexual abuse material, the report found. The platforms require models to submit a photo ID to verify that they are over 18 years old. But the studio can circumvent this requirement by using a “recycled account” — an already-verified account belonging to a former model, deleting the photos and text previously associated with that account and adding new photos of the underage model. Seven models told HRW that they worked in webcam studios before they were 18 years old.
The studios’ filthy conditions also took a toll on models’ physical and mental health. Models described working in studios infested with cockroaches and bedbugs; others reported finding bodily fluids, used condoms, and piles of hair or dirty dishes in the rooms in which they worked. Most of the models worked in studios that did not employ a cleaning staff, and some were charged by the studio for soap and sanitizer to clean their rooms themselves. One model said that they were unable to perform due to the severity of bedbug bites, and several reported infections and rashes due to unhygienic conditions.
Colombian laws mandate that employers provide proper health and sanitary conditions for their employees, as well as a minimum wage and freedom from abuse. A landmark 2021 ruling from Colombia’s top court also ordered the Ministry of Labor to develop protocols to protect models’ rights to good working conditions in studios. However, it remains unclear whether the Labor Ministry has, in fact, implemented these protocols. Abuse remains rife within the studios.
The webcamming platforms also offer few protections for the models who generate their profits. In their responses to HRW, the platforms often pointed to their policies that prohibit human trafficking or nonconsensual sexual performances. But the report found that, of the four platforms most used by its interviewees, none had policies that commit the platform to enforcing basic standards around sanitation, transparent pay practices, or occupational safety in the studios that provide it with content.
Moreover, none of the platforms seemed to have mechanisms for verifying that studios adhered to certain policies. For example, the platforms appear to do nothing to ensure that the models have personally read and signed the service agreement to create their account; only one platform even made their terms of use available in Spanish. While one of the platforms, BongaCams, has a policy stating that models have the right to a safe and hygienic work environment, the company told Human Rights Watch that it does “not have direct oversight of the environments where studio models operate.”
Instead, the platforms often appeared focused on distancing themselves from responsibility for the well-being of the models. Chaturbate, one of the platforms, responded to questions from Human Rights Watch about its practices for monitoring studios’ labor abuses by acknowledging the importance of the issue, but quickly clarified: “[I]t is important to note, at the outset, we are NOT employers.”
Yet, both the platforms and the studios benefit from the abuses faced by the models. The HRW report found that the motivation for coercing models to perform sex acts that they did not wish to perform was a desire to maximize profits.
By neglecting their responsibility to remedy these abuses, Kilbride said, the platforms were violating the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: “If it’s happening in your supply chain, it’s your responsibility.”