OnlyFans human trafficking case highlights need to address sex crime online
Personal conversations, intimate photos and videos, and even the sending of underwear are all part of the growing online sex business. As more sexual services and content move online, so does related criminal activity. Organisations working with people at risk and victims of exploitation say, however, that some offences are difficult to prosecute under current Czech law.
“I started messaging Tomáš on Facebook. I thought he was 16. He gradually gained my trust and persuaded me to send him intimate photos and videos of myself. I had no idea that Tomáš was an adult man who was trading my photos and videos on online dating sites,” says a 13-year-old girl in a real-life case published by the Interior Ministry on its obchodsdetmi.cz website.
Recent research shows that a significant portion of Czech adolescents encounter unwanted sexual requests or harassment online, with a rising volume of young people pressured or coerced into sharing self-generated intimate photos. Markéta Hronková, director of the Czech organisation La Strada, which helps exploited people and victims of human trafficking says similar problems can start with a seemingly legitimate job offer posted online.
“Telegram and Facebook are used a lot. They are closed communication channels where an offer may appear somewhere publicly, but then the entire conversation moves to a group. There is also a very thin line between what is posted voluntarily and the moment when it starts to be coercion and moves to sexual exploitation and people trafficking.”
The issue of whether Czech criminal law is sufficiently equipped to deal with such cases has gained attention following a case connected with the OnlyFans platform, reported by the Page Not Found project.
Adam Kajumi, a well-known Czech influencer, and a group of people around him stand accused of targeting and exploiting vulnerable young women. Victims were recruited under the guise of modeling, lingerie photography, or social media representation, but were later pressured into producing explicit pornographic content. The suspects locked victims out of their own online profiles, withheld earnings, used psychological pressure, and threatened heavy contractual fines to force compliance.
Experts say many young women enter into contracts without fully understanding the conditions and do not know under what circumstances they can withdraw.
Police in Czechia have already recorded cases of what is known as digital pimping. Markéta Hronková says the authorities should have been better prepared for this development.
“I think that given that most things are moving into the online environment, it was to be expected – and I think both law enforcement authorities and we expected – that cases like this would emerge online.” Hronková says.
Despite this, the Justice Ministry currently does not plan to introduce specific criminal-law provisions for online activity, arguing that what matters is the nature and seriousness of the conduct itself, not whether it takes place online or in the physical environment.
A possible change could come through an EU directive concerning the knowing use of services provided by trafficked people. Hronková says that while the directive was originally aimed at the sex business, it could also help address other forms of forced labour.
Czechia was supposed to implement the directive by mid-July, but the legislation has yet to be debated by the Chamber of Deputies. The European Commission has not so far opened proceedings against Czechia, although the Justice Ministry expects this could happen in the coming weeks.
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