Episode 64: A content sharing app known for sexual content! Eeeek!!

While a content sharing app for any creator, the OnlyFans app has become popular for making money quickly and for sharing sexual content for money. Yikes!

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Full Transcription:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Okay. I just have to do a big sigh because today we're going to talk about yet another platform that we as parents need to be concerned about. If you have bark, they're already on it. Trust me on this, but regardless you need to be aware of this one. It is one that is creeped up and has a lot of risks. So stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (00:24):

Welcome to your source for tips, tools, and support to help you be that mom that is tuned in and proactive for yourself, your family, and for the wild ride of raising kids in this digital age, inspired by a mother's love with a relatable, real life. Proud to be that mom flair. This is the bead that mom movement with your host, Dolly Denson, he friends did

Speaker 1 (00:51):

Here. There is an app that will transform the safety of your kids. Smartphone and technology use. It is my favorite way to sleep easy at night and have peace of mind because it is monitoring my kids' activity online without me being in their business. It is the bark app and yes, bark like a dog bark bark bark. It tells you when there's something that you need to be concerned about starting at a small fee each month, you can protect your whole family across all devices. Get connected with bark today. Use code, be that mom for 20% off your subscription for life and get a seven day free trial to check it out. We were growing up there wasn't an internet, but our dream of becoming famous often mean that we wanted to be an actor or singer or some type of professional sports player. Which one did you want to be?

Speaker 1 (01:39):

I can't remember what I wanted to be, but it's a common thing for kids to want to be popular, to want to be famous and becoming popular and famous on YouTube or Tik TOK has become more and more of a thing, right? We have shifted as a society in terms of what we value in content, as well as the intimacy of social media or intimacy of how we connect and what we connect with because of social media. So things like zoom and the pandemic brought us together. Facebook groups bring us together over common themes or content that we want to know. And this app is one thing that is bringing kids together, but you were not going to believe what it is tending to do. It is tending to provide pornographic content to our kids. Yes. In an app, this app is called only fans, all one altogether, O N L Y F a N S.

Speaker 1 (02:40):

So get the screen time or Google family link settings set on your kid's smartphone, or get that phone out of their hands and get them a pinwheel phone that won't have apps like this. Of course use my code, be that mom dash tin. If you do need to get a pinwheel phone and just move away from these dangers for a bit and have control over what can be in their inbox. But if they do already have a smartphone, get the, uh, setting set up to where they cannot download apps on their own, they require your approval every single time and have this app in the back of your mind, knowing that it can be bad news. Okay. So let's talk about what this app is and how it came to be and what you need to be watching out for which basically just means don't let them download it at all.

Speaker 1 (03:28):

But basically this is a place where people can go and they can make a channel and people pay them a monthly fee to view their posts or their content. And it sounds like Patrion, right? Have you ever heard of Patrion? I've heard of that for a couple of months. Never really looked into it until today. And I think it's actually a really cool platform where someone that wants to know what your content is, wants to have a regular feed of your content can pay a small fee every month, like $5 so that they can have access to your exclusive content. That's pretty amazing when you have these valuable things to offer people. But what they are seeing happen with this app is that the accounts are often sexual content. So as of March 20, 21 more than 120 million users, and 1 million creators are active on this platform.

Speaker 1 (04:26):

A primary driving factor for creators is the fact that the company allows them to keep 80% of the money they make. There's even an interactive tool on the app that allows the creators imagination to kind of run wild because it estimates how much they can earn by starting an account. So young people can be lured by the potential of a six figure salary with the more followers that they have. And while lots of different creators use the platform like makeup artists, musicians, it has become almost exclusively known for its sexual content. Pornography is allowed and is a prominent among its creators. Many of whom are sex workers of some kind, the creators can upload videos. They filmed, or they can broadcast live to their fans. They can also provide their content in a subscription or a pay per view model. In some of the most popular creators can make tens of thousands of dollars each month.

Speaker 1 (05:25):

So officially you have to be 18 or older to sign up for only fans, but ultimately who's verifying that right? Who is technically verifying that now to subscribe to the pages that have a charge you're asked for a credit card. And while this may seem a barrier, it is very easy for kids to get a prepaid visa card or some type of gift card that they can then use to purchase these things. So just because they're not old enough to have a credit card does not mean that they don't necessarily sign up for something like this. And this is what they have found has been happening. So to become a creator on the platform, there's a more vigorous verification process. So they don't necessarily have the ability to make a creator account if they are younger, because it has to connect to a bank account and it has to be able to receive payment.

Speaker 1 (06:22):

So unless they have access to that, as you, as a parent, they're not going to be able to do this very easily until they a bit older and have a bank account that could be verified. And as we know, fake IDs are a thing. So if someone's old enough to be able to get ahold of a fake ID, that's certainly an option that they may use. So on the platform right now, a lot of times it's amateur creators, but it has been talked about enough that some of the creators are celebrities like Cardi B. And I don't know who some of these other ones are that I'm finding in this article that I found, but they do have celebrities that go on there and are making money for the ones that subscribe to their account. So a couple interesting things to look at is a couple of former child stars have created accounts on there, such as I don't know who these are, cause I don't watch regular TV haven't for a few years, but says when Disney star Bella Thorne joined in 2020, she quickly made $1 million after just a single day on the platform.

Speaker 1 (07:26):

And then more recently the rapper bad Babby says that there's a meme about him called Kashmir outside a few years back. He made more than that. Other one, he talked to 1 million in just six hours and that first Disney star created her account just days after turning 18, which prompted an enormous debate on the internet about whether or not this type of platform should be allowed at that age. So as far as dangers for kids as fans, you know, if you're not able to make a creator account, as fans is seeing the porn, kids are curious, they seek out different ways to view sexual content. So depending on how old they are, this may be inappropriate for them to see. I think it is for all kids. But if they're curious, this may be a route that they go to finding things. And even if you are strict with what you're doing, like I said, a couple episodes back about the trickle down effect.

Speaker 1 (08:23):

My definition of that trickle down effect the context that I used. It was that even if you are limiting these things for your kid, there are always going to be peers, most likely that do have free reign of their smartphones. So it's definitely something to talk to your kiddo about, be very open about, but also be aware that, you know, the kids talk and compare notes and all of that. So it's definitely something that your kiddo can be exposed to through someone else that has unmonitored access of a smartphone. So a couple other things to know about is that kids discuss this app now just like they do tick talk. They often refer to it as O F for short. And if they do find a way to create a creator account, they can be contacted by other users and could end up in situations where there's sextortion or predators after them, those types of things.

Speaker 1 (09:21):

I think those things kind of, you know, if you listen to this podcast and are in this space of trying to be proactive and all of that, you already know those things. So I don't necessarily need to say them, but honestly, it's just one of another, one of those things that we need to be talking to our kids about. We need to be aware about. And just as how these things pop up, I don't know how long this app has been out here, but when it gains popularity is usually when I start seeing it talked about in groups that I'm in and on parenting blogs that I follow and stuff like that. So just like anything else, this is constantly evolving and ever changing. It's not something that we're ever going to have a complete grasp on. And so that's why I always emphasize some type of parental control monitoring thing, not giving us a smartphone too quickly, setting up the boundaries for them of when they can use it and how they use it.

Speaker 1 (10:09):

And then just being proactive and walking this path together, knowing that we cannot avoid the digital world completely, but we absolutely need to help guide them. And then if you have something like bark or the app that I mentioned in a previous episode, inspired something similar to that or those apps, they are going to help you to walk this path and they will be on top of this before you are. One of the articles that I've read about it is on barks blog. So bark is on top of these things. They are doing the legwork for us. They are our eyes and ears and have our kid's best interest in mind. So please get one of those things. And if you need to pull back from what you've allowed, pull back from that, you were still the parent who still are the one that is responsible for guiding them into the big, huge world of life.

Speaker 1 (10:59):

And so pull back from that, make a course correction. If you need to follow your gut and get them a pinwheel phone or a gab phone, if need be pinwheel phone is absolutely my top recommendation. If you have a younger kid and you're wanting to figure out how to keep them connected, I have episodes about this, but tick talk, watch. I always have trouble saying those words is a great option to stay connected and to have some capabilities to text and do different things between each other and to know where they're at and like have one of those GPS zones where you know where they are and when they leave that zone, there's so many features of that. So there's a link for that in the show notes of each one of my podcasts. So there's lots of options for you other than giving the open smartphone.

Speaker 1 (11:44):

And at some point we have to give it. And I do think, I mean, you know, you don't necessarily have to, but I think as our kids get older, at some point we need to help guide them. It cannot be a, this is forbidden and you can't do it. I've seen so many kids that like a parent that's really strict about drinking alcohol. Then once they can drink alcohol, they just go off the deep end, drinking alcohol. So one, the approach that I've always had as a parent is to ease them into that and make them see the reality of it versus always it being this forbidden thing, because they're curious and they'll just want it more because you've forbidden it. So I think that with the phone, as a whole, with digital use, as a whole, we need to use all these tools to help us with this.

Speaker 1 (12:24):

But at the same time, we need to guide them in this use in, in the use of it and what we do and apps like this can have a good aspect or good side to them, but we always need to research anything new that they're wanting to download and see what other parents are saying and see what parent blogs and parent groups, what other parents' experiences are with this. And, you know, just take the time to figure out if it's something that you want to allow your kid to have. Ultimately, it's always our decision. So you make that decision for you and your family, but I hope that you found this helpful and have another little police of awareness for another thing that your kid may be coming to you asking about if they do already have a smartphone. Okay. All right. Thanks so much for listening. I'll chat with you next time.

Speaker 2 (13:16):

Thanks for tuning in being that mom isn't easy, but together we can be that mom's strong. Don't forget to leave a review, connect on social and join. Dolly's free community till next time.

Speaker 1 (13:31):

Check this out. If you are a mom that is looking to give your kiddo a phone, but you don't want to open up the world of the smartphone to them yet, check out the pinwheel phone. The pinwheel phone is the latest and greatest for dumb smartphones. It gives you absolute control over what they do and who they can contact, and we'll help them to develop healthy habits around using a phone, check out pinwheel@pennwell.com use code, be that mom 10 for a discount.