“Every year, Ukrainians earn millions of dollars from the production of porn despite the fact that this content is prohibited. Who benefits from criminal liability for the creation and distribution of pornography and how is the domestic porn industry organized?”, — write: epravda.com.ua
What does state hypocrisy look like? On the one hand, Ukraine is one of the world’s largest porn markets. Our country consistently ranks high in terms of viewing porn on the largest online platforms, which pay millions of hryvnias in taxes to the state budget. On the other hand, creating and distributing porn is a criminal offense. Every year, law enforcement officers initiate more than a thousand cases under the relevant article of the Criminal Code, fining and imprisoning citizens. And we are talking not only about porn models, but also about ordinary Ukrainian men and women who “dared” to take a photo of a part of their body and send such a photo to a loved one. Responsibility for the creation and distribution of pornography came to Ukraine as a legacy from the USSR. Despite the fact that the definition of “porn” has disappeared from domestic legislation, the state machine continues to produce hundreds of criminal cases, spending taxpayers’ money on it. Even the war didn’t change the situation, during which law enforcement would seem to have other priorities than chasing down OnlyFans models. At the end of 2024, for the second time in the last few years, a draft law on the decriminalization of porn was registered in Ukraine. In December, the document was supported by the specialized law enforcement committee of the Council. However, its adoption as a whole is not to everyone’s liking. And so far there is no political will for this at the highest level. Advertisement: Who and how makes money from banning adult content in Ukraine and why all Ukrainian OnlyFans models are in danger due to Danylo Hetmantsev’s post on social networks? Who and how makes money from porn “This was in 2019. Then the cyber police searched me under Article 301 (of the Criminal Code “Import, manufacture, sale and distribution of pornographic items” – EP). criminal case, then pay a bribe – about 20 thousand dollars. They threatened that if I did not agree, they would take all the property, I would have to pay the money and sit down At that time, I was just starting out, so I had to borrow money from my friends. She also agreed, but then she left the country said that she will not return. I know many such stories. After a bribe is paid for not opening the case, they put the girls on the “counter”: either you pay 500-1000 dollars a month, or you leave the country,” Pornhub model Sofia (name changed) tells EP. Read also: Very personal experience: how I conquered the sex shop. Her story is not unique. During the preparation of this material, the EP managed to communicate and obtain the testimony of five more models who shoot or broadcast pornographic content. For each of them, the interaction with the law enforcement officers took place according to a typical pattern: pressure, an offer to “deal”, the closure of the case (or an agreement with the investigation and a conditional term) and monthly payments for “crushing”. In some cases, such interaction ended with the girls could not withstand the pressure and emigrated to EU countries, where there is no criminal liability for the production of porn. “After the case was closed, I was offered four options: to return to work at any webcam studio that pays a “roof”; pay the “roof” independently; go abroad or stop working in this field. I chose the second option, and different amounts began to be announced to me. For the first month, it was 1,200 dollars, for the second – 1,400, for the third – 1,800. After the third payment, I decided to go abroad, because I realized that this was not the limit,” said webcam model Yevgenia (name changed). according to her, she paid 3,800 dollars to the police for closing the criminal proceedings. “The payment was made in cash, in dollars, not older than that 2003,” the girl says. Read also: Dollars of 1996, worn and damaged bills: what currency do Ukrainians have the right to exchange. In order to persuade models to “cooperate”, law enforcement officers often resort to moral and even physical pressure. In particular, they blackmail, they intimidate girls, limit their will. According to her, the police told about one such case searched her apartment and demanded to unlock the phone, which contained pornographic content.Since Victoria refused, she was taken to the police station, where she was held for 8 hours and threatened with “jail”. “They took me to an office, took out my phone and demanded that I unlock it. I refused. Then they started pushing me, throwing me in one direction, then in another. The door was open, people were passing by in the corridor. They looked and didn’t understood what was happening in general,” she recalls. In order to “regulate the situation”, the law enforcement officers asked Victoria for 10,000 euros – they announced the amount of the bribe through her lawyer. In the end, she refused to cooperate and emigrated abroad. Apparently, there is no single “tariff grid” for closing criminal proceedings (or signing an agreement with the investigation with a subsequent suspended sentence) for participating in pornographic activities. The size of the payment may depend on the city, the state of the criminal proceedings, the “popularity” of the porn model, the mood of the law enforcement officers themselves and even the repairs in the apartment in which the search is being carried out, several OnlyFans models who faced pressure tell the EP police The amount of the monthly fee for not obstructing their activities is usually about $1,000. Much larger payments for “crushing” have to be paid to the organized porn business. We are talking about various mediators between models and platforms on which they publish the created content. The most common such intermediaries in Ukraine are webcam studios and OnlyFans agencies. The first is a historically more mature business that has been operating in Ukraine for many years. These studios provide models with premises and equipment to broadcast content of a mostly pornographic nature on special platforms for a certain fee. As a rule, such studios financially “cooperate” with law enforcement officers, says EP Ihor (name changed), the owner of one of the largest networks of webcam studios in Ukraine (he also called himself the “head of the webcam business union”). (Police Department – EP) for one small studio for 7-9 girls, depending on the city, you have to pay 1-1.5 thousand dollars a month,” he says and adds that “kickbacks” from the studios are collected by both the cyber police and the anti-trafficking department of the National Police. OnlyFans agencies are a newer type of porn business, because the platform itself was founded only in 2016. These companies help models manage their personal pages on OnlyFans and other social networks, create, advertise and promote content, and also correspond with “fans”. It is difficult for law enforcement officers to identify such agencies, because, as a rule, they do not have a physical office: all work is done remotely. Job offers for OnlyFans models on job search sites The number of such agencies is constantly growing. Only one job search platform offers more than 4,800 “jobs” in this field. “I worked for one agency that had 50 applications (models – EP). The monthly turnover there was very high – 1-2 million dollars, depending on season. As a rule, the “kickback” to law enforcement officers is about 30% of this amount,” said EP Vlad, who recently opened his own OnlyFans agency. According to him, the illegal status of pornography in Ukraine is beneficial not only to representatives of law enforcement agencies who “crush” this business, but also to large porn agencies. “It is relatively cheap for them to agree on “protection” and then hand over their competitors to the police, clearing the market for themselves,” he explained. However, the role of law enforcement officers in the Ukrainian porn industry is not limited to providing legal cover. In some cases, they even initiate the creation of such a business. “After our (webcam) studio was closed, a man from the SBU (who participated in the searches) contacted me and said: “We saw your accounts. You have very promising profiles. Let’s you organize the studio, and we will “crush” you. Work, and we’ll agree on the amount.” We refused, and after a while OnlyFans appeared and we started working independently,” Anna, an OnlyFans model who started her career in one of the webcam studios, told EP. Taxes and penalties For the production and distribution of non-child pornography in Ukraine, you can receive both a fine and real prison terms. Punishment for such crimes is provided for in Article 301 of the Criminal Code: for the production and importation of pornographic works and images into Ukraine – punishment in the form of a fine of 17-68 thousand. hryvnias, probation or restriction of freedom for a period of up to 3 years; for the production, import and distribution of pornographic video materials – a fine in the amount of 34-85 thousand UAH, restriction or deprivation of liberty for up to 5 years; for a repeated crime or for the production and sale of porn by a group of persons or in large quantities (in the amount of more than UAH 3.4 million) – deprivation of liberty for a period of 3 to 7 years and a ban on engaging in certain types of activities for a period of up to 3 years. Often, criminal proceedings under Art. 301 CCU is registered not against professional porn models, but against ordinary citizens who, for example, post their nude photos and videos on dating sites or even simply send them to their loved ones in personal correspondence through messengers. For example, such a decision was made in 2023 by the Novosanzhar District Court of the Poltava Region. Fine in the amount of 34 thousand. UAH was awarded to the girl for sending two videos via messenger “which in a vulgar-naturalistic, cynical and obscene and unnatural form reflect the sphere of sexual life – the demonstration of bare genitals and masturbatory actions – the introduction of fingers into the genital tract.” And there are a lot of similar cases in the court register. The fact that Ukrainian legislation does not contain any definition of the concept of “porn” adds to the piquancy of the situation. Previously, it was contained in the Law “On Protection of Public Morals”, but it expired on March 31, 2023 with the entry into force of the Law “On Media”. Although this does not prevent law enforcement officers from registering about a thousand cases every year for the creation and distribution of what is defined in the legislation simply there is no After the beginning of the Great War, the number of registered offenses under Art. 301 KKU decreased significantly, but in 2024, law enforcement officers almost broke their own record by opening 1,647 investigations (only 18 less than in 2018). A lot of state resources are spent on the investigation of each such crime: starting from the “control purchases” of pornographic content for budget funds and ending with the conduct of numerous examinations, which are supposed to confirm that the content created and distributed is indeed pornography. Despite the threat of criminal liability, Ukraine remains a major player on the world porn market – both in terms of content consumption and volume of its creation. In particular, according to the data of one of the most popular porn sites in the world, Pornhub (owned by the Canadian company Aylo Global Entertainment Inc.), Ukraine is consistently among the top 20 countries in terms of the amount of traffic consumed. At the end of 2023, the State Tax Service (SST) even imposed a fine on Aylo for non-payment of the so-called “Google tax” in the amount of $5,543. Justifying this decision, the head of the tax committee of the Council, Danylo Hetmantsev, referred specifically to the significant volumes of porn content consumption by Ukrainians, and, accordingly, the sales of advertising, on which the company did not pay any taxes. Finally, in May 2024, Aylo became a VAT payer in Ukraine. The DPS refused to say exactly how much tax the company paid in 2024, citing the confidentiality of such information. They also refused to name the amount of VAT paid by Fenix International Limited, which owns the OnlyFans service. Although the confidentiality of such data did not prevent Hetmantsev from disclosing the amount of tax payments by the company, when he still had direct access to the work of the DPS. So, for example, in 2023, the company paid 1.27 million dollars to the budget. VAT Read also: Finally with the head. Who will now manage the tax department and what is the purpose of the President’s Office? Recently, taxes on porn in Ukraine are paid not only by the platforms that host the relevant content, but also by the people who create it. In particular, in 2024, the tax office first received information about Ukrainian models of OnlyFans and sent them so-called “letters of happiness” demanding to pay tax. In December 2024, Hetmantsev reported that 350 OnlyFans models declared UAH 305.4 million in income, paying UAH 59 million in personal income tax and military duty. This story could have become another “victory” of the people’s deputy in the fight against the tax shadow, if it had not turned into a real horror for taxpayers. New “criminals” “On December 11, my husband and I were driving along the Zhytomyr highway. We were stopped at a checkpoint. There was a man in civilian clothes, she started to break down the door of our car. He showed us his ID (Bureau of Economic Security), and shouted at us. The man simply pressed the gas. and we left there. When we got home, we saw that they took away all the equipment worth about 400 thousand hryvnias, and it was written that I was accused of non-payment of taxes before that I received a letter (from the DPS), they gave me 15 days to pay the tax and I paid it,” OnlyFans model Karina tells the EP. She became known to the general public as “citizen K.”, which Hetmantsev wrote about in Telegram in September 2024. Then he reported that Karina declared more than 3 million dollars. from activities on OnlyFans (the exact amount of the income she received is 3.1 million dollars for 2020-2022, the amount of taxes paid is 18 million UAH). Hetmantsev himself, not suspecting this, not only became the reason for the search of Karina’s BEB, but, probably broke the established “social contract” between the Ukrainian porn industry and the state. According to him, porn models and companies agreed to corruption, and the state “turned a blind eye” to their existence nya Read also: “I am a professional in making unpopular decisions in this country”: Hetmantsev on raising taxes and detinization However, this story began a little earlier, in July 2024. Then the BEB searched one of the OnlyFans agencies, which was suspected of not paying taxes in significant amounts. The investigation in this case continued, the law enforcement officers conducted covert investigative actions. Until September 11, Hetmantsev wrote the following. “The tax department received information about Ukrainian citizens who are creators of paid content on OnlyFans. The sphere of paid content creation on the OnlyFans internet platform by Ukrainian citizens is growing rapidly. The number of accounts increases by an average of three times every year,” the deputy noted. It seems that the BEB is closely monitoring Hetmantsev’s social networks , because already on September 20, the bureau employees went to court and, referring to the post of the chairman of the tax committee, asked to demand from the DPS information about Ukrainian creators on the OnlyFans platform within the framework of the open proceedings about non-payment of taxes by one of the agencies. However, in their submission, they asked the court to provide information not only about the models who worked for that agency, but about all Ukrainians who received income from OnlyFans. And, surprisingly, the court granted such permission. After receiving the information, the BEB began to search Ukrainian models of OnlyFans – primarily those who had nothing to do with the BEB’s open case of non-payment of taxes in one of the agencies. “The BEB began to come with searches specifically to those who paid and declared income. That is, according to the decision of the BEB, it took a list from the DPS and is now working on the list of models from OnlyFans, which have nothing to do with the case from July 2024,” the lawyer said. Lesya Mykhaylenko of the Mayete Pravo company, which protects the interests of some models. Despite the fact that Karina was formally searched under the article on evasion of paying taxes (which the girl had paid even before that), she suspects that the law enforcement officers were interested in the fact that she had pornographic content. In the end, when she was summoned for questioning, the BEB employees questioned her specifically about the filmed content contained on the seized equipment, Karina recalls. The fact that BEB was interested in porn, and not in non-payment of taxes, is evidenced by the second search, which the law enforcement officers conducted in another model – “citizen S.” (which, according to Hetmantsev, received $4 million from the platform over several years). Karina warned her about the possibility of such searches, so the girl managed to delete all pornographic content. After that, the law enforcement officers did not seize her equipment and property. Neither “citizen S.” nor Karina had anything to do with the OnlyFans agency, against which the BEB initiated proceedings. The girls assured the EP that they work independently and without intermediaries. This information was confirmed by the EP and in the BEB. Read also: Economy in (un)security: will the nightmare for business end with the launch of BEB? The EP asked the BEB what was the reason for the searches of Karina and “citizen S.” and where did the law enforcement officers get the information about them, on the basis of which they conducted these searches. The agency replied that they received information about the girls not from DPS data, but “during investigative actions” (they did not specify during which). And the data of the tax office “only confirmed the information received by the detectives.” They also reported that no cases were opened against the girls under Art. 301 of the Criminal Code and did not conduct any investigative actions regarding the production of porn by OnlyFans models. Karina’s words that during the interrogation she was asked specifically about the created content, the BEB explained that “the girl was not so clear”. Be that as it may, after publicity in the press, the BEB searches of OnlyFans models stopped. The girls’ lawyers, as well as interlocutors of the EP in the parliament, talk about an informal agreement on this with the law enforcement officers. The question remains open, why suddenly BEB became interested in the activities of OnlyFans models. Is the bureau really worried about non-payment of taxes on the production of porn or is it just a formal excuse to enter the “crushing market” of this activity? Meanwhile, not only BEB is interested in porn business activities. In a conversation with the EP, Ihor, who calls himself “the head of the trade union of the webcam business of Ukraine”, said that since the beginning of 2025, various law enforcement officers began to take an active interest in the activities of his studios, in particular, criminal investigation officers of the criminal police, who usually investigate murders and other similar crimes. “With the submission to the Verkhovna Rada of the draft law on the decriminalization of porn, we had very sharp problems, because in the end everyone wants to make money,” he explained. The EP failed to confirm cases of criminal police involvement in investigative actions related to the production and distribution of porn. Whether this “campaign” of law enforcement officers against the porn industry will be successful is a big question. After the OnlyFans models paid taxes to the budget, they began to refuse corrupt “cooperation” with law enforcement officers. “During the searches, the BEB employees started saying, ‘Look for your connections in the Shevchenkiv court.’ That is, I have to pay millions of hryvnias in taxes to the budget of Ukraine, and I still have to give bribes to someone?”, Karina asks rhetorically. Law enforcement officers against porn on November 11 In 2024, the draft law on the decriminalization of porn was registered in the Council for the second time. The document proposes to leave Art. 301 of the Criminal Code and provide for liability only for the distribution of porn among minors or forcing minors to participate in its creation. The deputies made a preliminary attempt to decriminalize porn in the summer of 2023, but then the draft law did not receive the necessary support, in particular among the deputies of the specialized law enforcement committee. Read also: Deputies want to legalize pornography: what will it bring This time the law enforcement committee spoke “for” the adoption of decriminalization. However, this does not guarantee the successful completion of the document. As interlocutors in the Council informed the EP, currently there is not a sufficient number of deputies who support the changes. In addition, the bill lacks support at the highest political level. “The president has not figured it out yet,” summed up one of the interlocutors of the EP. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials have already rushed to criticize the draft law. “If we take the position of the National Police and other law enforcement agencies, then we do not support such an initiative. We informed the VRU committee about this. This draft law needs to be revised and directly contradicts some laws,” said the head of the National Police Ivan Vyhivskyi in an interview with UNN the day before. According to him, the adoption of the draft law, which leaves criminal responsibility for the distribution of porn among minors, will lead to the fact that pornography “will be accessible to minors.” He also stated that the decriminalization of porn “will have a negative impact on moral values, in particular, children.” “We have traditions of intimate communication between people, and therefore, in my opinion, such legalization will have a negative result,” Vyhivskyi emphasized, without elaborating , which traditions are in question. Similarly, the head of the police did not say anything about the facts when employees of his department put pressure on porn models and the porn business in order to receive bribes. Therefore, the EP addressed the relevant request to the National Police. There they reported that they were not aware of the abuse of the department’s employees during the division investigation of crimes under Art. 301 of the Criminal Code, the National Police did not conduct any relevant checks or official investigations. At the same time, such investigations were carried out by other law enforcement agencies, in particular the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI). For example, in 2020, an inspector of the cybercrime countermeasures department was detained there for extorting 5,000. dollars from a citizen for not bringing him to justice for the production of porn. In 2021, the SBI detained a policeman who “covered up” the porn business of a resident of Odesa and during the years 2012-2021 received 259,000 from her. UAH The European Parliament sent a request to the SBI with a request to tell how many cases of abuse of authority by law enforcement officers during the investigation of porn crimes were opened there. At the time of publication of the material, there was no response. *** The current criminal liability for the production and distribution of porn has absolutely no effect on its consumption by Ukrainians, nor on its production. The statistics speak for themselves. The only tangible consequence of the current ban is the provision of an opportunity for individual representatives of law enforcement agencies to provide producers of pornographic content with legal cover in exchange for a constant stream of foreign currency income. In terms of criminal liability, numerous webcam studios, OnlyFans agencies and other similar businesses operate completely illegally. Therefore, those models who dare to cooperate with them are completely defenseless against such “employers” when their “working relationship” turns into sexual exploitation. Will they be able to be protected by law enforcement officers, who are sometimes themselves interested in the stable operation of the porn business, from which they can receive “kickbacks”? If these are the “traditions of intimate communication between people” that the state law enforcement and judicial systems are so eager to protect, then isn’t it time to finally change these traditions? On February 6, Mezha.Media and “Economic Truth” will hold the event “New Economy: Cryptocurrencies, CBD and OnlyFans”, which, among other things, will be devoted to the topic of decriminalization of porn in Ukraine. You can get acquainted with the program of the event at the link.