Kylie’s $13 hourly wage wasn’t making ends meet. Looking for extra money, she signed up for a role in a pornographic video and, in one day, earned $1,000. Then her family, friends, employer and small-town acquaintances found out. With her reputation ruined, how did Kylie move forward with her life?

She moved away and became a pornographic model full time. Now she operates an OnlyFans account and makes $19,000 per month selling pictures and videos of herself. “I’m proud that I changed my life,” she told the Toronto Sun. “Everyone my age has thought of doing OnlyFans; I was just brave enough.” She still avoids returning to her hometown, saying, “While they are close-minded, judging and miserable, I’m getting rich and having fun.”

Sadly, a woman selling sex is nothing new. In the digital age, though, these activities are no longer limited to dark alleyways. Digital prostitution via pornography is available to almost every home and device with an Internet connection. Whether it is online pornography sites, sex webcam sites, YouTube, Netflix, mainstream music and television, explicit sex is everywhere and accepted.

High-profile sex scandals among national leaders certainly expose sins in the top echelons of our nations. But those sins pervade our peoples as well. The West’s Judeo-Christian culture has been largely replaced by an OnlyFans culture.

What are the consequences of this titanic cultural shift?

Proliferating Prostitution

OnlyFans offers peer-to-peer sharing of video, photo and other digital content through subscriptions or tips. Users who create content receive 80 percent of the money. Primarily used by amateurs to sell pornography, the platform’s popularity exploded during the covid-19 lockdowns. Currently, 220 million subscribers are paying for content from 3 million creators. Seventy percent of the content is pornographic, including that of nearly all the top earners. Since it was founded in 2016, OnlyFans has paid creators over $10 billion. Last year it received 320 million visits each month. An average of half a million new users sign up every day. The average age is between 35 and 44. According to the website TechJury, OnlyFans’ user base is 69 percent male. Most of the men are white, married and heterosexual, with other “sexual identities” mixed in. Unsurprisingly, the statistics are the mirror image for creators: 70 percent are women. On average they make 78 percent more money than male creators.

One actress created an OnlyFans account in 2020, charging $20 for a subscription. In 24 hours she had made over $1 million. Other adult models, musicians and amateur pornographers boast about making millions per year. In the United Kingdom, OnlyFans stars make 270 times more than the average 8-to-5 laborer. That kind of cash is a tempting alternative to getting educated and having an honest job.

Some use OnlyFans as supplemental income. Two high school teachers in Missouri were fired because students found out they had OnlyFans accounts. One of these ex-teachers now makes more money in pornography than she did in teaching. Such examples erode the respectability of role models and leaders for children.

OnlyFans is just one platform of its type. There have been several recent cases of politicians filming themselves having sex for profit. Susanna, a mother of two and a congressional candidate, was caught performing sex acts with her husband on an online webcam site. Then there was the scandal of sodomy being video-recorded in one of the debating rooms at the United States Capitol. No one would have found out about it had it not been filmed and posted online.

Such is the commonness of recording and posting sex acts online.

Consequences in Society

OnlyFans doesn’t just normalize consuming pornography. It goes a step further and normalizes making pornography. What does this do to society?

Lured by the promise of fast money, many people sell their bodies on sites like this. The reality is that the average OnlyFans creator has only 21 subscribers and makes only $180 per month. Yet the cost of creating an OnlyFans account is far higher than anything to do with money. Every time someone posts, that person is giving away part of himself or herself until nothing is left. And once photos or videos are published on the Internet, they will follow that individual for the rest of his or her life.

This platform has 3 million content creators. Two thirds of its revenue goes to Americans. If that correlates to 2 million American OnlyFans creators, 70 percent of whom are women, that would be 1.4 million American women. Comparing the demographics of OnlyFans users with the U.S. population, one can deduce that among American women age 18 to 45, as many as 1 in 40 could be selling themselves on this platform.

Publicly available statistics seem to confirm this crude estimate: A UK study found that 5 percent of UK students were involved in sex work, and another 20 percent have thought about it.

What happens when vast numbers of young girls consider pornography a viable career choice? How does this undermine their focus in life, their education, their contributions to future families and to society?

At the same time, all this pornographic content is feeding the sexual addictions and family-destroying habits of their subscribers.

Engaging in creating and consuming digital prostitution is more the norm for our society than abstaining from it. Our culture rewards mothers and daughters for becoming prostitutes, while encouraging fathers and sons to become cybersex addicts. How many aspects of broader society are undermined and destroyed by such widespread participation in this degradation?

Making matters worse, addictions tend to feed themselves, leading to ever-more depraved content and further entrenching perversion. This is certainly true of pornography. The spread of child pornography is just one lamentable and tragic example. How many people’s lives have been irreparably broken because of this?

In our OnlyFans culture, no one wants to confront these questions or address these undeniable aftereffects.

Universal Sin

Pornographic websites of all kinds are well within the reach of children. In 2023, an essay by 16-year-old Isabel was published in the Free Press explaining the experience of most children around the world: “I was 10 years old when I watched porn for the first time.” She stumbled onto a pornographic website by accident and returned out of curiosity. It had no age verification or ID requirement. “The site is easy to find, impossible to avoid, and has become a frequent rite of passage for kids my age,” she wrote.

“Where was my mother? In the next room, making sure I was eating nine differently colored fruits and vegetables on the daily. She was attentive, nearly a helicopter parent, but I found online porn anyway. So did my friends.” She then described the types of pornography she stumbled on as a fourth grader: “I saw simulated incest, bestiality, extreme bondage, sex with unconscious women, … sadomasochism and unthinkable physical violence.”

Parents, do you know what your child is doing on the computer in the room next to you?

It has become normal for children to view pornography by the age of 12. It is also normal for parents to regularly view pornography. Some studies show that an average of 85 percent of all age groups regularly watch pornography. The use of pornography is so widespread that nearly all of society is caught into this doom loop. And far more people are involved in creating this increasingly perverse content than ever before.

The ease of access is astounding. Any search engine like Google, any video website like YouTube, any social media site like X has pornography. Age limits and parental controls are easily bypassed with third party websites, creating a free account, or by giving out an e-mail address. Any wireless device can easily be turned into a portal for addiction. Technology can’t be relied upon to protect children from pornography.

Modern religion has no power against this onslaught. A Barna research study found that 57 percent of pastors and 64 percent of youth pastors admitted to struggling with pornography use, and 59 percent of pastors said that it is the biggest problem in their congregation.

No wonder children are exposed to shocking perversion and dysfunction. No wonder fewer and fewer people are getting married. No wonder true masculinity and true femininity are dissipating. No wonder the traditional family is becoming extinct. How can any family survive this onslaught?

Studies by Boston University, Google and Columbia University from 2019 estimate that around 4 percent of websites are pornographic, but that 20 percent of all web searches are looking for it. It is difficult to estimate total revenue from the industry, but conservative estimates place it at $15 billion in the U.S. alone.

There are virtually no legal safeguards to stop the tsunami of filth on the web. In fact, Western leaders have used “free speech” to justify this sin. By making pornography legal and defending it as an expression of free speech, even our leaders have normalized it and justified this clearly destructive sin.

“Deep down we know that pornography is evil!” writes Gerald Flurry in No Freedom Without Law. “In the past, even the thought of it caused us shame. At one time we also declared a war on pornography, but we don’t hear much about that war anymore. Why? Because we don’t like admitting defeat. We lost that war as well.”

Losing the war on pornography “means losing the values that build strong marriages and strong families,” Mr. Flurry continues. “Strong families are the backbone of any strong nation. Yet we have been overcome by something we were too weak to resist” (emphasis added). He then quotes 2 Peter 2:19: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved” (Revised Standard Version). “Just look at the facts and you can plainly see that America is enslaved to pornography” (ibid).

Could it be that losing the war on pornography as a nation jeopardizes our national survival?

Playing With Fire

“Since it is a basic truism that a solid family structure is the foundational bulwark of any stable and permanent society, this fact means only one thing—civilization as we know it is on the way down—and out—unless that great ‘Unseen Strong Hand From Someplace’ soon intervenes and saves today’s sick society.” The late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote these words in 1981 in his book The Missing Dimension in Sex, a textbook that explains God’s laws on sex, marriage and family.

Four decades later, one can certainly see the pernicious effects of the destruction of solid family structure on society. And the case is much easier to make that when the family unit is destroyed, so is the nation.

“Under the guise of ‘free speech,’ we destroy marriages and families—the foundation of our nation!” Mr. Flurry continues in No Freedom Without Law. He then makes this bold statement: “Spewing out tons of pornography is not free speech—it is a diabolical plot to destroy America and Britain! And the plan is working extremely well.”

While it is businessmen, pornographers, web developers, public officials and policymakers, judges and lawyers who are permitting this filth to spread so freely—to the detriment of our families and our nations—it is literally a diabolical plot, motivated by the devil, to destroy our peoples.

The only way we can protect ourselves, our children and our nation from the evil clutches of sexual perversion is by obeying the law of God.

The Bible warns that if we don’t seek after God’s law, then we will be burned with fire.

Read it in Proverbs 6: “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life” (verse 23). God’s law shines a bright light on the path we should be walking on. His law helps us avoid obstacles and traps, including the snare of sexual sins. “To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life” (verses 24-26). Pornography seduces individuals, families and nations into spiritual poverty.

“Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent” (verses 27-29). Pornography and adultery sear the conscience and character (Ephesians 4:19).

When the sin is universal, so will be the correction. When most of the nation is holding the burning coals of adultery in their hands, the nation will get burned, literally!

That was what happened to the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were known for universal sexual immorality (Genesis 13:13). The sin was so great that God decided to destroy them entirely with fire and brimstone (Genesis 18:20-21). What may seem a harsh judgment was in fact an act of love. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were so wicked, their conscience so seared by sin, that God stopped them twisting their minds any further. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah are not lost; they will rise in the second resurrection (Matthew 10:15; 11:24). They will receive an opportunity to live by the light of God’s law and not the fire of correction.

This should be a jarring alarm bell of warning for our people today. “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6).

We must learn from this ancient example. Our nations have gone down the same darkened path as Sodom, and we are proud of it! We flaunt our sins before the entire world. Pornographic sites declare our Sodom-like sins to humanity and to God. The billions of dollars’ worth of pornography we produce and demand is earning us the same reward as Sodom. “For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves” (Isaiah 3:9; English Standard Version).

The spirit of adultery permeates our culture. Oversexualized advertisements, posters, movies, music, clothing and entertainment are the gateway to lust. Once our minds are thus oriented, we are on the path toward increasing depravity.

It all starts in the mind, and Jesus Christ said the very thought of lust breaks His spiritual law just as the physical act does! “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

It is easy to justify our own shortfalls by pointing fingers at more extreme examples of sin, but according to God’s laws, any thought or action motivated by an attitude of lust is sin. It takes a complete reversal of direction to get on the path of God’s law to come out of sin. It takes repentance. It takes action, like that of the patriarch Joseph, who fled from the seductions of Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:7-12).

That is why God uses the example of Sodom for our people today: We should see the fiery correction God rained down on that city and change our ways. If we don’t, God will correct us with fire (Ezekiel 5): Our nations will face nuclear attacks, military invasion and enslavement in exile because we are enslaved to sin today!

This correction is done out of God’s love, to save us from ourselves. Can we see past the temporary pleasures of sin and heed God’s message? If we can, there is profound hope in God’s warning message.

Defend the Bulwark

The Bible is primarily a book about family. The incredible truth of Scripture is that God created mankind in order to build a spiritual family! He is Creator of sex, marriage and family life, and He created them as physical types of what He is building spiritually. God uses physical family to help create the spiritual family. Every individual will have the opportunity to be born again as an eternal God being: a son of God! (Romans 8:14-17).

This is the hope that overcomes the despair, emptiness and escapism rampant in our world.

Pornography, prostitution and sexual perversion are insidious because they harm the incredible human potential of being born a son of God. Prostitution and pornography are acute sins against God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) and cause terrible curses in the lives of those who commit them and in the nations that indulge in them.

We need to view sin the way God does. We have to accept God’s authority and laws over all areas of our lives, including sex, marriage and family. It is easy to become desensitized to sin. To be purified from it, we have to be vigilant, and we need God’s help.

God provides a path of redemption for all. He commands us not to follow a multitude to do evil (Exodus 23:2). When we reject the OnlyFans culture and repent of our sins, we can reclaim our incredible human potential!