This chapter assesses the contemporary global issue of adult content creators’ employment status in the gig economy to suggest that globally, adult content creators straddle self-employment and employee status without benefiting from core labour rights. While adult content creators classify themselves as self-employed, this chapter uses a selected sample of global online platforms and nine semi-structured interviews with adult content creators to highlight that they are operating under the control of online platforms. Technological innovation has made pornography an industry worth over $97 billion globally. Adult content creators work in precarious conditions. While the sex work nature of the porn industry eschews the recognition of adult content creators’ jobs under labour law, the gig economy provides them with economic independence and flexibility. Yet such flexibility comes with the instability of having core labour protections around their wage and time dependent on terms of use that are unilaterally written by online platforms. While currently, adult content creators operate as if they are self-employed individuals running their businesses through porn platforms, they experience a lack of control vis-à-vis the online platforms. Adult content creators therefore call for empowerment through recognition under labour law to avoid exploitation from online platforms.
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Nocella, Rebecca Rose
School of Law and Social Sciences
Year of publication: 2024Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-07-26