The press release was prepared by Anton Grushetskyi, executive director of KIIS

From November 26 to December 29, 2025, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted its own all-Ukrainian public opinion survey "Omnibus", to which, on its own initiative, added a question whether law enforcement agencies should prosecute citizens who publish materials on the OnlyFans platform. By the method of telephone interviews (computer-assistedtelephoneinterviews, CATI) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers (with random generation of phone numbers and subsequent statistical weighting) in all regions of Ukraine (the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine), 1,001 respondents were surveyed. The survey was conducted with adult (aged 18 and older) citizens of Ukraine who, at the time of the survey, lived in the territory of Ukraine controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The sample did not include residents of territories temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities (at the same time, some of the respondents are IDPs who moved from the occupied territories), and the survey was not conducted with citizens who left abroad after February 24, 2022.

Formally, under normal circumstances, the statistical error of such a sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) did not exceed 4.1%. At the same time, an experiment was implemented and one half of the respondents were asked the question in one wording, and the other half in a different wording. Thus, about 500 respondents answered these questions, which gives an error (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.3) of no more than 5.8%.

Under conditions of war, in addition to the specified formal error, a certain systematic deviation is added. Factors that may affect the quality of results in "wartime" conditions were previously cited by KIIS.

In general, we believe that the obtained results are still highly representative and allow a fairly reliable analysis of the public moods of the population.

OnlyFans is an online paid subscription content platform where creators publish content for their followers. The platform is used for various types of content (including creative, educational, fitness, etc.), but is best known for the fact that a significant portion of creators publish content for an adult audience. Access to such content is usually restricted and only available to users of legal age. OnlyFans has over a hundred million users and millions of creators, and is actively used, in particular, in European countries.

In most European countries, such platforms operate legally and are part of the modern digital economy. The mere fact of publishing adult content in European countries is usually not grounds for prosecution, as long as the person is of legal age and the participation is voluntary. However, this area is regulated: there are requirements for age verification, income taxation and restrictions on practices associated with the risks of exploitation. Thus, the prevailing approach is not prohibition but regulation.

In the context of Ukraine’s European integration, not only institutional rapprochement with the EU is important (although, of course, this is critically important for Ukraine’s future membership), but also the gradual adoption of the values that underlie the European space – in particular, respect for individual freedom and tolerance for diversity of views and behavior. That is why it is important to study the attitude of Ukrainians to complex and sensitive issues that reflect deeper social norms and values. And this press release presents the results of a survey of Ukrainians on OnlyFans.

During the survey, we asked respondents about the need to punish those who publish materials on the OnlyFans platform. At the same time, we implemented an experiment to assess how additional information about taxes paid could affect Ukrainians' views on the persecution of those who publish materials on the platform. The aim of the experiment was to analyze how formed public opinion is and whether pro-European narratives can influence it (not how to “correctly” formulate sociological survey questions to get the “right” results).

So, the basic wording of the question was as follows: "As you may know, some Ukrainians publish adult materials on the closed paid platform for adult users, Only Fans: for example, erotic photos and videos. In your opinion, should citizens be prosecuted by law enforcement agencies for such actions?". That is, we provide a short, neutral (as much as possible) explanation about the platform (because, obviously, not all Ukrainians know about OnlyFans). In particular, we do acknowledge that the platform is used to publish erotic materials, but we also note its closed nature and access for adults. Then, respondents had to choose one of the following answers: "rather yes, they should be prosecuted and punished to strengthen public morality" or "rather no, they have the right to publish whatever materials they want on platforms with limited access and only for adult users".

In the case of the experimental formulation of the question and the answer options remained unchanged, we only added one sentence - additional information. Namely: "At the same time, in 2024, those officially registered on this platform paid 63 million hryvnias in taxes and military fees to the Ukrainian budget." This information was widely disseminated by Ukrainian media[1]. Thus, we can see how informing citizens about paying taxes by those who use OnlyFans may influence their opinion regarding their prosecution by law enforcement agencies.

Graph 1 below shows the results. As can be seen, in the basic formulation, there are more people who support the persecution of people – 44% believe that law enforcement agencies should punish them, compared to 36% who speak of their right to publish whatever they want. At the same time, quite a few respondents (20%) were unable to decide on their opinion.

In the case of adding information about taxes paid, the picture changes to the opposite: in this case, 47% already speak of their right to publish whatever materials they want, against 30% who speak of the need to persecute them anyway. And again, a fairly significant share (23%) have no definite opinion.

Graph 1. Should law enforcement agencies prosecute citizens for publishing materials on OnlyFans

The table below presents the results in terms of individual socio-demographic categories. First, let’s look at the trends for the basic formulation (without additional information on taxes). First of all, let’s note that there are practically no cases (except for young people under 30) when there is a more or less unambiguous consensus on this issue among the representatives of the category. That is, among all categories, there are quite a lot of those who support the prosecution of citizens for publishing materials on the platform, and those who oppose punishments (and those who have an uncertain attitude). However, three general groups can be distinguished:

• Socio-demographic categories where there are more people who support the persecution of citizens: residents of the West and South / East, residents of villages and smaller towns with a population of up to 100 thousand, women, people aged 45+, people with secondary specialized or vocational (or lower) education, people with low income;
• Socio-demographic categories where there is conditional parity: residents of the Center, residents of large cities with a population of over 100 thousand, people with an average level of income;
• Socio-demographic categories where there are more people who do not support the persecution of citizens: men, people under 45 years of age, people with higher education, people with high income.

Now it is worth paying attention to the experimental question. First, among all categories, adding information about taxes paid improves attitudes towards those who publish materials on OnlyFans. However, secondly, the impact is uneven across different categories. The most noticeable improvement (in terms of the share of those who oppose punishment) is observed among residents of cities with a population of up to 100 thousand, respondents aged 30 and 60+, respondents with complete secondary education, respondents with higher education, and respondents with low income. The least noticeable changes are observed among respondents with secondary specialized or vocational education. Among them, there are only slightly fewer people who support punishment, but their share still remains higher than the share of those who oppose punishment.

If according to the basic question, supporters of punishments prevailed in 10 out of 18 categories considered in the table, then according to the experimental question - only 4 out of 18 (residents of villages, respondents aged 45-59 and 60+ years, respondents with secondary specialized or vocational education).

Table 1. Should law enforcement agencies prosecute citizens for publishing materials on OnlyFans, in terms of socio-demographic category

A. Grushetskyi, comments on the survey results:

Ukraine officially declares its intention to join the European family, and the absolute majority of Ukrainians continue to confirm this geopolitical choice (as we see from numerous surveys with different wordings of the question). At the same time, the process of Ukraine's European integration, among other things, is accompanied by a rethinking of our values and norms, including on complex and sensitive issues. EU membership is not only a technical issue of compliance with legislation, the level of economic development and the effectiveness of anti-corruption structures (which are certainly critical for moving towards Europe). EU membership is also a question of choice of values, and the current discussions are important for understanding which of our current values and norms are compatible with the European choice, and which ones need to be left behind. Moreover, many sensitive issues are not a direct requirement in the context of European integration, but at the same time they actually reflect the spirit of the process.

For example, one of the sensitive issues is the legalization of medical cannabis. In 2024, KIIS conducted a survey on its legalization and we showed that additional contextual information has a tangible positive impact[3]. That is, many people may indeed have historically formed attitudes about cannabis (and often negative ones). However, when people hear additional arguments, it can significantly change their view and make them more supportive.

In this survey, on the OnlyFans issue, we also show that in fact the Ukrainian public is receptive to arguments and it is important to have a substantive professional discussion. So, the “basic” attitude is rather critical (however, less than half already speak about the need for punishment, which also indicates important changes in society over the past decades). However, when we present additional arguments (about taxes paid), the picture changes to the opposite and the attitude is already rather favorable.

It is also important to note the gap by socio-demographic categories. Younger, educated, and affluent Ukrainians from large cities are most opposed to the persecution of citizens for posting on OnlyFans. At the same time, rural residents, older people, and those with lower education are most in favor of persecution. External enemies and internal irresponsible actors may see the prospect of using this for political purposes. For example, to divide society along the lines of "conservatives" (those who are more committed to traditional/conservative values)/"modernizers" (those who advocate a more modern view of many things).

Therefore, in any case, we call for avoiding politicizing these issues (and even more so using them as part of a political struggle) and instead conducting balanced, reasoned discussions. Discussions that would ultimately lead to decisions that ensure public consensus and at the same time correspond to the course of European integration.

Appendix 1. Formulation of questions from the questionnaire

DIVIDE THE SAMPLE INTO 2 GROUPS. EACH GROUP IS ASKED ONE QUESTION OPTION

OPTION А. As you may know, some Ukrainians publish adult content on the closed paid platform for adult users, Only Fans, such as erotic photos and videos. In your opinion, should citizens be prosecuted by law enforcement agencies for such actions? READ. ORDER RANDOMIZATION

OPTION B. Let's change the subject again. As you may know, some Ukrainians publish adult materials on the closed paid platform for adult users Only Fans: for example, erotic photos and videos.

At the same time, in 2024, those who are officially registered on this platform paid 63 million hryvnias in taxes and military fees to the Ukrainian budget.

In your opinion, should citizens be prosecuted by law enforcement agencies for publishing materials on this platform? READ. ORDER RANDOMIZATION