OnlyFans users in Sweden are going to have to find another way to pass their time. Swedish lawmakers recently announced their decision to criminalize the purchase of live digital sex acts online. Globally, tensions have been rising surrounding the topic of regulating websites like OnlyFans, where adult content is hosted and sold. Now that Sweden has come down on the side of criminalizing digital sex work, the hot question is whether or not other countries (including the U.S.) might also adopt this stance.

What Sweden has done by implementing the new law on July 1, 2025, is to effectively make buying live-streamed or interactive digital sex (think: sexting or personalized video content) illegal. The new law also criminalizes profiting from or promoting transactions involving personalized or live content. Those acts are now legally treated the same way as soliciting in-person prostitution, and offenders face a maximum sentence of up to one year in prison. Viewing pre-recorded adult content is still legal—for now.

The new law is another reflection of Sweden’s long-standing “Nordic model,” which doesn’t punish the sellers, but rather those who pursue the purchase. It was heavily influenced by public concerns about online exploitation and the mental health struggles (including drug abuse) that are often tied to adult content creation. Officials in Sweden claim the goal behind the law is to protect vulnerable members of the population—minors in particular—from being groomed digitally, coerced into sex acts they might not knowingly consent to, or trafficked. MP Teresa Carvalho and other members of parliament say there’s a pressing need to “modernize” the legal definition of sex work to better reflect the way the market currently operates.

Legally, those who buy digital sex will now face the exact same criminal penalties as those who solicit in-person services. Adults-only platforms like OnlyFans, and third parties who are found to be facilitating and/or profiting from digital sex-for-pay, could also be held liable. For Swedish creators who rely on these platforms for income, this has the potential to dry up their source of financial stability.

Swedish content creators are now going to have to navigate whether to find other platforms to host their content, or to find a new country to call home altogether. OnlyFans is even considering limiting services in Sweden to avoid an expensive legal tangle. Critics argue that the crackdown on digital sex purchases won’t eliminate sex work, but rather will drive it underground, removing safeguards that are currently in place by keeping those purchases legally protected.

Now that Swedish lawmakers have made their decision, all eyes are on the U.S. to see if they’re next. There was a crackdown on online sex work in the United States in 2018 with SESTA/FOSTA, and many lawmakers are pushing for stricter age verification and content restrictions. SCOTUS recently sided with the Texas AG, Ken Paxton, in Free Speech Coalition Inc. v. Paxton, agreeing that sites where more than one-third of the content is deemed “sexual material harmful to minors” must be subject to harsher age verification or risk incurring fines of up to $10,000 per day. Free speech advocates continue to warn about overreach and platform liability, despite the court siding with the State of Texas in the landmark case. Concerns over youth access to explicit content and technological accountability continue to rise, leading many to believe the U.S. may continue to scrutinize and revisit how digital sex work is handled.