Sweden Brings the Nordic Model Online

Ada Hamilton -

Sweden is bringing the terrible ‘Nordic Model’ (also known as the ‘Entrapment Model’, ‘Equality Model; or ‘Swedish Model’) of sex work regulation to the internet, thanks to a new law that criminalises the purchase of a sexual act, including "acts carried out remotely". A change from the existing law that punishes purchasing a sexual "service".

The law was passed by a large majority in Sweden's parliament and will come into effect on the 1st of July, 2025. From that date, any Swede that purchases material via OnlyFans, pays for a cam-show on any platform, or pays for any form of live online content that results in a sex worker getting paid, could be charged with a crime that has a maximum punishment of one year in prison.

This effectively bans sex workers from selling their work online to people in Sweden as any Swede doing so is at risk of going to jail. While media outlets may be saying this law impacts OnlyFans creators, it applies to much more than OnlyFans, impacting live cam shows on any platform and potentially any other service where it could be interpreted as someone purchasing a sexual “act” rather than a “service”.

We currently don’t know how platforms like OnlyFans, PornHub or any of the dozens of cam sites will react to the change in Sweden’s law. If they follow what they’ve done in other areas when faced with laws that negatively impact their users, there’s a good chance they’ll stop being legally accessible in Sweden. Of course, users can still access the site via other means like VPNs, but by adding barriers for clients to access sex workers and pay for their work, the end result is sex workers making less money and being forced to engage in riskier behaviour to make ends meet.

What is the Nordic Model?

For those not familiar with the Nordic Model approach to regulating sex work, it is a set of laws that aim to abolish sex work by reducing demand. Sex work itself is not a crime, but the act of paying for it is. Proponents of the Nordic Model think that by making it illegal to pay for sex, demand for sex work will drop to a point where sex workers are no longer incentivised to offer their services and in this magical fairy land, sex workers go and do something else and the entire sex work industry vanishes into thin air, with no negative consequences.

In reality, demand for sex work hasn't stopped and sex workers are punished heavily. They are forced to take jobs they would usually deny so they can earn a living wage, because fewer clients are willing to submit to safety measures like screening due to these punitive laws and their enforcement. 

Sweden’s new bill targets online sex workers

In-person sex work has operated under this model for decades in Sweden - hence the name - but only recently has there been a push to apply the same model to online sex work. When asked for comment by Euractiv, Swedish MP Teresa Carvalho said "this is a new form of sex purchase, and it's high time we modernise the legislation to include digital platforms". 

The bill's English translation (available in Swedish or machine translated English) even writes that "services such as Onlyfans are described by the police as platforms that lead to children and young people being gradually drawn into prostitution", without providing any evidence of that happening. It also claims that sex workers performing "cam shows may experience the

vulnerability as at least as great as in sexual acts that involve physical contact" because "the buyer in the former case can save the material and distribute it" - ignoring the possibility of criminalising the unauthorised distribution of that material instead of punishing consenting sex workers and their clients.

Further in the bill's justification, it claims very matter of factly that "there is no doubt that prostitution causes serious harm to both individuals and society" and "those who are exposed to prostitution are usually involved in extensive criminality of various kinds, such as drug trafficking and pimping", without reflecting that it could perhaps be that the Swedish Model is what drives sex work underground and allows crime to thrive.

Once again we are witnessing a successful push by groups that are anti-sex worker to gain incremental legislation that helps achieve their goal of eradicating sex work, using the false pretense of protecting women and children.

Pushback against Onlyfans ban

In an interview with 404 Media, Mike Stabile, director of public policy at U.S.-based adult industry advocacy organization the Free Speech Coalition said; "Why is it legal to consume studio content, or stolen content, but illegal to pay a worker directly to create independent content? If you're really fighting exploitation, why would you take away avenues for independence and push people to work with third-party studios? Why is the consumer liable, but not a platform? These laws make no sense on their face because the goal is not actually to protect workers, but rather to eradicate commercial sex work entirely. Through that lens, it makes much more sense. This law is just another step in making the industry dangerous to work in and dangerous to access, to push it toward back alleys and black markets".

I couldn't have said it better myself, Mike.

There are currently seven other countries persisting with the Nordic model of sex work regulation - Norway, Iceland, Canada, Northern Ireland, France, Ireland and Israel - as well as the US state of Maine. After seeing how strongly Sweden's extension of the Nordic model passed in their parliament, there is a real chance other areas employing the Nordic Model will also take it a step further and make paying for OnlyFans or a live cam-show a crime too.

It's more important than ever we support sex worker friendly organisations fighting the good fight against the Nordic model:

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