I recently heard a striking figure: five percent of UK students have engaged in adult entertainment activities. That means one in twenty young people pursuing higher education has turned to prostitution, escorting, OnlyFans, exotic dancing, or related work. It made me wonder whether Britain is truly an outlier, or whether students in the United States are walking the same path.
What Counts as “Adult” in this sense?
Prostitution and Escorting
Involves direct sexual services for money, sometimes framed as companionship. In the UK, prostitution itself is legal but surrounding activities like brothel-keeping are not. Surveys suggest a minority of student workers fall in this category, but it remains one of the most stigmatized and risky options.
OnlyFans and Online Content
Platforms like OnlyFans and other subscription services have blurred boundaries. Students can sell erotic content directly to subscribers without in-person contact. This model has surged since the pandemic, offering control over work hours and anonymity. It accounts for a growing share of student involvement.
Exotic Dancing and Stripping
Clubs and private venues provide opportunities for students to earn fast cash. The attraction lies in flexible schedules, sometimes making more in one night than weeks at a part-time job. Still, risks include unsafe environments and ongoing stigma, which can impact academic and career futures.
Webcam and Camming
Camming involves live-streamed performances, ranging from mild to explicit. Students cite financial independence, relative safety, and avoiding physical contact as reasons to participate. Like OnlyFans, it is easier to enter than traditional adult work, but performers often deal with harassment, unstable earnings, and potential leaks of private content.
Sugaring
“Sugar dating” connects younger students with older, wealthier partners who provide financial support in exchange for companionship or intimacy. Platforms that facilitate sugaring claim it is not prostitution, but in practice the line is blurred. Students may receive rent, tuition payments, or gifts, making this increasingly common under financial pressure.
The Numbers in the UK
Currently active in adult work: about 3 percent of students.
Have ever engaged at some point: roughly 5 percent, the “one in twenty” figure.
Would consider in financial emergency: 6–8 percent.
Have considered at some point: up to 22 percent, according to large-scale surveys.
The Numbers in the U.S.
Currently active: about 2–3 percent of students.
Have ever engaged at some point: around 5 percent.
Would consider under financial pressure: 15–25 percent.
Are the UK Stats Higher?
Surprisingly, the answer is not really. Despite prostitution being technically legal in the UK, the rates of student involvement in adult work are nearly identical on both sides of the Atlantic. Both countries show about 5 percent lifetime participation. The U.S. actually reports a slightly higher share of students willing to consider it, especially with the explosion of OnlyFans and sugaring.
A Moral Reckoning
This raises troubling questions. Are our students really surviving university by selling intimacy, stripping on stage, or broadcasting themselves online? If one in twenty has already taken this path, what does that say about the costs of higher education the economic pressures we place on the young, and the lack of other opportunities?
It may be tempting to dismiss these numbers as a fringe phenomenon, but the surveys say otherwise. A quarter of U.S. students, and a fifth of UK students, admit they have thought about adult work if finances became unbearable. This is not a hidden underground but a visible reality that peers and classmates are quietly living.
We should be asking hard questions of our universities and our governments. Why is it normal that students feel they must auction their dignity in order to afford rent and tuition? Why is it acceptable that the path to a degree runs through OnlyFans subscriptions, nightclub stages, and sugar dating apps?
Some frame this as empowerment, others as exploitation. Either way, it is a symptom of a deeper failure. When the promise of higher education comes tied to crushing debt and unaffordable living costs, students are forced into choices that most of society pretends not to see. That is not normal, and it should not be acceptable.
This is the moral crossroads we face: are we willing to let the next generation of doctors, teachers, and engineers fund their education through the adult industry, or are we prepared to admit that something has gone very wrong in how we structure opportunity?
