A new law in Sweden makes it illegal to buy custom adult content

Scope and Mechanics of the New Law

• Extends Sweden’s existing ban on buying sex services to certain online sexual services.
• Key change: paying to “influence” the content of custom photos/videos is equated with paying for a sexual act.
• “Normal” studio porn remains legal; subscriptions to creators (e.g. OnlyFans) without custom content remain legal.
• Audio and text-based sexual services (chats, phone sex) are explicitly excluded.
• Buyers and possibly site operators are criminalized; sellers are not.

Official Rationale vs. Critics’ View

• Authorities frame this as addressing power imbalances and coercion in “digital prostitution,” arguing that online sex-for-pay can be as harmful as physical prostitution.
• They stress that lack of physical contact does not change the core problem of vulnerable people being induced into sexual acts for money.
• Critics argue this logic would apply to many labor markets with unequal power, and see sex work as being singled out.

Impact on Sex Workers and Platforms

• Several comments describe OnlyFans-style work as relatively safer: physical distance, anonymity, creator control over limits.
• The law is said to have already led OnlyFans to disable DMs for Swedish creators, gutting the main income stream from custom content.
• Concern that workers will be pushed to shadier sites or in-person work, becoming more vulnerable and less protected.

Consent, Coercion, and Nature of Sex Work

• Disagreement over whether most sex workers are “victims” or autonomous entrepreneurs; some note many successful online creators clearly do not see themselves as coerced.
• Others argue sex is uniquely intimate and psychologically risky, making economic coercion in this domain especially harmful; counter-voices question whether sex is really so different from other hazardous or degrading jobs.
• There is broader criticism of the “Nordic model”: making purchase illegal while sale is legal is seen by many as ideologically driven and counterproductive.

Cultural and Political Context

• Several comments link this to Scandinavian feminist and collectivist traditions that view prostitution as incompatible with gender equality and heavily tied to trafficking.
• Others, often from an Anglo-American lens, see it as paternalistic, sex-negative, and a denial of adult agency.
• Some describe Sweden as increasingly governed by dogmatic, lobby-driven policy.

Edge Cases, AI, and Workarounds

• Questions raised about:
  • Whether AI-generated or interactive AI porn would be covered, since the law doesn’t clearly require a human performer.
  • Whether Swedish creators can still sell custom content to foreign buyers without legal risk to themselves.
  • Whether data-driven “matching engines” that anticipate demand (without explicit custom orders) would be considered “influencing” content.
• These points are left largely unresolved and labeled as unclear in the discussion.