The Project has been forced to delete an interview after receiving severe public condemnation and backlash.
Last week, the Channel 10 talk show interviewed three OnlyFans porn stars – Leilani May (25), Kay Manuel (21), and Bonnie Blue (24) – who had themselves received backlash for targeting 18-year-old boys for pornographic content at Schoolies on the Gold Coast (Schoolies is the equivalent of Spring Break in the US).
The Project posted the interview to its social media platforms, and although it was quick to turn off comments, angry social media users still chastised them online.
Even more disturbing than the interview itself, was the fact that on X (formerly Twitter), The Project linked the OnlyFans accounts in its post, which contained highly explicit, uncensored, pornographic content.
Our CEO Rachael Wong wrote on X:
“Why is Channel 10's The Project promoting porn and the predatory sexual exploitation of young people on its show and social media, including LINKING DIRECTLY TO PORNOGRAHPIC CONTENT?
And how are these OnlyFans accounts even allowed on social media?? Six months later I’m still being absurdly censored for ‘sensitive content’ on X/Twitter and it is allowing actual pornography on its platform with no content warnings whatsoever
I watched the full 5min interview and all the hosts are laughing and smiling throughout – I wonder if they’d think it was as funny if it were older guys having sex with 18-year-old girls just out of school and filming it for profit?
Being a female doesn’t give you a predator pass.
Also, slow clap for these women who are not only partaking in, but encouraging boys to partake in and view porn, which we know is one of the key drivers of violence against women and girls.”
The next day The Project deleted the interview from all its platforms, but does not appear to have issued an apology, nor do the journalists appear to have faced any consequences.
Rachael also shared a video raising awareness about the issue, questioning whether one of the ‘women’ is in fact a biological male, which would raise a number of questions around informed consent:
“Some have questioned whether Kay Manuel is a biological male.
A ‘Kay Manuel’ has been nominated ‘best transgender porn star’ two years running.
If a man, I wonder if this was disclosed to the boys before they signed up?”
In an interview with Rita Panahi on Sky News, Rachael talked about how The Project's interview was basically “a free promo for porn, prostitution, the predatory sexual exploitation of young people, and the grooming of teenagers into the sex industry”.
“They allowed the women to talk about the huge amounts of money they were apparently making – apparently as much as $30k in 24 hours – without actually mentioning the fact that most OnlyFans creators don’t even make a living wage, let alone get rich.
They also allowed them to legitimise what they were doing by talking about how it was both legal and consensual.”
Rachael noted that just because something is legal, doesn’t make it ethical, and to pretend that anything goes as long as it’s consensual, is incredibly damaging to our culture, and especially to our young people.
She also pointed out that if the sexes had been flipped, The Project would have run a very different story.
“I can guarantee you Rita, that if it had been the other way around, if it had been older men targeting teenage girls, filming their sex acts for profit, spreading them across the internet and bragging about it online, The Project would have done a story condemning this. But they didn’t, and I think that’s a really sad testament to their devaluation of boys.”
Rachael explained that promoting prostitution and porn as a legitimate career prospect for women and girls is also a terrible message to be sending to them, particularly when porn is a key driver of violence against women and girls.
The Project’s removal of the interview is a win against the sexual exploitation of young people, and demonstrates the power of raising our voices together against predatory behaviour and shocking ‘journalism’.
Women’s Forum Australia is an independent think tank that undertakes research, education and public policy advocacy on issues affecting women and girls, with a particular focus on addressing behaviours and practices that are harmful and abusive to them. We are a non-partisan, non-religious, tax-deductible charity. We do not receive any government funding and rely solely on donations to make an impact. Support our work today.
| I’ll stand with women ▷ |