Petition to End Financial Discrimination Against Cam Models and Sex Workers
We, the undersigned, are camgirls, cam models, sex workers, adult content creators, educators, artists, and allies who are directly impacted by discriminatory banking and payment processing practices. We submit this petition to demand an immediate end to financial policies that unfairly target lawful adult labor under the guise of risk mitigation.
Access to banking and payment infrastructure is a foundational requirement for participation in modern economic life. Denial of such access functions as economic exclusion. When banks and payment networks selectively restrict or terminate services for sex workers, particularly independent cam models who rely entirely on digital payments they impose material harm without due process, transparency, or proportional justification.
These practices constitute systemic discrimination.
Financial institutions, including MasterCard, have introduced adult-content-specific policies that apply exclusively to sex workers and adult platforms, despite substantial evidence that the majority of documented online abuse occurs on mainstream, non-adult platforms. This selective enforcement does not address harm. Instead, it transfers economic risk onto workers who are already legally and socially marginalized.
Cam models are uniquely vulnerable under these policies. Unlike large corporate entities, independent camgirls often operate as sole proprietors without access to legal counsel, compliance teams, or alternative payment rails. Abrupt account closures, frozen funds, or platform defunding result in immediate loss of income, often without notice or appeal. These outcomes expose workers to housing insecurity, medical instability, and increased risk of exploitation.
Empirical research consistently demonstrates that LGBTQ+ individuals—particularly transgender people—are disproportionately represented in sex work due to workplace discrimination, employment barriers, and systemic exclusion from traditional labor markets. When banking access is removed, these communities experience compounding harm. Financial exclusion in this context is not neutral; it is predictive of homelessness, loss of healthcare access, and heightened exposure to violence.
Banks frequently justify adult-content-focused policies as necessary to prevent exploitation and abuse. However, available data shows that adult platforms already exceed mainstream platforms in content moderation, identity verification, and consent enforcement. Moreover, child sexual abuse material is overwhelmingly documented on "safe for work" social media platforms, not adult cam or subscription sites. Singling out sex workers is therefore unsupported by evidence and inconsistent with stated harm-reduction goals.
We further note that financial restrictions on sex work have historically been shaped by ideological and religious advocacy rather than by data-driven policy analysis or stakeholder consultation. The use of banking infrastructure to indirectly regulate lawful labor circumvents democratic processes and places private corporations in a quasi-regulatory role without accountability.
Accordingly, we make the following demands:
Our Demands
-
Immediate suspension of adult-content-exclusive financial policies
No banking or payment policy should apply solely to lawful adult content while exempting platforms where documented harm is demonstrably higher.
-
Equal financial access for cam models and independent sex workers
Camgirls and live-stream performers must be recognized as legitimate workers entitled to nondiscriminatory access to banking and payment services.
-
Stakeholder-driven policy development
Any future policies impacting adult labor must be developed with meaningful participation from active sex workers, cam models, and survivor-stakeholders, rather than external ideological groups.
-
Uniform standards across industries
Policies that are infeasible or rejected for mainstream platforms must not be imposed on adult platforms or workers.
-
Due process protections
Financial institutions must provide notice, explanation, and appeal mechanisms prior to account termination or service denial.
Economic participation is not a privilege reserved for socially favored professions. It is a necessity. The denial of banking access to cam models and sex workers does not prevent harm—it creates it.
If financial institutions claim that acceptance matters, that principle must be reflected in policy, not branding. Lawful adult labor must be treated as lawful labor, without exception.