Some people can feel pressured by a partner, friend or hook-up to make or share sexual content. This can be coercion, saying things like “If you love me you’d let me film you…” or even a straight-up threat like “If you don’t let me use this vid, I’m going to send it to your friends”.

Any kind of pressure is not okay. Your sexual images belong to you and should never ever be given to anyone without your 100% full, free and informed consent.

There are people who buy and sell sexual content for their job. They may offer signed consent forms so it all looks legit, but things can get tricky… If there’s not a clear contract, they ‘own’ your images and can do what they want with them – and you may not be able to get them removed.

Cash for your pics now could be a headache and personal price to pay later on – so make sure you do some research before you sign up!

Sometimes creating sexual content can feel like the only way to pay the bills. If that’s you, that can be rough. There’s some support services that may be able to help such as WINZ’s “check what you get” tool,  that tells you if you can get any government support, which can be an awesome short-term solution if you’re broke.

It might also help to talk about your situation with a friend or family member. They may be able to help you or support you with looking for jobs through Seek, TradeMe or Student Job Search (if you’re a student).

It can feel tricky to tell someone you’ve created sexual content, especially if you’re worried they’ll judge you. Remember there’s no shame – everyone makes calls based on what’s going on for them at the time, and some things work out and some don’t.

It’s good to get support from someone you can trust, so here’s a convo starter you can call, text or DM to break the ice…

If you have a friend who might be pressured into creating content OR jumping into it without fully understanding the risks, it’s great that you’re here reading this! There’s some simple things you can do to help out like…

If your content has ended up going viral or in places you don’t want, contact Netsafe – they’re the experts at this.

“No one ever talked to me about boundaries or what it would be like, people just said that I would make so much money. But the money was not as good as I thought.” – NZ model

If any family member involved in making sexual content is under 18, this is illegal – so if you are being asked to make stuff, contact someone you trust urgently and/or the police.

If you’re over 18 and your family is asking you to film sexual stuff – there may be an issue of whether your consent is being ‘freely given’ as there are often power plays in families that can make this really complicated. Contact Safe to Talk for some confidential advice.

When someone is forcing you, without your consent to create sexual content (photos, hooking up, vids, camming), regardless of your age, that is illegal. If this is happening to you, speak with someone you trust urgently and contact the police or Safe to Talk.