Content warning: This article contains references to rape and assault.
Oana Maria Zaharia was one of the hundreds of thousands of young women working in Romania’s webcam industry — until she witnessed what was happening behind the camera.
The Eastern European country has earned the label of the cam girl capital of the world thanks to high internet speeds, low employment and poverty.
But 32-year-old Oana says the sex cam industry, which attracts millions of users each day from the United States to Australia, “can be very dangerous for young girls”.
Many models are managed by studios that provide them with luxury rooms, clothes, tech support and privacy in exchange for a large cut of earnings — and control.
Oana says women who are new to the sex cam industry are especially vulnerable. Source: SBS / Dateline
Now a journalist and OnlyFans model, Oana worked for several cam studios from the age of 19.
“They always try to push your limit a little bit, like spend more time in front of the camera, or do things you don’t really want to do. [They say], come on, you can do this because you’ll make so much money,” she told Dateline.
“The girls who just started in the industry … they don’t have too much control, they don’t have enough self-confidence. They rely on other people telling them what to do.”
Exploitative practices
Selena (not her real name) is a working webcam model who spends her evenings performing for fans and viewers in real-time via a live streaming platform — in exchange for tips.
Despite having a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and having previously worked in the agriculture business, the 27-year-old makes more money posing in her black lingerie bodysuit.
“There are girls that probably make even US$10,000 ($15,000) a day. So, plenty of money,” she told Dateline.
Cam girl Selena during a livestream session at one of Romania’s many adult webchat studios, Models4Models, in Bucharest. Source: SBS / Dateline
Selena willingly works in the industry, models’ tales of manipulation, but threats and coercion into having sex with clients in person are increasingly common.
While cam studios say they strictly forbid ‘meet-ups’, cam girls say the practice is widespread.
Arya (not her real name) started working as a cam girl with a registered studio on her 18th birthday. At first, she was making good money, but soon the studio started to cut into her earnings.
Then the studio manager made her a proposition: to meet with a client at a hotel.
“He was suggesting having sex with clients. He would take a cut because this is what my colleagues that make a lot of money actually do,” she told Dateline. “It was pimping by the book.”
Andrew Tate charges exposing the industry
In addition to cam model testimonies like these, there’s fresh scrutiny on Romania’s sex cam industry.
In 2022 Tate was arrested at his home in Bucharest, accused of forming a criminal group to commit human trafficking.
The brothers now face 21 charges of rape, assault and trafficking in the United Kingdom, with the accusations dating back to between 2012 to 2015.
In Romania, they face separate allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.
Both men, who hold dual British and United States nationality, have denied all charges against them in both the UK and Romania.
Tate, 38, has bragged in the past about how he conducted his webcam sex business in Romania, saying he used to be the the person behind the keyboard chatting with clients.
“We had two girls on camera with a keyboard that wasn’t plugged in doing this [pretends to type] and I was behind the screen talking to the dudes saying the right things and start dragging money out the internet, and that was kind of the beginning of the cam empire,” he told one podcast.
“I had 75 women working for me in four locations, and I was doing US$600,000 [around $925,000] a month.”
None of the women Dateline spoke to know Tate or his case.
Social media influencer Andrew Tate arrives for questioning at the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) headquarters in Bucharest, Romania in 2023. Source: AAP, EPA / Robert Ghement
‘Men know what men want’
Romania’s tax authority, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, has suggested there are now around 5,000 registered cam studios across the country, employing as many as 400,000 women.
While many studios operate legally, advertise publicly and pay models taxes, Romania’s webcam industry remains unregulated and has faced allegations of sexual exploitation.
Sassy is a studio in Bucharest with clients from all over the world that seems to have copied Tate’s business model of hiring men to chat with clients who believe they’re conversing directly with cam girls.
The model pretends to type back to the client while receiving directions from the male chatter.
Sassy Studio Chatter Mihai Alexandru Gherghe says the strategy makes sense.
“Basically, men know what men want,” he told Dateline.
Many illegal, unregistered cam studios in Romania can be run from nondescript apartment blocks, registered as different businesses like photo studios or online PR companies. Source: SBS / Dateline
Mihai said that Sassy does not force models to do things they don’t want to do, but they must understand the financial consequences of saying no.
“You lose money because maybe he could spend $2,000 in a day. You have to choose.”
He admits that he has big-spending clients who request to meet up with girls in real life.
“I have a guy who I speak to for 12 years and spend a lot of money … he takes maybe five or six girls and bring them to Dubai.”
Links between webcamming and sex trafficking
Human rights lawyer Silvia Maria Tăbușcă fears the connection between webcamming and human trafficking extends far beyond the case of Andrew and Tristan Tate.
“It’s clear that we have a challenge related to human trafficking in general. We cannot really understand at this moment the real dimension, because we haven’t looked into this until now. [But] we do believe that if you look into something, you really find the problem,” she told Dateline.
Dr. Silvia Maria Tăbușcă is a leading human rights lawyer fighting against human trafficking in Romania. Source: SBS / Dateline
According to the latest Trafficking in Persons Report from the US Government, Romania is a primary source country for victims of sex trafficking in Europe.
Romania’s National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons, which is responsible for monitoring cases of human trafficking, confirmed to Dateline: “There is an increasing trend in the online recruitment of victims of human trafficking, and at the same time, the exploitation of some victims can also happen online, through platforms specialised in pornography.”
The agency says it’s combatting this issue through “prevention campaigns”.
On the practice of ‘meet-ups’, Tăbușcă says the difference between prostitution and trafficking is the will of the person to get involved in that activity.
“If a person is willing to prostitute herself or himself, then there is not an issue of exploitation. But if there is any kind of coercion, emotional, financial, even threats, there we can look into this situation as a specific case of exploitation and potential human trafficking case.”
It’s clear that we have a challenge related to human trafficking in general.
Silvia Maria Tăbușcă
Tăbușcă has worked with prosecutors on several trafficking cases involving camming studios.
In one case, she says two Romanian cam girls were threatened and blackmailed into meeting with clients in person and trafficked internationally.
“[They] attended a party in Dubai with businesspersons. [The clients] paid 100,000 euros ($163,000) for each of them for a week to spend with them in this party, and [the girls] have to perform everything that is requested of them.”
“One of the girls was asked to have sex with a camel. And she didn’t want to perform that request. So she was very violently beaten by the participants.”
Cam models and human trafficking experts are now calling for greater regulation of the industry.
But beyond the trial of the Tate brothers, it remains a blind spot for both Romania’s politicians and police.
“It’s possible that the decision-makers, the politicians, they do not really understand how large the dimension of this phenomenon is in Romania,” says Tăbușcă.
“There is no political will in Romania to change the legislation in order to really fight against this phenomenon.”
Arya agrees looking after the girls is not the priority of many studios.
“I think the people who have the money to open studios and do this business are not interested in our safety, they’re interested in the business part of making money off of you.”
“It’s horrible to be the model. It’s amazing to be the manager.”
An earlier version of this article was published in May 2024.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732, or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
