As Lily Philips plans her next extreme challenge, experts uncover what’s driving the trend and raise the alarm on potential consequences for creators and consumers
Experts have raised the alarm for Lily Philips after a mass outcry for better safeguarding on adult platforms.
The 23-year-old adult star sent the internet into a frenzy after sleeping with 101 men in a day, all in the name of creating content on OnlyFans. Fears quickly grew for Lily’s welfare as a YouTube documentary showed the star in tears as she recounted the toll of such an extreme event.
Visibly emotional, Lily says in the film: “It’s not for the weak girls, if I’m honest – it was hard. I don’t know if I’d recommend it.” While Lily has since insisted that her mental and physical wellbeing is “really good” after the ‘challenge’, it has left fellow adult content creators fearful of an industry where more and more is expected of stars, as they face pressure to compromise on their boundaries.
Derbyshire-born Lily first started making x-rated content as a student at Sheffield University. What started out as a way of earning drinks money quickly turned into a lucrative career, with Lily now sitting on a £2 million fortune.
And as her career continues to soar, the star is planning to take on even more extreme challenges. She is now aiming to sleep with 1,000 men in one day next month, in an attempt to break a world record. But where is this rapidly expanding appetite for extreme adult content coming from? And what are the potential consequences for models involved, and for those consuming the content?
Experts warn that the current online landscape favours viral content, which encourages creators to go to great lengths to succeed in reaching mass audiences.
And as these extreme OnlyFans ‘challenges’ continue to go viral, there are grave fears that impressionable young people are getting a warped idea of what sex and relationships actually involve. Lily herself raised this issue in a recent documentary, remarking that some subscribers may be expecting certain things from women that don’t necessarily reflect real life.
Health psychologist Jo Rodriguez, from Straightforward Psychology, told The Mirror that younger “brains are not adaptive enough to recognise actually that’s not the real world”. She warned: “It’s a version of reality that is given to you in the context of the situation. These young people, they see this, they expect this to be what relationships are like. How women are or what men are like, and then believe that they need to fit these roles. […] It can create all sorts of problems for both men and women, because it is not an accurate.
Experts warn that the current online landscape favours viral content, which encourages creators to go to great lengths to succeed in reaching mass audiences.
And as these extreme OnlyFans ‘challenges’ continue to go viral, there are grave fears that impressionable young people are getting a warped idea of what sex and relationships actually involve. Lily herself raised this issue in a recent documentary, remarking that some subscribers may be expecting certain things from women that don’t necessarily reflect real life.
Health psychologist Jo Rodriguez, from Straightforward Psychology, told The Mirror that younger “brains are not adaptive enough to recognise actually that’s not the real world”. She warned: “It’s a version of reality that is given to you in the context of the situation. These young people, they see this, they expect this to be what relationships are like. How women are or what men are like, and then believe that they need to fit these roles. […] It can create all sorts of problems for both men and women, because it is not an accurate
Jo explained: “They get taken along on the dopamine of it. It gives you an extreme high, and sometimes that affects our judgement and our decision-making. When we’re experiencing intense highs, we don’t see situations as we would if we’re calm and not having those dopamine hits. So it makes us much more impulsive. Then when we’re acting on impulse, our inhibitions are much lower, and we do things that, with hindsight, we’re like, ‘Why on Earth did I do that?’ Then you have also deal with sort of the shame of the situation and the consequences of it.”
The greatest concern has been expressed towards Lily, who was seen looking tearful at the end of the documentary as she admitted the experience had been much more “intense” than she’d anticipated. For Jo, Lily’s young age is of concern given that a person’s pre-frontal cortex – the rational part of the human brain – doesn’t develop until around the mid to late twenties.
Given that she is still just 23, Jo believes Lily may see things quite differently in a few years’ time, and the consequences could be “really big”. She explained: “At the age of 23, your brain isn’t fully developed yet, so your emotional sensor is developed, but your prefrontal cortex isn’t, which is the part of your brain responsible for decision-making and rational thinking.
Jo warned: “So it’s something that she could definitely regret later in life and could have repercussions for her later life that she isn’t aware of right now. And I think you can understand why she’s doing it and the reasons behind it. But I think the consequences for her could potentially be quite big.”
In response to the widespread concern about her welfare, Lily recently told the Daily Star: “I mean obviously I was quite emotional [in the documentary] and just very, very overwhelmed. But, yes, my mental wellbeing is really good and physical health is really good.
“The thing is, I’m not a victim, so I don’t deserve this sympathy. I would much rather people put their efforts into someone who’s an actual victim. And so it just makes me feel a little bit sad because I feel like I’m taking a lot of energy away from someone who actually needs help.”
Lily has previously described her extreme stunts as her “fantasy”, but this hasn’t stopped some from worrying about the emotional toll they may eventually take. Speaking with the Mirror, transformation coach Jessica Cunningham, who runs Belief Coding after enduring her own personal traumas, shed some light on what could motivate a person to pursue such extreme content making endeavours.
Jessica said: “From a behavioural psychology standpoint, such actions often originate from underlying feelings of unworthiness, a need for external validation, and a deep desire for love and acceptance. In my experience working with individuals in similar circumstances, such as those in the adult entertainment industry, there is often a perception that their choices are driven by empowerment and confidence. However, upon deeper exploration, it frequently becomes apparent that these actions are rooted in a lack of understanding or appreciation of their own self-worth.”
She added: “Regarding Lily’s case, while I cannot speak definitively about her motives, it is possible that her decision to pursue such a goal stems from similar underlying factors. Without judgment, I would suggest that if she were to engage in self-reflection and inner work, she might uncover feelings of inadequacy and a longing for genuine love and connection. What may appear outwardly as confidence and empowerment could, in fact, be a mask for deeper emotional vulnerabilities.”
She explained: “In terms of the trends developing, there are always concerns that these can become quite dangerous.. And when I say dangerous, I mean in terms of security and safety. More personal information is being shared. I know that in the documentary there was a conversation around personal commissioning for videos. One-to-one videos, and so on.
“And it’s ensuring that, if this is participated in, what level of detail is being shared? Is there still a safety barrier between the creator and the person who is purchasing that video or any type of content for that person? Or are they sharing personal details with a person online that they’ve never met, and it could put them at risk in the future?”
A number of those who watched the controversial documentary, which followed Lily as she embarked on her 100-men stunt, were concerned to see that male participants didn’t undergo criminal record checks. Although Lily has clarified that all men involved had to wear protection and undergo instant HIV tests, viewers were left worried about Lily’s lack of understanding of STIs, with the model expressing confusion about how exactly HIV is spread from person to person. She has since said that she was “naive” to not vet participants for past sexual offenses.
This comes as OnlyFans faces serious scrutiny for facilitating extreme content, with industry professionals sounding the alarm on the intensifying pressures now placed on creators to make content with shock value. Online critics are now even calling for the platform to be banned as more stars push boundaries to attract and maintain subscribers, with seemingly very little in the way of safeguarding. The Mirror has put these concerns to OnlyFans and has asked for clarity on their safeguarding measures with no response.
