Pornography cases increased by 20% in 2025

In total, 2,368 pornography-related criminal proceedings were initiated in the first half of this year — 1.2 times more than in the same period of the previous year.

60% of cases this year were opened under Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which concerns adult content — that’s 1,411 criminal proceedings. Compared to last year, this is 1.5 times more. Another 957 cases involve child pornography — their number slightly decreased over the year.

About 235 new adult content cases are opened every month in 2025. For comparison: in 2024 — about 137 cases per month, in 2023 — only 75 cases per month. The highest number of cases this year was recorded in: March — 375 cases, January — 355 cases. These are record highs for all years.

Currently, 96% of cases under Article 301 already have identified suspects, and 80% have been transferred to court. Under Article 301-1, suspicions have been formally issued in 89% of cases, and 85% are already under court review. On average, 85% of pornography-related cases have gone to court over the past three years.

As a reminder, in June 2025, Svitlana Dvornikova, a creator of adult content on the OnlyFans platform, published a petition on the official website of the Office of the President of Ukraine, requesting the decriminalization of producing such content. The model stated that a criminal case was opened against her under Article 301 of the Criminal Code, even though she had paid over 40 million UAH in taxes over five years of her activity.

Svitlana Dvornikova called on President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to publicly support draft law No. 12191 and help ensure it is submitted to the Verkhovna Rada as soon as possible. This draft law proposes changes to Article 301 of the Criminal Code, which is currently used to prosecute creators of adult content on platforms like OnlyFans. The law was supported by the Verkhovna Rada’s Law Enforcement Committee in December 2024.

The petition gathered the required number of signatures in less than two weeks. On July 8, 2025, the President responded to the petition and forwarded its proposals to the Verkhovna Rada.

For reference, last year, 350 OnlyFans creators declared a total income of 305 million UAH and paid 59 million UAH in taxes.