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Over one-third of young adults in the United States report having provided in-person sexual acts or virtual sexual materials for financial compensation, according to a nationally representative survey published in The Journal of Sex Research. That 36% lifetime rate is more than four times the 8.3% rate captured by a traditional single question asked in the same survey, encompassing digital and physical exchanges ranging from consensual work to coerced exploitation. Young people reporting these exchanges also faced elevated rates of trauma, mental health struggles, and substance misuse.
Providing sexual acts or materials for financial compensation covers both physical encounters and digital exchanges provided for money or other payment. Physical forms include vaginal, oral, or anal sex, sexual touching, exotic dancing, and paid companionship, while virtual forms include sexting, phone sex, explicit photos or videos, and online companionship.
Measuring how often young people participate in these exchanges has been difficult because social stigma discourages disclosure and most large surveys rely on a single blunt question. For example, a 2016 national survey of U.S. adolescents and young adults asked a single question about trading sex for money, drugs, food, or shelter and estimated that roughly 5% had done so.
Single-question surveys overlook online platforms where young people sell explicit photos, videos, or messages without physical contact. Although virtual exchanges may avoid some physical risks like sexually transmitted infections, the authors note they are still linked to stalking, harassment, nonconsensual image sharing, and doxing, the malicious posting of private identifying information online. A single question also cannot separate voluntary work from financial need or coercion.
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Survey research on other sensitive topics indicates that asking multiple questions about concrete behaviors without loaded labels helps respondents report stigmatized experiences more accurately. Using that approach, two of the new study’s authors, Lara Gerassi and Kate Walsh, helped develop and test a 10-item questionnaire in a 2024 study of university students, showing that listing specific online and physical acts detected more paid sexual exchanges than a single broad question.
Applying that tool on college campuses turned up higher numbers than the 2.0% to 4.5% found in earlier single-question campus surveys, with a 2025 survey of 900 Midwestern university students by two of the same authors finding that nearly 16% had provided sexual acts or materials for pay. Because college students are less racially and economically diverse than young adults nationwide, Gerassi, of the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her colleagues examined a nationally representative sample.
In April 2026, the team surveyed English-speaking U.S. adults aged 18 to 34 online, using an analysis plan that was preregistered, meaning formally recorded before data collection. Most respondents came from AmeriSpeak, a household panel recruited through random mail, phone, and in-person outreach covering 97% of the U.S. population, supplemented with an opt-in sample from Cint. Statistical weights aligned the combined sample with U.S. young adult demographics.
The researchers excluded incomplete or rushed surveys, repetitive answer patterns, and nonsensical text, and corrected 21 records where comments showed respondents had mistakenly reported unpaid sexual behavior. The final sample of 2,935 young adults had an average age of 27.6; roughly half identified as women and non-Hispanic white, and about three-quarters identified as heterosexual and employed.
Participants completed a 10-item index covering four virtual acts (sexting or phone sex, sending or posting sexual photos, filming oneself, or online companionship) and six in-person acts (sexual touching, oral, vaginal, or anal sex, in-person companionship, or erotic dancing and stripping) provided for pay. Respondents who said yes answered follow-up questions on starting age, coercion, reasons, and consequences, and everyone answered the traditional single question on exchanging sex for drugs or money.
All participants completed brief standardized screenings for recent depression symptoms, past-month post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among trauma survivors, and problematic alcohol and drug use. Additional measures captured adverse childhood experiences before age 18, rape victimization after age 14, everyday discrimination, and social support from family and friends.
Across the weighted national sample, 36% of young adults reported providing at least one sexual act or material for financial compensation in their lifetimes, versus 8.3% on the single question about exchanging sex for drugs or money. Overall, 28% had provided virtual sexual materials or services for pay, and 26% had provided in-person sexual acts for pay.
Among the 1,142 participants reporting any compensated sexual exchange, 56% engaged in both virtual and in-person forms, 23% virtual only, and 21% in-person only. Across the full sample, paid sexting or phone sex was most common at 22%, while erotic dancing or stripping was least common at 5.8%.
Prevalence differed across identity groups, though male and female sex differences were not statistically significant. Cisgender women (whose gender aligns with their sex assigned at birth) and transgender and nonbinary young adults reported higher rates than cisgender men, bisexual and other sexual minority respondents exceeded straight peers, and non-Hispanic Black participants reported higher rates than non-Hispanic white and Asian participants.
Education, income, employment, and parenthood also tracked with higher rates. Participants with a high school education or less (compared with college graduates), part-time college students, parents, households earning $60,000 or less, and people who were self-employed or unable to work because of a disability reported higher rates, though overall disability status was not statistically significant.
Responses from those with compensated sexual experience pointed to wide variation in age of entry and coercion. About 22% started before age 18, while 75% began as adults. Nearly two-thirds (65.5%) reported experiencing force or coercion to provide sexual acts or materials at some point, including 85% of those who started as minors; meanwhile, 83% of participants who never experienced coercion began as adults.
When selecting reasons for participating, roughly four in 10 respondents cited wanting to please someone (39.7%), seeking pleasure or fantasies (38.5%), or paying for living expenses (38.3%). Many also cited wanting spending money, personal empowerment, paying off debt, or supporting family.
Far fewer participants listed feeling pressured (23.5%) or being physically forced (15.2%) as a reason for participating than the 65.5% who reported experiencing coercion at some point, and the paper does not detail how broadly the coercion item was worded.
Reported consequences showed both emotional harm and practical financial relief. Common negative experiences included guilt or shame (40.3%) and feeling objectified or sexualized (33.9%), along with lowered self-esteem, emotional abuse, unwanted sexual contact, stalking, scams, and doxing. At the same time, many used the income to pay down debt (32.1%) or cover housing, education, or healthcare (30.0%), and roughly a quarter reported identity discovery or higher self-esteem.
After adjusting for gender, race, and household income, young adults who had provided sexual acts or materials for compensation showed substantially worse mental health than peers who had not. They had about twice the odds of screening positive for depression, roughly three to four times the odds for PTSD symptoms and problematic drinking, and nearly six times the odds of problematic drug use.
In those adjusted models, participants with a history of paid sexual exchanges also had about five times the odds of reporting rape victimization after age 14 and reported nearly twice as many adverse childhood experiences on average. They experienced more frequent everyday discrimination and lower social support from family and friends as well.
The authors suggest that the 36% lifetime estimate reflects both behavior-specific questions, which detect exchanges people may not label as trading sex, and internet platforms that lower barriers to entry. They also propose that elevated rates among Black, transgender, sexual minority, and lower-income young adults may reflect systemic discrimination, family rejection, and economic obstacles limiting conventional jobs.
In the researchers’ reading, consensual sex work and sex trafficking should not be conflated, yet both sit along a spectrum of agency and victimization. Minors and coerced adults providing paid sexual acts or materials may qualify as trafficking victims under federal law, especially for in-person acts, whereas uncoerced adults often participate consensually to pay bills or explore their sexuality. The authors propose harm-reduction approaches, which aim to lower risks without requiring people to stop, alongside updated clinical screenings for virtual platforms and stronger economic safety nets.
There are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting these results. Because data were collected at one point in time, the survey cannot establish whether depression, PTSD, substance misuse, or sexual assault preceded compensated sexual exchanges, resulted from them, or stemmed from shared hardships like poverty and childhood trauma. The 36% lifetime figure also combines experiences ranging from sending paid explicit messages once to ongoing sex work or coerced exploitation, and the paper does not report how often or how recently those acts occurred.
Measuring stigmatized behavior carries uncertainty in both directions: stigma may discourage disclosures, while the 21 respondents caught mistakenly reporting unpaid acts indicate a few misreadings could remain. Routing respondents to a separate university survey platform to report gender identity, alongside the current political climate, may also have discouraged some people from identifying as transgender, the authors note.
Fewer than one in 10 people contacted across all stages of panel recruitment completed the survey, and the English-only household sample likely missed unhoused or incarcerated young adults, who may be more likely to trade sex to meet basic needs. Future studies, the authors note, should use qualitative interviews and subgroup analyses to examine how starting age, online settings, and coercion shape support needs.
The study, “Prevalence of Sexual Acts and Materials Provided for Financial Compensation Among Young Adults in the United States,” was authored by Lara Gerassi, Elizabeth Inman, Cassandra Eng, and Kate Walsh.
