18 U.S.C. § 2257 and § 2257A Exemption Statement

1. What the statute covers

Section 2257 requires any person who "produces" a visual depiction of actual sexually explicit conduct, as that conduct is defined in 18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A), to create and maintain records establishing the age and identity of every performer, and to affix a statement describing where those records are kept. Section 2257A extends a lighter version of the duty to depictions of simulated sexually explicit conduct and certain lascivious exhibition. The duty is triggered by two conditions together: the material must depict sexually explicit conduct, and the person must be a "producer" within the meaning of the statute and 28 C.F.R. § 75.1(c).

Neither condition is met on the Service.

2. The Service does not display sexually explicit material

SpicyCreator is a search engine and directory. Each listing consists of a creator's publicly visible display name and handle, bio text, categories and tags, publicly listed prices, public statistics and the non-explicit profile and header imagery that the creator has chosen to make visible to anyone on the source platform. We apply a strict non-explicit imagery policy: material depicting conduct listed in 18 U.S.C. § 2256(2)(A)(i) through (v) is excluded from display, and imagery that nevertheless slips through our filtering is removed as soon as it is identified (see Section 6).

Because the Service does not contain visual depictions of actual or simulated sexually explicit conduct, there is nothing on it to which the record-keeping requirements of §§ 2257 or 2257A can attach. The same is true of any imagery that is produced by or for SpicyCreator itself: such imagery is non-explicit by design and falls outside the scope of the statute.

3. SpicyCreator is not a producer

Independently of Section 2, SpicyCreator is not a "producer" of any visual depiction that may appear on or be reachable through the Service, whether as a "primary producer" or a "secondary producer" as those terms are defined in 28 C.F.R. § 75.1(c). We do not film, photograph, record, digitise, hire, contract for, manage, direct, sponsor or otherwise arrange for the creation of any depiction of sexually explicit conduct, and we do not insert such depictions on a computer site or service for sale or transfer.

Our role with respect to third-party material is limited to indexing, categorising and linking to information that creators have already published on independent platforms. To the extent any provision of §§ 2257 or 2257A could be argued to reach that activity, we rely on the exclusions in 18 U.S.C. § 2257(h)(2)(B), including those for the distribution of material and for the transmission, storage, retrieval, hosting and formatting of communications created by others, and on the corresponding exclusions in 28 C.F.R. § 75.1(c)(4).

4. Where the records are kept

All records required under 18 U.S.C. §§ 2257 and 2257A and 28 C.F.R. Part 75 in respect of any third-party content are created and maintained by the original producers of that content and by the platforms on which it was first published. Requests to inspect records relating to a particular depiction should therefore be addressed to the custodian of records designated by the relevant producer or platform.

For creators whose listings originate from OnlyFans, the applicable custodian of records is designated by Fenix International Limited on its own compliance pages at onlyfans.com. SpicyCreator is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by OnlyFans or Fenix International Limited, and "OnlyFans" is used on the Service only to identify the platform on which a creator publishes.

5. Age of the persons shown

The Service indexes profiles only from platforms whose terms require every creator to be at least 18 years old and to pass identity and age verification before publishing. We operate on the footing that every person appearing in any indexed imagery was an adult at the time the imagery was created, and we do not knowingly index, display or link to any depiction of a minor.

6. Reporting a concern

If you believe that any material indexed on the Service depicts a person under 18, or contains sexually explicit content that has evaded our filtering, report it immediately to [email protected] with the subject line "Urgent: 2257 / minor" and the exact URL(s) on spicycreator.com. Such reports take precedence over all other requests. Upon a reasonable belief that a report is well founded we remove the material without waiting for certainty, add it to our suppression list so that it cannot be re-indexed, preserve related records, report apparent child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children where required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A, and cooperate with law enforcement.

Other removal requests, including copyright notices, creator delisting and reports of non-consensual intimate imagery, follow the procedures in our DMCA & Content Removal Policy.

7. Reservation

This statement is provided for information and transparency. It is not an admission that SpicyCreator or the Service is subject to 18 U.S.C. §§ 2257 or 2257A or to 28 C.F.R. Part 75, and it does not waive any exemption, exclusion or defence available to us under those or any other provisions. We may update this statement from time to time; the current version and its "Last updated" date are always shown on this page. This statement forms part of our Terms of Service.

8. Contact

Statutory text: 18 U.S.C. § 2257 · 18 U.S.C. § 2257A · 28 C.F.R. Part 75