Site making it impossible for creeps to steal content

A new social media site has enabled industry-first technology that makes content impossible for creeps to screenshot and screen record.

Creeps have been blocked from screenshotting and screen recording content on paywalled site Sunroom. Picture: Instagram/sunroom.so

Online creators for the first time ever have been given protection from creeps who steal paywalled content then share it elsewhere online, with friends, or store it in personal archives.

The industry-first technology protects women and non-binary creators making money sharing content on Sunroom – a photo and video sharing app likened to a fusion of Instagram and OnlyFans.

Sunroom, founded by Aussie duo Michelle Battersby and Lucy Mort, was launched a year ago with SunBlock – technology that physically stops users from screen-shotting photos and screen recording videos.

“When my co-founder Lucy Mort and I were doing our initial user discovery, we consistently heard from women creators how much of a problem content piracy was. Creator after creator had a story of their exclusive content being leaked on Reddit and Twitter … There are subreddits dedicated to leaking paywalled content as well as stand-alone leak sites, yet no one had solved the problem,” Ms Battersby told news.com.au.

Creeps have been blocked from screenshotting and screen recording content on paywalled site Sunroom. Picture: Instagram/sunroom.so

“It seemed quite clear that it needed to be addressed and if we were going to build a space dedicated to people making money off their content, we wanted to ensure it was safe and protected on our platform.”

She added the technology helped creators as well as paying members feel more comfortable the site’s content wasn’t being shared for free elsewhere.

Sunroom differed from adult site OnlyFans in that it didn’t support “hardcore content” but did “allow conversation, education and storytelling around sex, intimacy, pleasure, motherhood and other topics that are often unfairly censored on mainstream social networks”.

Sunroom, unlike Instagram and other mainstream social media sites, also didn’t censor nipples.

“Due to our differentiators we attract a lot of sex educators, sexologists, pleasure coaches and creators who often have to self censor or dilute their knowledge online,” Ms Battersby said.

“As well as creators who have cult-like followings and want to express themselves a little more freely while being paid for it on Sunroom.”

Ms Battersby added how she felt other platforms were not as concerned for their creators as they should be.

“Candidly, and sadly, I don’t think other platforms care that much. If they wanted to solve this problem they absolutely have the money and resources to have done it by now,” she said.

“Sunroom and other platforms dedicated to exclusive paywalled content should be taking measures to safeguard it and ensure paywalls cannot be breached.”

Sunroom was hosting creators making between $4450 and $30,000 a month who share content, monetise direct messages by offering custom videos, photos, voice notes and advice, and share private posts.

Anyone trying to steal content will be told posts are protected with SunBlock. Picture: Instagram/sunroom.so

When creators sign up, they set their subscription price between $1.50 and $220 a month then begin sharing content.

“We’ve been live in the market just over a year and so motivated by the experiences creators and their members are having on Sunroom,” Ms Battersby said.

She previously led the launching of dating app, Bumble, in Australia, while her co-founder Ms Mort was previously the Lead Product Designer at Hinge.

“I was located in Australia at the time, Lucy was in Mexico but she rightfully pointed out if we were going to build in that space, LA needed to be the headquarters,” she said.

The company raised just under $5 million USD (A$7 million) from 50 per cent women angel investors and funds ahead of its launch in late 2020.

“It ended up taking us a year to launch the product, largely due to how complex SunBlock was to get right but we thought it was imperative that we persevere with that feature so we launched in February 2021.”

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