With FOSTA/SESTA already proving to be damaging in the US, why is the UK looking to push through similar legislation?Photoa via VICE UK”Decriminalise sex work, for safety’s sake.”This was one of many slogans being hurled at the House of Commons Wednesday afternoon, by a roughly 200-strong collection of sex workers and activists. They’ve come out […]
The MPs said they understood the sex workers’ views, but that their priority is to protect the most vulnerable. A group of MPs are pushing the government to do more to crack down on exploitation in sex work, and have said that online adverts for sex work should be banned. However, sex workers have said […]
A cross-party group of MPs says the owners of such sites “directly and knowingly” profit from sex-trafficking and wants the Home Office to intervene.The group adds that a small number of sites “dominate the marketplace” and have named two in particular: Vivastreet and Adultwork.But sex-worker-rights campaigners say the proposal would be “a disaster”.Three organisations – the […]
Sex workers today join with other feminists and human rights activists to voice their opposition to a Trump-inspired ‘anti-trafficking’ law – the US version is known as SESTA/FOSTA (1) – ahead of a debate on mirroring them in the UK, which will be held in the House of Commons on Wednesday (2). The proposed legislation […]
Stop attacking sex workers. Listen to what sex workers say would make our work safer & support us in our efforts to organise against exploitation and violence.On Wednesday 4 July, MPs are due to debate a proposal from the discredited All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution (APPGP) to close down online sites where sex workers […]
As is already happening in the US, vital websites for sex workers could be shut down by laws aimed at curbing trafficking.In the early 1990s, BT began cutting off the landlines of sex workers who advertised in telephone boxes. The cards, often put up by young people or pensioners for a fee, allowed women to […]
In 2015, a woman working for an NHS Trust was forced to resign under threat of immediate dismissal for “behaving in a manner that would not be acceptable in any situation” and “bringing the Trust into disrepute” following allegations that she advertised services on adult websites. Ms Molloy was a dedicated employee of the Trust […]
Banning ads will put sex workers at risk. An organisation of sex workers is opposing a private members bill which aims to ban the advertising of sexual services, on the grounds that it would push sex workers out of premises and into greater danger and and/or into the hands of exploitative employers. The Advertising of Prostitution […]
Briefing against the Advertising of Prostitution (Prohibition) Bill [HL], a private member’s bill introduced by Lord McColl of DulwichWe strongly oppose the bill which aims to “make it an offence to publish, or distribute, an advertisement of a brothel or the services of a prostitute”. We urge peers to do the same.Preventing sex workers from […]