Apparently bill just passed so got knows what it means for escort advertising sites and personal escort websites!

I’m very concerned now they will remove all sex worker websites. But surely they will be a way around things

For what it's worth I asked the website design person who built my site, they say the law is aimed at freely accessible social media making sure social media have measures in place to prevent young teenagers accessing harmful or pornographic content.

One question I asked is about direct custom video sales, the website designer thinks because the video has to be requested by directly corresponding with me, it's not an issue. It's not available by just browsing or scrolling. I may however add something to my t&c when I accept the order.

Hi Ladies,

I've sort of read the bill (sorry it was quite a long one so may have skipped a few parts), so far it's the government trying to control content, privacy, our online shenanigans etc.. That includes certain porn, illegal activities etc... It's pretty intrusive to be honest. It also makes directory owners liable and responsible for their stuff. As prostitution is not an illegal activity I'm not sure why this would seriously affect escort directories (unless they get hit with a trafficking lawsuit backpage style). Obvs this is going to make escort directories be really really careful from now on, which means more ID controls etc... If someone has had the patience to properly read the bill and would be so kind as to post any mention of banning online escort directories so we can all dissect it I would really appreciate. Thanks all. ana

Hello,

I can see two avenues in which they can pursue/penalise the directories:

Looking at Schedule 7 'Priority offences':

1) Sexual exploitation
23 An offence under any of the following provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003—
(a) section 52 (causing or inciting prostitution for gain);
(b) section 53 (controlling prostitution for gain).

Then the bit about child sexual exploitation and causing children to look at sexual images.



https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-03/0209/220209.pdf

Controlling prostitution for gain is pimping and doesn't apply to advertising sites; there is no control aspect. Both need to be present, as there would be with an agency or a receptionist who arranges a booking (control) and takes a cut of the proceeds (gain) for an offence to have taken place.

Causing or inciting prostitution doesn't apply either unless there are directories out there encouraging people who are not already sex workers to become sex workers (because prostitution is so great, earn £££££, etc). I've never seen this, just them trying to pitch advertising at people who are already working - I think we're been accused of it a few times by the hard-of-reading, until we've pointed out that the site is for people who are already starting or considering starting sex work (and therefore have already decided for themselves).

Nobody is going to be able to make that one stick on an advertising site, and I can't see how a website can sexually exploit anybody either (as opposed to providing a platform for someone who does, but that's like blaming Autotrader if you buy a second hand car that turns out to be a shitheap).

Hi Amy.

Can't those idiots pick on the fact that both AW and Viva charge workers for advertising/display numbers/local featuring and can't this be construed as benefitting from their prostitution?

Also not sure how can directories prevent content/whole site being viewed by children unless they make punters age-verify and provide their IDs, and we all know that making them do this, and making them potentially compromise their privacy, is not going to be successful. We have seen what happened when they tried restricting viewing phone numbers only to punters with an account - inquiries reduced significantly.

Also there's no 100% foolproof way to prevent trafficking victims being advertised, surely despite the mechanisms and hoops to jump thru, AW isn't able to completely prevent this from happening.

Can't those idiots pick on the fact that both AW and Viva charge workers for advertising/display numbers/local featuring and can't this be construed as benefitting from their prostitution?

As my post says, benefitting (gaining) from prostitution is not an offence; they need to also be controlling it which they are not doing. I don't really know any other way to word it than I already have.

Also not sure how can directories prevent content/whole site being viewed by children unless they make punters age-verify and provide their IDs, and we all know that making them do this, and making them potentially compromise their privacy, is not going to be successful. We have seen what happened when they tried restricting viewing phone numbers only to punters with an account - inquiries reduced significantly.

I was under the impression that AW already did use age verification for looking at pay galleries and so on which is why all adult pictures are supposed to be paywalled now; they were certainly going to (by credit card, I think), so I have no idea what happened to that. I can't see why anybody would need to show ID to do this either, nor how this would stop any underage person determined to look at it to borrow their parents documents. Adultwork isn't a site I'm an expert on though to be fair, and I've no interest in posting/selling porn pics - I'd guess that a few 3rd party verification facilities would spring up.

Also there's no 100% foolproof way to prevent trafficking victims being advertised, surely despite the mechanisms and hoops to jump thru, AW isn't able to completely prevent this from happening.

Of course there isn't, but catching people traffickers is a matter for the authorities, not the fuckwits at Vivastreet and the like. It's a shit website, but it isn't their job to find criminals any more than a supermarket is responsible for finding trafficked farm workers when they decide where to order their produce. If people are hellbent on breaking the law then they'll find a way to do it.

But you need to understand that it's not just about banning sites, it's not that central issue, the problem is that there are many girls being truly exploited here and we don't even know it.

In Spain when they banned prostitution, they blocked several websites too, they closed many houses, it was crazy, maybe it's not part of our reality, but there are a lot of girls doing slave labor and they don't even know it and the pimps still say they are helping the girls.

Maybe that's why they're making these little bans.

Spain hasn't "banned prostitution"

Today I received this email from the AW, it seems they have started moderating the aw profiles for 0nline Safety  Bill...

Note: This message emailed to you on 12/10/2023 at 15:23.

Hello......

Whilst checking your profile pictures we noticed that one or more of your recent uploads do not meet the requirements for 'Adult Content Certification'.

You previously stated that all of your free-to-view pictures were not unsuitable for minors and that any future uploads to these areas would also conform to the general principle of no nudity.

With Adult Content Certification turned on, your free-to-view pictures are shown to members that have not age verified, as is. As you are now uploading content that is for 'adults only', we have turned off the Adult Content Certification setting from your profile.

Please do not turn it back on without removing all inappropriate imagery from your profile and elsewhere. Members that repeatedly upload inappropriate content to a profile with Adult Content Certification turned on will leave us little option but to suspend their membership.

Thanks and regards

The AdultWork.com Team