Online Sex Ads Reduced Violence Against Women
Researchers show way for less violence with sex work.
Safer Streets for North Seattle.
The recent surge in gun violence and associated streetwalking prostitution in North Seattle is the result of federal law and prosecutions pushing prostitution from online onto the black market — leaving the most vulnerable exploited, while threatening communities surrounding Aurora Avenue. Academic research shows how sex workers gained safety benefits from online advertising and apps. Selling sex was still illegal, however, evidence suggests the online platforms resulted in more safety for practitioners of the “World’s Oldest Profession”.
The federal government passed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), in early 2018 to strip online advertising platforms of their Communications Decency Act (CDA) legal immunity, if they knowingly or recklessly facilitate sex trafficking.
Civil lawsuits were targeting Backpage, which was the largest online sex advertising site in the world at the time, for years prior to FOSTA’s passage.
Plaintiffs in various states alleged Backpage actively helped formulate and promote ads that sold them, including minors, into sex trafficking. There was one case in Washington in 2014 involving child sex trafficking and Backpage.
Court’s consistently dismissed cases under the CDA immunity.
Considering the accounts of horrific abuse, Congress then changed CDA immunity rules through FOSTA. Federal and state cases against Backpages were high profile prosecutions and convictions, resulting in the chilling of online sex service ads.
Sex traffickers, who were coercing adults and children into servitude, used Backpages to advertise. Independent sex workers were also using online ads to sell their services. Either way, after FOSTA, the sex business was pushed back onto the streets.
Research
Cunningham, Angelo and Tripp , in a February 2019 paper, Craigslist Reduced Violence Against Women, provide an empirical assessment of the internet and prostitution before FOSTA.
The paper cites previous research statistics, “Street prostitution has historically been considered the most dangerous market segment for sex services with a death by homicide rate over 13 times higher than the general population.”
The Cunningham paper looks at technology beyond just online advertising like Craigslist or Backpages. The researchers also consider apps they describe as a “Clearinghouse”. These apps resemble other interfaces like takeout food delivery and ride sharing services.
The paper states,
“Online clearinghouse [apps] have the potential to improve safety by redirecting exchange through the clearinghouse and replacing more risky outdoor face-to-face transactions and/or other intermediaries (e.g., pimps) with indoor, direct transactions. Matching [of seller and buyer] online through the clearinghouse enables both sides of the market to discern the quality of the match ex ante , through such activities as informal screening , circulated Black Lists [Good and Bad customers] and online reviews . This may provide the ability for sex workers to identify and screen out violent clients, law enforcement and scammers.” [My emphasis.]
The researchers make the following points regarding the online sex business before FOSTA:
- Sex workers worked more independently.
- More efficient matching [of seller and buyer] may lead to repeat business with low-risk clients, thereby making the market lower risk to sellers.
- The introduction of [online advertising] may have caused outdoor street-based prostitution to transition to the safer, indoor channel.
- The decline in female murders can be at least partially explained by more efficient matching, growth in repeat business and the transition of outdoor sex workers to indoor venues.
Human exploitation must be prohibited. On the other hand, a willing adult selling sex to a buyer is old fashioned prostitution. Other states and countries have legal means to accommodate this age-old reality.
We need to consider law enforcement structures protecting willing sellers along with the vulnerable. Research reveals how to accommodate transactional sex between willing adults which could result in less exploitation and violence.
Technology has a role to play in the discussion with creating a legal framework for sex work as a way to solve the lack of public safety around Seattle’s North Aurora Avenue, while reducing harm in general.
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