Legislating P4P

The Online Safety Bil l was published on 12 May 2021 with the stated aim of cracking down on harmful content online. A clause has now been added to the bill to include the offence of inciting or controlling prostitution for gain as one of the priority offences that tech companies have to look out for -- firms would then be obliged to remove any content from their platforms that could be construed as committing this offence.

This would be disastrous for sex workers as it would undoubtably lead to advertising platforms clamping down on sex workers' advertisements.in order to avoid any chance of being prosecuted -- essentially criminalising the online advertising of sex work.

Controlling prostitution for gain is interpreted very widely in the criminal courts. Some women in the ECP have been prosecuted under this offence just for helping a friend build a website or place an advert. Our experience shows that in any crackdown like this, migrant and women of colour are particularly targeted.

Research shows that online advertising has enabled sex workers to work more safely and independently from exploitative bosses, to screen clients and have more control over our working conditions. Preventing sex workers from advertising will increase violence and the risk of attack. Similar legislation (SESTA/FOSTA) was passed into law by Trump in the US in 2018 resulting in an increase in poverty, insecure housing, suicide, murder, isolation, and the deterioration of physical and mental health for sex workers.

National Ugly Mugs (NUM) is a pioneering, national organisation that provides greater access to justice and protection for sex workers. It has just released a report showing that the move to cashless payments is allowing financial institutions to ban sex workers from being able to make a living.

This report, lead by Tess Herrmann and supported by Dr. Scarlett Redman, explores the experiences of sex workers accessing financial services.

The stigma of sex work has a significant impact on the ability of sex workers to access basic financial services, which in turn impacts their ability to fully participate in society. It is vital that financial institutions end their practices of discriminating against sex workers for the sake of safety, inclusion and support.

Key findings:

• There is evidence of financial discrimination against sex workers from various UK-based banks and financial institutions. This includes
  the refusal of services, such as business accounts, overdrafts and loans, and other financial products. In some cases, even the personal bank accounts of sex workers were shut down or frozen.
• With increasing digitalisation of payment streams and the gradual move towards a cashless society, more sex workers rely on financial products that they are unable to access due to financial discrimination. As a result, many are forced to lie to financial institutions and state authorities about their business and prevented from filing their taxes correctly and even complying with UK regulations of the sex industry.
• Sex workers have developed different strategies to deal with financial discrimination which in most cases involve either hiding or lying about their engagement in the sex industry or avoiding certain banks and institutions altogether, resulting in an exclusion from large parts of the financial market, including many investment products, the housing market, and retiring funds.
• Experiencing financial discrimination has a significant negative impact on the mental health of sex workers with extreme anxiety, depression, and feeling excluded being reported most frequently.
• The anti-sex worker bias of many financial organisations has wider implications for the working conditions of sex workers as a small number of international financial institutions hold significant power in online markets, including various platforms that sex workers are using to distribute their content.