Sites advertising prostitution should be banned - inquiry

Websites advertising prostitution should be banned across the UK and Ireland, according to a report by Northern Ireland's Assembly All-Party Group on Modern Slavery and Commercial Sexual Exploitation.

'Hidden in Plain Sight: How Websites Advertising Prostitution Facilitate Sexual Exploitation in Northern Ireland' said the platforms facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Tighter regulation alone will not prevent traffickers and organised criminal groups from using online platforms to exploit vulnerable people, according to the research.

The committee which began its work in January this year, received written evidence from 15 organisations, heard oral evidence from six individuals and organisations, and analysed data from four major websites advertising prostitution in Northern Ireland.

It also considered international research and parliamentary reports examining the role of online platforms in facilitating sexual exploitation across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

In his introduction to the report, Chairperson of the inquiry Peter Martin MLA said the scale of what was found "exceeded" the fears of committee members.

"Websites advertising prostitution have become the shop window for a trade that makes a profit from selling people here in Northern Ireland," he stated.

While some websites were reported to the PSNI, the research found that platforms continued to provide a means through which people could be advertised to potential buyers.

The inquiry concluded that an outright ban is necessary to curb the sexual exploitation that websites facilitate and has called for new criminal offences targeting those who operate prostitution advertising websites and profit from their activities.

The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute carried out research into the websites.

Over 1,000 women advertised daily on one website

It found that over 1,000 women were advertised daily to sex buyers north and south of the border on just one of these websites alone.

The majority of those advertised were young, migrant women with only the most basic of English, according to SERP.

Its most recent analysis of the profiles of those advertised identified 19 out of a possible 28 indictors of trafficking and sexual exploitation in a single four-week period.

Many women were advertised as ‘independent escorts’ even when they were being directed and "heavily controlled" by the organised crime gangs who run the majority of the sex trade on the island of Ireland.

Director of SERP Ruth Breslin said the institute was very heartened by the inquiry’s recommendation that there should be a full ban on the prostitution advertising websites.

She called on the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan to "heed the call of his counterparts in Stormont" and introduce similar criminal offences as recommended in the inquiry’s report.

Ms Breslin said this, "clearly finds that the whole island of Ireland must act in unison to end sexual exploitation".