IS The Internet Making Prostitution Safer

[animalia]

The Economist says that the internet is making prostitution safer www.economist.com/news/leaders/21611063-intern
et-making-buying-and-selling-sex-easier-and-safer-governments-should-stop

Exactly what is your link meant to link to?......

Safer for pimps and madams, undoubtedly.

What it really does is takes prostitution out of areas where people can see it and report crimes. I'm going to bet that what the internet has ACTUALLY done is made it easier to get away with killing prostitutes--easier to simply disappear them into nothingness, runaway girls and poor women disappear without a trace all the time.

You have to wonder who are the prostitutes these studies and reports are talking about. Have they talked to some 14 year old girl trafficked from Moldova and kept in a locked room to which she doesn't have the key? Have they talked to a homeless, bipolar, drug-addicted prostitute who doesn't have internet access, the money to advertise or a suitable place to receive 'clients'? They seem to be talking about the small minority of prostitutes who are vocal and visible.

Not really, I wouldn't think. Until men stop believing themselves to have a right to buy the use of women's bodies nothing about prostitution is safe, nor will it ever be.

I can't imagine how

No, absolutely not. When a prostitute is in a room with a punter she is with a very dangerous man. Most of the time he will just rape her, but every now and again he will do that and something else, like steal from her, beat her or humiliate her. The fact that the client has booked through the internet doesn't change the fact that he's a punter - a man who places a monetary value on the use of someone else's body, because he doesn't see that someone else as a person at all. The potential for violence is still there.

I don't know why the link isn't working, Mumsnet cuts it off, perhaps I am doing something wrong. The title of the article is Prostitution: A Personal Choice. It appears in The Economist and searching for it using these details should bring up the correct link on Google.

I suppose the Internet allows women to operate from a premises rather than walking the streets, getting into cars , so in that way it's safer.

I guess social media also allows women to share information on problem clients.

There are quite a few articles on the economics of prostitution and it seems the Internet is driving prices down - which is not good for prostitutes.

WhentheRed: Don't the women who operate on the streets charge much lower prices than those who escort or work in parlours. From my limited knowledge of the subject street prostitutes are far more likely to have a drug habit than indoor workers, experience more chaotic lives and not, in general be able to work indoors. If this is correct (that the prices are much lower on the street) then perhaps this explains why a certain kind of punter (those with less money one assumes) go to those who work at street level.

I doubt that the Internet is making prostitution safer for the reasons outlined by other posters here; prostitutes and the men that pay for them will continue to meet in person and that power imbalance is likely to lead to her being abused in some way. I started another thread about the article earlier somewhere (will link if I can work out how to do it). There are no hard facts about safety, as far as I can see, only vile 'data' from sites like PunterNet plus some 'happy hooker' anecdotes about what a terrific career it is.
I genuinely hope that the article's prophesy of many more women entering prostitution thanks to the shiny happy internet is unlikely to come true.

Here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/2154534-Economist-article-The-Sex-Business

Interestingly, The Economist didn't publish any letters in response to this article (despite the fact it was the lead in the print edition and was plastered all over the front cover) in the following week's edition.