The digital world has become a perfect scenario of impunity and whitewashing of the prostitution industry. prostitutionwhich for years has seen the Internet as an opportunity to maintain and increase its activity, camouflaged in websites promoting “dating and companionship” or “massages”. This is what experts have already baptized as ‘prostitution 2.0’, in reference to this expanding niche in a network that is still poorly regulated and that, in addition, promotes the normalization of prostitution under other terms, such as “prostitution 2.0”.escorts“, “sugar babies” or “content creators”, more socially accepted.
A report published Wednesday by the Ministry of Equality warns precisely of this phenomenon, of the “digitalization of the prostitutional space” through advertisement websites that accumulate, individually, more than 38 million visits in only three months. The Internet is a much safer and more profitable way for pimps compared to traditional street prostitution.The exposure is considerably lower (hence also the risk of being sanctioned); the fact of advertising online allows them to showcase victims to a wider user base; and, consequently, the amount of “services” they get per day is much higher.
In total, the Government Delegation against Gender Violence has detected a total of 204,433 advertisements about prostitution on the Internet.through which at least 204,433 prostitution ads have been identified. 114,576 prostituted adult women, as revealed by in its first macro-study on the trafficking, sexual exploitation and prostitution of women in Spain. These figures hide the magnitude of the situation, since the researchers only inspected those web pages with the highest user traffic, which were promoted in different ways (individual offers, clubs, directories, forums, etc.).
Although some of them, according to the document, are currently inactive, as they were analyzed before entering into force. the the law of ‘only yes is yes’.which criminalized the advertising of prostitution. The report notes that there have been closures, migrations or domain changes of some websites, although others are still open and operating normally, “reinventing themselves” or using euphemisms to circumvent the new regulation.. “They are fully aware that they move on the margins of legality and, as such, to a greater or lesser extent, they are careful about the language used,” he explains.
More than 100 million visits
Still, only from June to September, all the platforms analyzed totaled nearly 100 million visits, of which almost 40% came from a single page. These offer interactive maps with all kinds of data about the victims, be it a telephone number, nationality, the “services performed”, photos and videos or even opinions from other whoremongers. All of this is classified in most cases under a series of categories such as “scorts“, “relaxing massages”, “transsexuals and transvestites” (1.6% of the identified women are trans), “luxury escorts”, “therapies” or “rentals and jobs”.
“The proliferation of advertisements online makes the offer very disparate, offering a large number of formulas and formats. Nevertheless, the common denominator of most of them is thecontact via telephone (usually a cell phone), associated with a number,” the report details. In addition, this ‘prostitution 2.0’ serves the industry as a very effective tool to naturalize it, since it is something socially perceived from a much more permissive attitude. The study recalls, in this regard, a survey conducted by the Generalitat Valenciana, which showed that, although 21% of the population considers street prostitution morally acceptable; when asked about the services of escort or online prostitution, that acceptance skyrockets to 40%..
Risk factors.
There is another paradigm shift forced by this new scenario, and that is that the Internet has allowed greater independence for women who exercise as escorts for two reasons pointed out by the researchers: firstly, the environment, because it is much safer than the street; and secondly, because they can advertise themselves without being expensive and without the need of third parties. However, according to the research, a “continued availability” can lead to “added physical and emotional exhaustion.” to these women, “and be indicative of a lack of control over their own agenda or the absence of limits on activity schedules”, since in 20% of cases the total availability of women is advertised. In addition to the risk of being victims of sextortion or cyberstalking.
One need only look at the results of the research to get a magnitude of the multiple risks to which the victims are exposed. Of all the ads analyzed, almost three out of ten describe sexual practices that may involve greater risks to women’s physical and/or sexual health; and 23% describe their “passive” or “helpful” personality; and in 28.3% there are references to the women being “newcomers” or “new” to the locality where they offer “services”.
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Also in 23.2% of the advertisements the descriptions include terms that refer to ethnosexualization models (“mulatita”, “asiatica”, “latina”, “oriental”, etc.); and in almost one out of four cases there are allusions to youth, innocence or lack of experience. of the advertised women, with terms that infantilize them or fetishize young girls and minors.
More than 27,000 women at risk of sexual exploitation.
These are some of the risk variables identified by the researchers in the study in order to then be able to determine, based on whether a woman meets several of them, how many women could be subjected to trafficking or sexual exploitation. Based on this criterion, the report warns that 24.2% of women have three or more risk variables associated with them. Or, to put it another way: 27,757 women could be at risk of sexual exploitation.
However, the document recognizes that it is “unlikely” to find in the descriptions of the advertisements “clear evidence” that the constituent elements of the crime of trafficking are present, since the victims are usually subjected to high levels of coercion, control and manipulation by the traffickers, who are the ones who usually act as intermediaries. However, Igualdad recalls, several investigations have shown how at least 75% of trafficking victims say that they had been advertised on the Internet. “The challenge, therefore, is how to locate them,” he says.
In this line, the document emphasizes that this research has only been able to examine “a fraction” of prostitution, whose network is much wider and more extensive than that of prostitution. “spills over” into other content in which the advertisement of women in prostitution is not so identified. They mention other platforms, such as personal pages, blogs, platforms for the sale of goods and services such as Milanuncios, social networks and other websites. In addition, the report adds, “the remarkable ease of access to this data is highlighted”, which on many occasions even offer precise instructions for their location with lists of premises and geographic coordinates.
A way to capture victims
The online world no longer only functions to perpetuate the sexual exploitation of women, but is also serving as a channel to recruit potential victims, especially in the area of trafficking for sexual exploitation. Although they have not analyzed this area, the researchers say they have discovered that job advertisements that “explicitly” seek women from other countries and offer “help” in processing their documentation.. These are, evidently, deceptions to drag women into the prostitution network, which is fed mainly by the economic precariousness and irregular administrative situation in which many of them find themselves.
The study also reveals the existence of an “underworld” within online forums, where narratives of all kinds of harassment are shared. Masculine” spaces in which whoremongers share their personal experiences in the consumption of prostitution and generate “close” relationships among themselves, reproducing patriarchal gender dynamics, which may even consist of rating women and commenting on the degree of “satisfaction” achieved in the relationships described.
“This also gives rise to a reflection on the structural misogyny that underpins the prostitutional system and the impunity provided by the online world, where not only is this type of behavior not denounced but, in many cases, it is celebrated“the report stresses.