Group calls for pimping websites to face tougher restrictions in Scotland
Calls are being made for a crackdown on pimping websites in Scotland, which allow traffickers to move women all over the country.
Soliciting in public, kerbcrawling and brothel-keeping are illegal in Scotland, but running a pimping website or buying sex is not.
The campaign group, A Model for scotland, is calling for the laws on prostitution to be overhauled so men can no longer freely access women who are being exploited online, and buy them for sex.
While a lot of the legislation around internet access is reserved to Westminster, campaigners hope the Scottish Government is able to make profiting and enabling prostitution an offence.
Nina Humphries, one of the campaigners, said these “highly lucrative” websites were playing a pivotal role in the sexual exploitation of women in Scotland. She said: “These websites operate by charging fees to place adverts, and extra fees for enhancing the visibility of adverts, whilst men who pay for sex can access the phone numbers of women advertised in their area for free.
“The location of adverts can be easily changed, enabling sex traffickers to easily move women around the country, which enables them to tap multiple markets, isolate women from support, and evade police detection.”
Ms Humphries said the websites were making “enormous profits” and were making it “much easier” for sex buyers to easily find women to pay for sex. She said: “It also makes it significantly easier, less risky and more profitable for sex traffickers and pimps to connect with sex buyers to advertise their victims.”
It is estimated 75 per cent of sex trafficking victims in Scotland are now advertised online. Police Scotland have identified pimping websites as the “most significant enabler” of sexual exploitation.
A Model for Scotland said its campaigners had noticed a “significant increase” in prostitution adverts online in recent years. Ms Humphries said: “It is a myth that these websites make women safer. They openly display the phone numbers of women being advertised on the websites for any visitor to freely access, so sex buyers do not have to prove who they are.
“Many women have had no choice in being advertised online and don’t know where they have been advertised or which sex acts they have been listed as offering.
“Survivors of the sex trade have told us that so-called ‘safeguards’ on these websites are ineffective as there is no realistic way to verify that the woman in the advert is the same woman then sold to a sex buyer.”
A Model for Scotland is calling on the Scottish Government to take the threat of pimping websites more seriously, saying the nation’s laws had failed to “keep pace with technological developments”.
Community safety minister Siobhian Brown said: “The regulation is reserved to Westminster, but we liaise closely with the UK government and Ofcom on the implementation of the UK Online Safety Act 2023 and to press for stronger online protections for women and girls.”
Survivors of the sex trade have told us that so-called ‘safeguards’ on these websites are ineffective