Prostitution? It’s just like a bar job students are told
Academics claim one in 20 sell their bodies
WORKING as a stripper or prostitute at university is no different to working in a bar, academics researching student sex work have claimed.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Tracey Sagar and Debbie Jones claimed as many as one in 20 students sells their body to pay for tuition fees and living costs.
The researchers also said their study – the largest of its kind – has revealed one in five students is considering working in the sex industry.
Yesterday Professor Sagar, of the criminology department at Swansea University, insisted: ‘If somebody is doing sexual work and it’s not harming them physically, it should not be an issue.
‘What’s the difference between doing [sexually explicit acts] on a webcam and working in a bar?’
But her comments horrified campaigners, who called the remarks ‘incredibly irresponsible and stupid’.
The Student Sex Work project was a three-year study of 6,773 students, using nearly half a million pounds of National Lottery funding.
A team of academics found sex work is just as common among male undergraduates as it is among female students. Many male undergraduates are in demand from hen parties to strip, the study said.
But the academics claimed sex work was ‘not inherently harmful’ to students who ‘should not be stigmatised’ or disciplined for offering escort services on campus.
Former Met Police officer Professor Sagar said: ‘The issue is, are they being exploited in their work? Are they mentally and physically exhausted in that work? Are they getting to their lectures on time?’
Asked if she thought earning money by carrying out sex acts on webcams would become as commonplace a part of the student experience as stacking shelves, Professor Sagar said: ‘Look at the data – 22 per cent are considering sex work. It’s on the student radar… the indicators are there.’
She did not want to comment on whether parents should be worried about their children working in the sex industry at university, but said: ‘I’ve got a daughter who went to university. I would want the university to have the right support services.’
She added: ‘Universities ought to recognise some of the student population are engaged with work in the sex industry and not to stigmatise them.’
But last night Laura Perrins, of British political website Conservative Woman, said: ‘It’s an outrageous statement to compare working in a bar to prostitution.’
Margaret Morrissey, of pressure group Parents Out Loud, said: ‘I think it’s an incredibly irresponsible and stupid comment to make.
‘What adults choose to do is up to them. But whilst you’re still in education, you are a young person who hasn’t had a lot of experience to be able to make the sort of informed decision this requires.’
She went on to say: ‘It’s not my right to make a decision on whether prostitution is wrong or right – personally, I think it’s wrong.’
But she added: ‘Whilst you’re in university, still being educated, learning and getting experience, then I think it is physically and morally a corrupt thing to do, or to encourage a young person to be involved in.’
She warned: ‘It can lead to all sorts of terrible issues – blackmail, depression, all those things – which obviously are detrimental to young people’s future.
‘I have an 18-year-old granddaughter, and it would break my heart if her need for money to survive in university led her to even consider doing something like that.’
‘Not inherently harmful’