Call for ‘megabrothels’ crackdown amid fears of ‘industrial scale’ exploitation

Buying a cappuccino is not the same as “ordering a woman online” for sex, a Welsh MP has said in her call for a crackdown on “online megabrothels”.

Tonia Antoniazzi urged legislators to “confront the adult sexual exploitation being perpetrated on an industrial scale by pimping websites and men who pay for sex, both of whom currently enjoy near-total legal impunity”.

Her proposed new clause two to the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill would ban a third party from helping an individual engage in sexual activity with another person in exchange for a payment.

She also called on MPs to ban people from paying for sex, either for themselves or others, through proposed new clause three.

New clause four would repeal parts of the 66-year-old Street Offences Act so that “loitering or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution” would no longer be a crime.

‘Pimping websites’

“Pimping websites which function as massive online brothels operate openly and freely, supercharging the sex trafficking trade by making it easier and quicker for exploiters to advertise their victims,” Ms Antoniazzi told the Commons.

The Gower MP continued: “These online megabrothels make millions of pounds every year by advertising thousands of vulnerable women across the world for prostitution in the UK, and sadly, our legislation allows this.

“The idea that paying someone to perform sex acts is an ordinary consumer activity, that ordering a woman online to perform a blow job is the equivalent of ordering a cappuccino, is a pernicious and harmful myth.

“Prostitution is violence against women. Let’s legislate to put pimps and traffickers out of business.”

Ms Antoniazzi described another “myth”, that a ban would drive “pimping” on to the dark web, and told MPs that accessing dark web platforms would “require significant technical expertise to post as well as locate and access prostitution adverts”.

Soliciting

Turning to her bid to decriminalise soliciting, the backbencher warned the existing offence was “counter-productive and a barrier to seeking help and exiting this ruthless trade”.

She said: “For most of these women, their record of convictions is a record of their exploitation and abuse, and they live in fear of having to disclose this history when applying for jobs or volunteering.”

Ms Antoniazzi has already amended the Bill after she pressed new clause one to a vote on Tuesday.

MPs backed her proposal by 379 votes to 137, majority 242, to decriminalise abortion for women acting in relation to their own pregnancies.

Commons Home Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Karen Bradley said she backed a plan to ban images and videos depicting non-fatal strangulation, by expanding the definition of “extreme pornographic images” which are illegal to possess.

On proposed new clause 121, the Conservative former culture secretary said: “This is not impacting on what people may wish to do in their private lives, but it does mean that those images would not then be available to be seen in pornographic films.

“And it means that there’s protection for children who may be looking at this pornography. We don’t want them to look at it, but we’re realists, we recognise this happens, and it would mean that this doesn’t normalise something which is a really dangerous act and really should not be being promoted in any way.”

Dame Karen said website operators “won’t remove” this content “if it’s not” illegal.