For my forum post I decided to focus in on the CBC news story “The impact of technology of sex work” in which Lux Alptraum (a writer who focuses on issues related to technology and sex) conducts an interview on this topic. I really enjoyed listening to this segment and found it to be extremely informative. I noticed a lot of parallels between the information presented in this interview with our assigned reading and also with the discussion my group had during our Socratic seminar. It was noted by Alptraum that many sex workers have turned to using the Internet in order to remain safe while doing their work. This perspective is very interesting, and I enjoyed hearing that the rise of technology is beneficial in this regard. Safety is a huge aspect and a topic of concern with regard to sex workers. The fact that the Internet is allowing for sex workers to filter through their clients, and be able to choose beforehand is something I think is absolutely needed for this kind of work. This is something that we also …show more content…
Social media allows for sex workers not have to give up their legal identity allowing them to present a totally different life. In this news clip technology was seen as solely positive, although I can personally see how the rise of technology could actually have a negative effect on sex workers. With social media, there is no possible way of removing the information once it has been released. If ever they decided to pursue a different career path for themselves and this information if leaked it could sabotage the whole process. Even though you may choose a different identity, photos could get leaked and your secret identity could be revealed. So in my personal opinion I do see that yes there are absolutely pros to the rise of technology and how it relates to sex workers, but like anything, there are cons as
Donna M. Hughes’s essay “The Internet and Sex Industries: Partners in Global Sexual Exploitation” claims that the Internet is responsible for the mass increase in human trafficking in the recent years. Hughes is a professor and Carlson Endowed Chair of the Women's Studies Program at the University of Rhode Island. She has also completed research on trafficking in multiple countries. Hughes uses uncredible claims of fact and value, and websites that no longer can be found when trying to convince the audience that the Internet is responsible for the mass increase in human trafficking in the recent years.
Often, when people think of sex work and sex workers their minds immediately go to human trafficking. Yet, I believe it is essential that one marks the difference between the two, because as social workers we will have clients who come to us who have chosen to be sex workers. As social workers we recognize that every individual has the right to self-determination and we must know how to best serve them. In Janice G. Raymond’s book Not a Choice, Not a Job, she explores the world of sex work and though her views conflict with social work values she presents great information into the world of sex work. I will be presenting the ideas from her book and also be offering other views that are important when working with clients.
Lewchuk, commences by presenting the challenging of the constitutionality of Canada’s adult prostitution offences the Downtown East Side Sex Workers United Against Violence Society (SWUAV), and Sheryl Kiselbach have been proponing. She continues by supporting that decriminalizing prostitution will indeed improve the lives of sex workers lives. This, in turn, will not necessarily will improve the equality of all women. We see the author comment that the decriminalization will make it difficult for business women to be included in networking settings than it already is. She notes “the social conditions leading women to become involve in sex work include ‘poverty, homelessness, violence, addictions, and colonization’” Pivot Legal Society aim solve
They explain that the telephone were originally marketed as a time saver for commercial use and later, it for residential use where it took telephone companies over twenty years to advertise and market the sociability of the telephone even though they were aware that was being ‘misuse’ by them . Cassell and Cramer try to discuss that the relationship between the production and consumption of technology been part of the culture that facing in the society. The media’s represent in both perpetrators and victims of online crimes.. The media continues to portray the stereotype where the fact that statistics cited in this article suggest that the majority of the one in seven solicitations that young people reported in the latest Youth Internet Safety Survey (YISS) do not come from the stereotype of the older male Internet predator but from family, friends and peers. The use of this statistic was convincing, however I was more doubtful about their argument that the victim were not from teen girl even though they acknowledge that the girls aged from 14 – 17 experience the highest rate of online solicitation. They argue the fact that solicitations for girls aged between 14 and 17 had dropped by 11 percent. It try to show that statistics can be used to support any argument. It was interesting to note that even been funded by the YISS, they try to hide their findings base on how to reduce stranger solicitation that could increase exposure to sexual material and
With no government control or regulation, work-place violence, harassment, and medical care are not monitored or concerned, even though this line of work is the most vulnerable to all three conditions. In fact, nearly seventy-five percent of sex-workers experience work-place violence. For this, “decriminalization could be the best means to protect the rights of sex workers and ensure that these individuals receive adequate medical care, legal assistance, and police protection” (Amnesty International). Along with Amnesty International, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world, the World Health Organization, UN Women, Global Commission on HIV and the law, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Human Rights Watch, and the Open Society Foundations also support the decriminalization of prostitution in the United States. Criminalizing prostitution will not end prostitution. Instead, the only plausible solution is government regulation. With government support, clients can be tracked through credit cards and any violence or harassment will be able to be reported and taken care of, on a legal level. The sex-work industry also has alarming statistics involving STI’s and STD’s. The men who control the women, or the ‘pimps’, force the women to have oral, vaginal, and anal sex without any kind of contraception, if that is what the client prefers. The Porn Industry,
People may not believe that there is a positive outcome of prostitution when first thought of. In fact, there are multiple ways that prostitution can benefit the sex workers, society, and even the economy. A quantitative and qualitative study was made by Lutnik and Cohan in San Francisco on prostitutes in the area. Although the sex workers that were interviewed are not part of the Canadian society, the United States is also part of the Western Civilization and the results reflect those of Canada as well. In the study, women spoke about the beneficial factors of having “police protection, the ability to build community with other sex worker, and obtaining rights as workers” upon the legalization of prostitution (Lutnik and Cohan, 2009: 41). Overall, the prostitutes that were surveyed preferred the “removal of statutes that criminalize sex work in order to facilitate a social and political environment where they had legal rights and could seek help when they are victims of violence.” (Lutnik and Cohan, 2009: 39). This research provides evidence that majority of people in the sex worker industry would like to feel safer as they are working as every person is entitles to feel safe when they go to work. Considering the health of the sex workers, a study was presented at the International AIDS Conference in Australia which showed results of the transmittal of HIV/AIDS among sex workers would decrease by 33-46% if prostitution is either legalized, or at least decriminalized (Listland, 2014). Another factor that is considered regarding sex workers and the legalization is the diminishing of violence and sex crimes. In the same research study conducted by Lutnik and Cohan, it was found that 91% of prostitutes desired laws that protected their rights in specific, and they also wanted more police protection, create safe houses, and would be safest under a regulated system (Lutnik and Cohan, 2009: 41, 43). Lastly, a
It allows for questioning LGBTQ youth to be able to find countless and countless of information regarding their sexual identity, they are able to use social media to find and make close friends and able to make a difference in lives of other LGBTQ that could use the support. Social media, like a double edged sword, can be helpful in one way but dangerous in the next. All depends on the intent of the person handling
The article discusses the relative safety that a brothel provides a sex worker as well as other positive rights, however it also discusses the issues that arise for sex workers such as labour policy and wages. This article also discusses street based sex workers and how they are usually more likely to be addicted to drugs, and more vulnerable to experience violence (Sullivan, 2010). Lastly, this article discusses private sex workers who make up the majority of sex workers in Australia (Sullivan, 2010). For a private sex worker, it “is illegal [ . . . ] to work with another sex worker or to employ a receptionist; they may employ a licensed security guard and (since 2009) can maximize their safety by making phone contact with another person before and after a job” (Sullivan, 2010, p.
Slavery is a modern, pervasive problem. Human trafficking has been found in every state in America (humantrafficking.org). It seems that most Americans likely live within a comfortable drive of someone who is being exploited through human trafficking. There is a growing trend in human trafficking toward sexual exploitation (Bennetts, 2011). The Information Age has helped to create new opportunities for sex trafficking to flourish.
As much as social media has managed to ruin our society, it plays a positive role for the public as well. Social media allowed people to use their networks as a form of reaching out to old friends and family across the world. With America being known as the melting pot of the world, our society has several people with family on the other side of the Earth. With social media in effect, this permits people to stay in touch with long lost loved ones and keep ties tight. Not only has it sanctioned friends and family to keep in touches but has granted people to relocate birth parents and unknown family members as well. Yes, social media has failed our society greatly but there is always a rainbow somewhere after a rainy day. Social media can play a positive role by bringing people back together.
Sex trade work is one of the oldest occupations in the world, dating back to the days prior to Christ; and despite its age, it is a prominent part of modern society. This report will be presenting why sex trade work is an issue, how it is overlooked and unaddressed, and what can be done to mitigate the current situation.
With the development of social networking sites, chat rooms, and other web based communication sites, cyber-sex trafficking has hit record highs. According to “What is Sex trafficking” (2015), sex trafficking occurs when a person uses force, fraud, or coercion for a commercial sex act with either an adult or a child (“What is Sex Trafficking,” 2015). Sex trafficking is not only limited to women and girls, this heinous crime also affects males and young boys. Sex trafficking is a vicious cycle that incorporates the trafficker, the victim, and the buyer. The victim is the adult or child being brought into the sex trafficking ring. The trafficker lures the victim in often by promises of a better life and the buyer is the criminal who purchases
In line with sexual exploitation, different sources have cited that the internet and online platforms provide traffickers with the platforms to advertise massage parlors and escort services to a wide audience (Farquet et al. 302; Limoncelli 73). To this extent, the traffickers can reach a considerable number of individuals willing to buy the commercial sex services offered by women trafficked from a different part of the world. Equally, empirical evidence shows that technology often provides adequate means of reaching obscure target audiences, including pedophiles looking to have access to young girls, people with extreme sexual desires, and those individuals interested in child pornography. Since most of the people within these target audience often fear to express their desire publicly, they exploit their desire privately through the internet. In the end, the increased interactions between traffickers and these
Sexual favours in return for money, just the thought of this has people cringing, although laws have deemed to move forward with the idea of prostitution it seems although socially there has not been much progress. The idea of prostitution still scares, or one could even go as far to say it disgusts people. The lack of knowledge and awareness of the details of sex work create this ongoing hate towards sex work, which continues to stigmatize sex workers. Regardless of changing laws, regardless of changing policies, why is it that sex workers are still afraid to proudly announce that their job is in fact the job of a sex worker? Unfortunately, it seems as though the idea of sex work that seems to be such a terrible one is not what bothers sex workers the most, it is the social misconception of what sex work is like that leads these individuals to feel highly stigmatized (Van der Meulen and Redwood, 2013). The primary harm for of prostitution seems to be the stigma against prostitution, women involved in prostitution are considered socially invisible as full human beings (Farley, 2004). Why is it that our changing and progressing laws are still unable to remove this stigma from the lives of sex workers? This paper will argue that prostitution laws continue to produce stigma around sex work. It will argue this through revisiting the historical laws, examining present laws and ongoing laws at this time.
The author describes the impending the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on whether current Canadian prostitution laws are putting female sex workers at risk for violence and murder. These laws can change the ability to do sex work in Canada, as prostitution itself is not illegal but the Supreme Court may direct certain bans if voted in. This paper reveals the laws are mainly aimed to protect women against harm since a year before Robert Pickton murdered many female sex workers in British Columbia. Then Fine’s paper address policies about sex workers and if it is helping or violating workers rights. Fine’s article includes a diverse array of perspective on this issue, as he presents that there isn’t a clear resolution when it comes to