This introduction has four functions: (1) to provide a short overview of the literature in relation to commerce sex and digital changes; (2) to introduce the project Beyond the Gaze: Working Practices, Safety and Regulation of Internet based sex work and the key messages relayed in the book; (3) to specifically outline the methodologies used to gather the data; and (4) to contextualise what direct and indirect sex work online actually involve.
Technology, particularly digital communication, has had a profound impact on how we organise our lives, conduct our relationships and the transactions of commerce and retail (van Dijk 1991/2012). These technological developments have had a significant impact on forms of social organisation and the spatial distribution of human activities, with new social structures emerging which Castells (2000) has termed the ‘network society’. Sex work is part of this digitally networked society. Increasingly, sex is sold via the Internet . Most sex workers and their customers make contact using technology (phone, email, text and websites) to facilitate in-person services and arrange offline encounters, but equally important, the digital revolution has created a medium through which sexual services are sold only online through indirect contact. Social changes in society have transformed the sex industry in the twenty-first century. Brents and Hausbeck (2010) have commented on the way in which cultural and economic changes in Western societies have influenced sexual attitudes and practices, as well as the context in which sex is sold. Brents and Sanders (2010) observe that these trends have contributed to a mainstreaming of the sex industry in the West, as economic business strategies are mirrored by sex businesses, gaining them legitimacy and reputation. Nonetheless, ‘the acceptability of the sex industry is as much about social class, race and ethnicity as it is about liberal attitudes toward sexuality’ (Brents and Hausbeck 2010, p. 16). As Bernstein (2007) notes, there has been an increasing ‘privatisation’ of the sex industry, as sex workers move from street-based to indoor work. A combination of changes; in sexual attitudes, mainstreaming of the sex industry and a move to private commercial sex (as opposed to public and visible) are contemporary themes which underpin and inform the move to digitally facilitated commercial sex.
The development of Internet -enabled sex work must be situated in the context of technological and structural transformations in the global economy. For instance, there continues to be a ‘digital divide’ between those who do or do not have access to Internet -based technologies (Min 2010). This divide also translates into sex work, where although independent sex workers tend to have an online profile and often their own website, those working in other sectors such as massage parlours do not necessarily have Internet access (Pitcher 2014). Further, there are disparities between groups in relation to cultural capital, where individuals do not have the capacity and resources to engage in the digital economy in the same way as those with access to resources. One such group are migrant sex workers who may be disadvantaged, hindered by language capabilities and citizenship status and less able than others control digital interfaces. Whilst there is some evidence to suggest that migrant workers are becoming dominant in certain indoor UK sex markets sectors (Association of Chief Police Officers 2010) or geographical areas (see Chap. 2) their online presence is not evident in the same numbers, particularly when scanning independent escort websites.
Internet -based sex markets have become pervasive (Sanders 2005a, b, 2008), facilitated by computer-mediated communication through email, chat rooms, social media forums and web-based advertising . As Ray (2007) and others have noted, the Internet has had a substantial impact on the way in which independent sex workers , as well as escort agencies and sometimes massage parlours, advertise their services. Studies on the way in which the Internet is used for commercial sexual transactions and advertising by sex workers show that this has not only changed how sex workers and clients communicate with one another but also their social relationships, with the development of ‘cyber communities’ of both sex workers and customers (Sharp and Earle 2003; Sanders 2005b; Walby 2012; Pitcher 2015a). As with other industries, the Internet has also facilitated not only advertising of sexual services but also provided the opportunity for customers to review services of individual providers, which has become an important aspect of online marketing (Lee-Gonyea et al. 2009; Pettinger 2011).
It is impossible to identify the very precise time when sex workers began to move online but the first ever sex work-related website was reportedly launched in 1994 by a Seattle-based escort agency (Hughes 2004). Writing back in 2003, Sharp and Earle note that ‘any Internet search will reveal, there are literally tens of thousands of websites dedicated, in one way or another, to prostitution , and this number is increasing all the time’ (Sharp and Earle 2003, p. 37). Sharp and Earle’s observation is reflected in our research findings, which show that most of the major market leading platforms in the UK opened their websites in the early to mid 2000s. Platform 1, for example, launched their first site in 2003 using a ‘co.uk’ domain address moving over to their existing ‘.com’ version in 2005. Several of the other platform owners that we interviewed identified a similar timeline (early to mid 2000s) for the development of their websites. Aimed at the male gay market, the owner of Platform 17 launched in 2002 and the owners of Platforms 16 and 44 both said they started their sites about ten years ago, which at the time of interview would indicate a starting time of around 2006. It is apparent from several studies (e.g. Sharp and Earle 2003; Cunningham and Kendall 2011; Pitcher 2015b) that Internet -based sex work is a growing and developing sector in the UK and internationally. There has been no comprehensive research attempting to quantify this growth, although certain studies (e.g. Import.io 2014; Pitcher 2014; Smith and Kingston 2015) have undertaken small-scale analyses of particular websites advertising sexual services to present estimates of different groups of sex workers advertising online.
Our primary aims for the book are as follows:
- 1.Chapter 2 establishes the landscape of Internet -based sex work and specifically the micro-practices of sex work online, new sex markets and how the markets are organised and operate. We focus specifically on how new technologies have reshaped and reoriented the sex markets examining the features that have emerged in online (indirect) sex work such as webcamming . We learn more about how sex workers are owning and using digital spaces for their own business as well as to politically organise and engage.
- 2.Chapter 3 explores the profile and characteristics of sex workers who completed our survey across the gender...