The management of Adult Industry Association (AIA) has appointed Erin Murthy as the new AIA Rep for Arizona.
The join the AIA group for Arizona, g to https://adultindustryassociation.org/groups/arizona
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7 April 2020
The management of Adult Industry Association (AIA) has appointed Erin Murthy as the new AIA Rep for Arizona.
The join the AIA group for Arizona, g to https://adultindustryassociation.org/groups/arizona
The producer of AIA Live talk show is hosting a series of interviews with the women in SexTech worldwide. Each lady is invited to participate in 15-30 minute discussion about their achievements in the SexTech world.
There is no cost to appear as a guest on the show.
For more information about AIA Live and instructions to become a guest, go to https://adultindustryassociation.org/live.
The producers of AIA Live is hosting a series of discussions to highlight the impact of the Covid19 virus on sex workers worldwide.
During this series, we will be featuring the relief efforts spearheaded by NGOs, Sex Workers Activists and other organisations to offer support to sex workers who have been disadvantaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
Persons involved in relief efforts are invited to be guests on the AIA Live talk show. For more information about AIA Live and instructions on being a guest, go to https://adultindustryassociation.org/live.
The producers of AIA Live is inviting professionals and business owners in the sex and adult entertainment industry to participate as guests on our live stream talk show.
This is an ideal opportunity to promote your views, opinions and agenda on all related issues.
To schedule your interview on AIA Live, to https://adultindustryassociation.org/live
A humanitarian crisis affecting victims of human trafficking and sex work appears to be quietly growing alongside the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and is pushing victims back into prostitution.
Over the last three days, anti-human trafficking specialist Dr Olivia Smith compiled a growing list of almost 100 non-Barbadian women and children who are stranded without access to food or shelter. On Thursday, she revealed that 55 women and 40 children – some of whom have not eaten in days are among them.
Along with a possible increase in sexually transmitted infections, Dr Smith fears the humanitarian issues could further complicate the fight against COVID-19 if left unaddressed.
“These girls are feeling vulnerable enough and desperate enough that they are still going to engage in sexual relationships with men. In some cases these men then go home to their families, possibly ill, and this could create a much more complex pandemic. This is what we are trying to avoid and this has been brought to the attention of the Ministry of Health,” Dr Smith disclosed.
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Dr Olivia Smith
“Some of these women still have to feed their children, who do not understand why mummy doesn’t have anything to give them to eat tonight,” she added.
The UWI lecturer started her career as an immigration officer and later served in the CARICOM Secretariat’s Free Movement and Labour office. Since then, Dr Smith has established an anti-human trafficking project to assist 13 of 15 member states.
Numerous international reports have identified the Caribbean as the main transit point and final destination for human trafficking in the Americas. Jamaicans, Guyanese, Trinidadians, and Venezuelans are said to make up the greatest number of victims.
Though encouraged by assurances that illegal immigrants would not be penalised if they come forward for medical treatment, Smith argued that a welfare system needed to be put in place to ensure that the needy women receive help throughout the public health emergency.
Barbados TODAY has made numerous attempts to reach Minister of Elder Affairs and People Empowerment Cynthia Forde whose ministry is tasked with overseeing issues of human trafficking and welfare. However, all calls went unanswered.
But Smith stressed: “If these vulnerable and marginalised persons are not allowed to come forward either because of the discriminatory practices of Barbadians or Government officials, it means that this pandemic will not be controlled in the manner or time frame that we would like it to be.
“We need these people to be in a space where they know they can come forward for help and so we know the numbers that are truly affected by COVID-19. We also have a humanitarian obligation to provide a place for them to access food and other services that they may need,” she added.
The migration specialist noted that the ongoing challenges not only confront sex workers and victims of trafficking, but also CARICOM nationals with short-term work permits who were suddenly laid off due to the ongoing shutdown.
She, however, stressed that sex workers and human trafficking victims are more likely to be unfairly branded as criminals.
“A human trafficked or sexually exploited person brought into your country is a victim and not a criminal. We have been criminalising these people who sometimes respond to advertisements asking for people to do specific jobs, but when they come to the country, they are forced into a different position,” she explained.
The human rights advocate has already spoken with the Salvation Army and other non-profit organisations, but their services are already in high demand.
Though Barbados’ welfare system is already under tremendous strain, Dr Smith suggests that the Government should reach out to organisations such as the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the UN High Commission on Refugees as well as the International Organisation for Migration for assistance.
“Sending the list of names to the Salvation Army or to the poverty alleviation programme does not resolve the problem. When the food is finished tonight or tomorrow, what happens next week and up until the time they are able to go home?” she asked.
“These people will be hungry tomorrow, they will be sick tomorrow and they will need shelter tomorrow and we must note that many of them have children in the mix,” she added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
The management of Get Verified Online is establishing partnerships with businesses in the Adult Entertainment Industry.
Adult industry business partners enjoy the following benefits.
For more details go to https://getverifiedonline.com/partners
Most sex workers meet customers in person. For them, the coronavirus spells economic ruin.
"The virus is a disaster for client-facing businesses - and sex work is no different," says Goddess Cleo, a dominatrix from London.
"Most of my income is generated from one-on-one sessions and events. I [normally] only make a bit of money through online avenues."
But like many others, Cleo has switched focus to digital since the lockdown came into effect.
Image copyrightTWITTER Image captionSome women are discouraged from making the switch to online because of a greater risk of their work becoming known to family and friends
Online dominatrix Eva de Vil says: "There's lots of new girls joining the scene right now - or offline sex workers moving online to help with finances."
And she has seen a growing appetite from her clientele for isolation-themed roleplay "clips" - on-demand videos not filmed live.
"It's not so hard for established cam girls like me to adapt to coronavirus. We're used to working [online] and from home," she adds.
But for many client-facing sex workers, moving online is not a simple solution.
"It's not about flashing ya nipple and earning big bucks", wrote UK sex worker Gracey on Twitter.
"It takes ages to gain an online following and even longer for [them] to buy your content."
Using the online platforms means having to give them a cut of earnings.
And there is a need to invest in equipment, including "tripod, decent lighting, sex toys, et cetera", which can be challenging to acquire during the lockdown.
February to March sales rise
"The marketing requires so much effort, it is unreal," Gracey says.
"I'm not brave enough to [be] naked online and [receive audience] criticism.
"The emotional labour that goes into camming is unreal - constantly chatting, trying to be yourself [and] pleasant."
Privacy is another concern.
It is much harder to hide one's identity online and video content can be stolen.
In February, for example, London-based OnlyFans saw 1.5TB of content-makers' pre-recorded videos and images leaked.
UK sex worker Lizzy says camming has become even more competitive since the pandemic began.
And data from the world's largest "camming" websites supports this.
Max Bennett, from the Stripchat website, where audiences pay to watch livestreamed sex, says: "Adult performers are moving to livecams, as traditional [markets] have largely shut down."
US-based livestreaming site Chaturbate has reported a 75% rise in the number of sex workers signing up since the outbreak began - an increase faster than the rate at which audience traffic is rising.
"We're seeing traffic changes worldwide, especially in lockdown areas," Max says.
"For those who live alone, we'll see more traffic.
"But in [homes] with roommates or family situations, it may be more complicated."
To drive demand, some online sex workers are taking special measures.
"I've seen quite a lot of girls running discounts," Eva says.
"We're sensitive to [customers'] drop in income - although I don't yet see any evidence of a dip in spending."
Camming websites are also taking action.
Rise from February to March
StripChat, for example, is handing out hundreds of free tokens to new viewers worldwide, enough for each recipient to pay a sex worker for a 10-minute private session.
"By acting as a central bank, we can increase the money supply and help the new wave of performers survive the crisis," Max says.
"We've also doubled our payouts to our Italian models.
"As a social network of over 60 million people a month, we have a tremendous platform to [help] keep users off the streets."
But for some sex workers, the costs and challenges of moving online are simply too large.
"There are sex workers still meeting clients in person because they don't have a choice," Lizzy says.
"That anyone has to choose between having enough money to live on and risking their and others' health during a pandemic is ridiculous."
Some support is available to these workers.
For example, Butterfly - an Asian and migrant sex worker support network - has published a Covid-19 guide that recommends sexual positions that minimise face-to-face contact, among other precautions.
But the nature of the industry makes it difficult for workers to tap into government schemes to compensate self-employed workers for lost earnings.
Prostitution itself is not illegal in England, Wales and Scotland - though it is unlawful to pay for sex in Northern Ireland - but the trade is often cash in hand and unrecorded.
In the US, the massive Covid-19 bailout bill explicitly excludes legal sex workers from protection.
Image copyrightTWITTER Image captionSome women are concerned online jobs do not earn them as much as "full-service sex work"
According to the English Collective of Prostitutes, many sex workers are single mothers already made poorer by austerity measures - and the coronavirus is now exacerbating their situation.
With these concerns in mind, hundreds of online initiatives have popped up worldwide, such as the Covid-19 hardship fund from Swarm, a UK sex worker-led collective.
It says it has already used donations to support 234 sex workers in need
The long-term solution, however, is for better government support for sex workers, says Goddess Cleo.
"When sex work is treated as actual work and fully decriminalised, sex workers will have access to the same human rights as every other worker," she says.
Dear AIA Members,
I take this opportunity to express my heartfelt sentiments for the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who have been infected with the Covid19 virus, particularly those who are in the adult entertainment industry.
For those who have sadly died from the Corona virus, I offer my sincerest condolences to their families and friends.
As we continue to fight the spread of this deadly virus, I urge all AIA members to follow the safety guidelines for social distancing, washing hands, sanitizing and any other instructions issued by your respective local government authorities.
By now, you are all aware of the impact that Covid19 is having on every business sector of the sex and adult industry. Going forward, AIA will be researching and posting details on our website to help our members endure the health, safety and business challenges faced by all of us, during these difficult times.
I appeal to all AIA members and other stakeholders in the wider adult industry to use this pandemic as a catalyst to come together and support each other like we have never done before. Let us emerge from this crisis to become an industry that is based more on cohesiveness, inclusiveness and solidarity.
We in the sex industry are no stranger to crisis and hardship. We have been facing crisis every day for hundreds of years as society has always ostracized and discriminated against us. Therefore we are better able to survive these difficult times. Let us look forward to life after Covid19. Like other crisis, this too shall past.
We invite you to post your personal experiences with Covid19 on our blog at https://adultindustryassociation.org/blog/Covid19 to share with other members.
We pledge our continued support during our toughest challenge yet as we aim to make our industry a better, safer and more rewarding space for work, business and pleasure.
I reamin yours sinerely.
Charlie Spice
Founder/President
At the recommendation of the Hon. Edmund Hinkson, Minister of Home Affairs, the management of the Adult Industry Association has escalated its immigration reform proposal to the Prime Ministry of Barbados, Hon. Mia Amor Mottley, which will have considerable positive impact on the Barbados economy in terms of increased revenue, foreign currency generation, local and foreign investment.
This proposal is for government to amend the immigration legislation to introduce and facilitate the issuance of Entertainers Work Permits to foreign dancers from the Caricom region and the international markets to have the right to perform legally in adult entertainment clubs in their respective jurisdictions.
An agency have been set up in Barbados to provide assistance exclusively to celebrity Porn Performers, Webcam Models, Glamour Models and other adult entertainment professionals who have interest in the Caribbean for holiday, business or investment purposes.
Charlie Spice Agency also provides its services to major businesses in the adult industry.
The company provides a wide range of services as follows.
BUSINESS SERVICES
HOLIDAY SERVICES
In order to provide the wide cross section of services required by clients worldwide, Charlie Spice Agency has established an independent network of Lawyers, Accountants, Financial Consultants, Tax Advisors, Concierge and other related professionals across the Caribbean.
The agency was launched by Charlie Spice who has been a serial entrepreneur in the adult entertainment industry, for the past 30 years. During his tenure, he has also owned, operated or invested in businesses in the IT, Telecoms, Entertainment and Tourism sectors in the US, UK, European and the Caribbean markets.
For more information, visit our website at https://CharlieSpice.com
Media Source: Life Site News
February 12, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – An effort to shut down the largest pornography website in the world has been launched after the organization was caught saying that it had “verified” as a “model with valid 18+ ID” a 15-year-old victim of human trafficking who was shown being raped in dozens of videos uploaded to the site.
Laila Mickelwait, of the pornography abolition organisation Exodus Cry, has posted screenshots from Pornhub’s social media accounts showing them saying that the girl is “a verified model with valid ID.” Those posts have now been deleted by Pornhub, but are cached (and so still available to view) online.
Mickelwait is now calling for the company that owns Pornhub, MindGeek, to be shut down.
She told Faithwire that the company is is “making money off of the exploitation, rape, and trafficking of hundreds if not thousands of women and girls who are victims, and their crime scenes are being hosted on their website.”
Mickelwait explained that in order to get an account “verified” on Pornhub users simply have to take photos in which they are holding pieces of paper with their usernames scrawled on them. She said that this means their policy “is set up to enable exploitation and trafficking under a facade of actually having some form of protection.”
According to Mickelwait, such a process means there is “no way” for Pornhub to confirm either the consent or the age of those participating in the uploaded videos.
Mickelwait described pornography websites as being run by “criminals and mega-pimps” and said that “the onus of responsibility is not just on the traffickers and those who are raping the girls; it’s on the website that is not only hosting these videos, but profiting off of them. And that’s what makes them a mega-trafficker.”
Micklewait’s expose of Pornhub comes the same week as mainstream media covered the story Rose Kalemba, who says that she begged the online pornography site for six months to remove videos on their website showing her being raped at just 14 years old. Kalemba, now 25, says that Pornhub only took action and removed the videos after she threatened legal action.
Jonathan van Maren of LifeSiteNews has noted that these events reveal that Pornhub’s viewers are getting sexual enjoyment out of what, in some instances, turn out to be horrific crimes.
“The porn industry and the abortion industry reduce women and children to meat, feeding them to carnivorous consumers in a culture that has lost all sense of right and wrong. A culture that respected women’s rights would be outraged at the fact that millions upon millions of people entertain themselves by watching girls get sexually violated and thrashed onscreen, but our culture pretends that “women’s rights” means that if any children show up unexpectedly, they can be hastily shredded and discarded so that the show can go on,” van Maren observed.
Media Source: Barbados Today
Jamaican Tedesha AnnJuliet Hayles who admitted to killing fellow sex worker Shockaya Boyd has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Hayles had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty of manslaughter in Boyd’s stabbing death which occurred along Bay Street, St Michael on April 28, 2017.
The two sex workers were working that Friday but were not on friendly terms. Outlining the facts of the deadly incident at a previous court sitting Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale revealed that a man in a white car, drove up to the then 26-year-old Hayles and requested she accompany him home along with 34-year-old Boyd but she declined. The client went to Boyd and spoke to her.
“After she finished talking with him she start cursing me and calling me names and come up in my face,” Hayles wrote in a police statement adding that Boyd pushed her and she pushed back before a third woman came and separated them.
“She pulled out of Tash hand and run around Tash and went in her bag for a knife, while I pulled my scissors. She poke at me and skipping and I hold her hand where the knife was . . . and I managed to get the knife from her and poke her three times.”
In handing down his ruling in the No. 2 Supreme Court this morning Justice Worrell pointed to the aggravating features of Hayles’ crime and stated that a weapon was used during its commission.
“But one cannot say that there is any record that you armed yourself specifically for this particular matter. There is no evidence also to suggest that you armed yourself for this particular conflict and act which followed and led to the death of the deceased.
“The court has taken into consideration based on the facts that there was no premeditation either. Clearly there is evidence of confrontation and also of the deceased being the instigator,” the judge said as Hayles stood in the dock with her head bowed and at times wiping tears from her face using her black shirt.
Mitigating in her favour, Justice Worrell said, was the fact that she had no previous convictions, her age, her contrition and the fact that she cooperated with the police. He also touched on information that her sick grandmother was currently taking care of her six-year-old son back in Jamaica.
The court looked at all those factors, he said including the mitigating and aggravating features and was of the opinion that the 12-year sentence should be reduced by two years bringing it to ten years or 3,650 days.
The convict’s guilty plea which is a discount of 1,216 days was also credited as well the 1,036 days she had spent on remand.
“You have spent close to three years on remand. The court has to take into consideration . . .the intent to the three months’ relief that is normally granted by the prison . . . 90 days by three, that is 270 days that has also to be deducted.”
Given those deductions Hayles will spend, as of today, the remaining 1,128 days at HMP Dodds.
As she walked out the dock a tearful Hayles hugged her attorney Sian Lange before being escorted out of the court by prison officials.
Media Source: Trinidad Express
POLICE are not doing enough to protect Venezuelan migrants from exploitation.
This according to Heidi Diquez, a Venezuelan activist and public relations officer of the TTV Solidarity Network.
Diquez was speaking at a panel discussion on human trafficking hosted by the Franciscan Institute and held at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Chaplaincy in St Augustine on Friday evening.
Diquez, who was a member of the audience, became emotional during the question-and-answer segment, as she said the hardships in Venezuela had opened young Venezuelan women to trafficking and other crimes.
She claimed there were criminal elements in T&T reaching out to “university girls” in Venezuela and manipulating them into coming to T&T, where they were exploited and abused.
Diquez said there were Facebook profiles advertising Venezuelan girls for sale.
“We actually have T&T Facebook accounts showing the faces of these little girls in university being practically sold in Trinidad,” she said. “It breaks my heart to see how mothers and family members are asking for support (to find) their missing loved ones who are actually here.”
It was at this point Diquez started crying.
She said the police often turned a blind eye to what are obvious cases of exploitation.
Giving an example, Diquez said there is a popular car wash in San Juan, where scantily-clad Venezuelan girls are the main attraction.
She said she observed police passing by the establishment, seeing girls who were “practically naked” washing cars in a bar, but doing “absolutely nothing” to stop it.
Afraid to go to police
Diquez said Venezuelan women who are being exploited are often afraid to go to the police for help because they are in the country illegally and they fear being sent to the Immigration Detention Centre.
Several people in the audience expressed views that the police were complicit in human trafficking.
However, Gender-Based Violence Unit manager Pollard said migrant women can feel safe in accessing help from the unit, as it does not report anyone to Immigration.
Counter Trafficking Unit director Wheeler said while migrants were vulnerable to being trafficked, local women faced the same risks.
She said this is because there is a demand for commercial sex in T&T, and young people are often enticed by the money.
Men are also at risk, she noted.
Men can make thousands of dollars per night in the sex trade, and she noted that for university students struggling to pay their fees or for young people tasked with financially helping their families, this might be a tempting avenue.
She cautioned young people to be wary of social media, as this is one of the ways traffickers tend to recruit victims. They prey on vulnerable people who are longing for attention and affection, she said.
Online risk
“Facebook, WhatsApp and all these different types of social media—we know young persons and teenagers, young adults, even adults now become addicted to social media. These persons often fall prey.
“There are some parents who like to boast that their child don’t go anywhere, they don’t lime or party and they are always home and they are always on their computer. They are actually more vulnerable than the ones going out and partying.”
Attorney Bhagan called for more funding for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
He noted that despite several high-profile arrests, not a single person has been convicted of human trafficking in T&T to date.
“It is very important for the DPP department to receive more funding and more staff, and to create a specialised unit for the prosecution of human trafficking crimes in this country in order to increase the speed and the rate of conviction of these crimes,” he said.
Media Source: Trinidad Express
Two police officers have been arrested in connection with trafficking in persons and other gang-related activities.
It happened during an anti-crime exercise conducted in the Central Division overnight.
The operation included officers of the Special Operations Response Team (SORT), the Counter Trafficking Unit, and a Special Task Force established by Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, with human trafficking being part of their overall mandate.
Investigations are ongoing and further arrests are imminent.
On 10th Feb 2020, Charlie Spice, Founder/President of Adult Industry Association submitted an official proposal to the Honourable Edmund Hinkson, Minister Of Home Affairs, Barbados as part of a campaign to lobby the Governments across the Caribbean to introduce and facilitate the issuance of Entertainers Work Permits to foreign dancers from the Caricom region and the international markets to have the right to perform legally in adult entertainment clubs in their respective jurisdictions.
AIA Chapter Managers Appointed
The following persons/businesses have been officially appointed as AIA Chapter Managers.
If you are interested in joining our team as a Chapter Manager, please see details about this opportunity at https://adultindustryassociation.org/join-our-team
AIA To Lobby Governments For International Strippers To Get Licences To Perform In Caribbean
Adult Industry Association (AIA) is launching a campaign to make it possible for international strippers to apply online for an entertainers license via the immigration department to perform legally in Strip Clubs across the Caribbean.
See details at https://adultindustryassociation.org/blog/license-for-strippers-to-work-in-caribbean
Adult Industry Association Makes Official Complaint Against BeLive.TV
In response to the the removal of an episode of AIA Live from the Belivers Facebook Group, the Founder/President of AIA Charlie Spice sent a complaint letter to the management of Belive.TV.
For details, go to https://adultindustryassociation.org/blog/complaint-against-belive-tv
AIA Complaints Department Is Now Receiving Complaints
Finally AIA Members have started to submit details of problems they are experiencing sex and adult entertainment industry.
Unless AIA members submit complaints, our association can not do its work. The core objective of Adult Industry Association is to address problems in the industry and to find solutions.
For details about our Complaints Department, go to https://adultindustryassociation.org/complaints
In response to the the removal of an episode of AIA Live from the Belivers Facebook Group, the Founder/President of AIA Charlie Spice sent a complaint letter to the management of Belive.TV.
Below is a copy of the email.
On Wednesday, 29th Jan 2020, an Admin removed our episode from the Belivers Facebook group, citing that the content was in breach of the following group rule.
Source Media: Slixa.com
In George Orwell's novel 1984, we see a dystopian world that has fallen under a "big brother" type of government monitoring system.In fact with shows like Big Brother on TV, it is worth mentioning that this is where the term originates. Though Orwell published this book way back in 1949, it is having increasingly more and more relevance in our modern world. What this book, however, illustrates is one of the ultimate questions we as a global society are going to have to answer eventually: Is public safety more important than individual privacy? For Sex Workers such as escorts, (who the world over are more often than not highly criminalized) this could have even more detrimental and devastating effects to our abilities to make a living and provide for ourselves and our families. In many ways, we are already having to make a lot of these decisions around privacy and safety with the advent of online sex work platforms.
Firstly, let us talk about what facial recognition is and how it works. According to the Iowa Department of Transportation as reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, when a facial recognition image is captured first one's eyes are located and mapped out. Then, the rest of the facial shape is mapped out including distance between eyes, nose and chin. The final process is one by which the infographic is turned into a mathematical algorithm for one's face which is then used by the search engine to find duplicates. Facial recognition is already used in some countries and is used here in the U.S. to some extent in certain cities among law enforcement, ICE and at airports, border crossings and even at the DMV to detect fraud. It has even been used at the Olympics and will be used again in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Facebook this past week has even rolled out their own facial recognition software, which they say will be left off by default unless someone deliberately turns it on. For now. Facebook has also said that the purpose of the software is to be able to send alerts to users whenever their face turns up on Facebook, so a user could either tag themselves in a status or report a fraudulent account.
Sex workers are already facing big threats to livelihood without facial recognition software being commonplace. In April 2018 the U.S. feds seized Backpage and several days later FOSTA/SESTA (house and senate bill respectively) were passed rolling back the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Communications Decency Act of 1996. This meant not only that third party internet content could be used to hold website owners responsible for any illegal activity on their platform, but it essentially conflated adult, consensual sex work with sex trafficking and removed any legal distinctions between the two, instead preferring to classify any form of sex industry labor as sex trafficking. The internet is rapidly becoming a less and less predictable means for sex workers to make income and survive and facial recognition software only compounds these vulnerabilities.
For Sex Workers such as escorts, there are a huge host of issues that facial recognition poses. For one, if a sex worker got caught up in the legal system, then it would be very easy for law enforcement to find a digital trail of crimes committed online. Every sex worker with an online ad would now be easy to connect to the crime of alleged prostitution if and when building a case. Even worse, that cop who pulls you over for speeding or a broken tail light can simply go on an ipad or smartphone and run a current photo against a database of other photos of your face taken from your online presence, including social media and other online sites catering to adult companion advertising and others. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to then come to the conclusion that facial recognition could not just mean the end of online sex work as we know it, but also possibly even street-based/outdoor work as well, as outdoor sex workers have more frequent encounters with police who may run their photos against a database. Without the surface web, the options for sex workers to advertise online would have to move completely to the dark web where web pages are password encrypted multiple times and one must use a special onion router (like TOR) to even access dark web pages. The dark web isn’t just used for criminal activity (though a significant portion of it is for that), in fact many journalists such as Edward Snowden have had to use the dark web. The downside is that it does require a certain amount of tech-savvy and wouldn’t be the kind of thing most people looking for adult companionship online would probably find too user friendly. The other potential option for the transmutation of online sex work would be for ads to become strictly written word, without photos. A prospect that is undoubtedly hard to imagine becoming a successful alternative. Street based sex work might also cease to be an option if there are face recognition cameras on the streets.
The other, more theoretical issue this causes Sex Workers, is the propensity for these technologies to be used to quell free speech. In the death of Freddie Gray, the Baltimore Police Department ran the faces of the protestors against their social media presence and were able to thusly arrest said protestors by building an impromptu case against them. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation face recognition technologies are especially inaccurate at properly identifying people of color, women and youth. What this also means is more marginalized sex workers - those of color, women and young people- will be at even higher risk of being arrested and jailed for a crime they did not commit. There is already a disproportionately higher incidence of African American and Latinx people in these databases simply because of racist law enforcement arrest practices. Similarly, if public street cameras were installed it begs the question, what would undocumented folks do? This would obviously pose a huge danger to their safety and ability to live a peaceful, normal life or really any life at all in the United States.
Facial Recognition is scary, but it's also something that isn't going away. In fact, it only stands to become a bigger and bigger part of our daily lives. In George Orwell's novel 1984, one of the key messages seems to be about us as a society not becoming so complacent that we end up complicit in our own demise as a civilization. In the age of Trump and an incredibly important approaching presidential election, I do believe no message could be more relevant.
