I stay away from certain directories—if you can even call them that. I’m not blind to the number of provider directories out there, because there are a hell of a lot of them. Even so, not all of them can be trusted, and even the ones that can do have holes. You start to notice that the women being advertised on them aren’t always independent. Some are being held against their will and taken advantage of—hence things like the “Report Trafficking” button at the bottom of every profile on Eros. The U.S. does its part to try to minimize this growing problem, and now it seems the UK is stepping up on their side too.
We all know how easy it is to find providers now. Unlike back in the day, when you had to go to a certain part of town or a hotbed location, it’s nothing more than a click away. And when something is that popular, of course, people are going to take advantage of it. By people, I mean sex traffickers. The UK has noticed this and is paying extra attention to certain sites advertising providers in their country. One of the big ones on their radar is the very popular VivaStreet.
For those of us stateside who don’t know much about VivaStreet, just picture Backpage. That’s essentially what it is—a site where people buy and sell all kinds of things, one of them being sex. If you’ve been around in the hobby for a while, you remember the downfall of Backpage. For a long time it was the go-to for guys jumping into the hobby—until it was shut down by LE for trafficking and a laundry list of other charges. The UK is basically taking the same approach now, but being a little more thorough.
The UK’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, is leading the charge. As part of the investigation, she’ll be speaking directly with trafficked women to get an in-depth look from their perspective. Her team has been studying all the telltale signs of a trafficked victim: multiple ads for the same woman in different cities, or ads with different women all using the same phone number. Sound familiar? We’ve seen the same thing on directories here in the States. This committee isn’t pulling any punches—they know that since 2021, online escorting has risen dramatically, and without regulation, from their point of view, it’s only going to get worse.
But VivaStreet isn’t going down without a fight. They’ve made it clear they take steps to keep their site regulated. They abide by the Online Safety Act meant to protect users—especially kids. They claim to report suspicious ads to LE and use indicators informed by law enforcement to flag potential trafficking. On paper, they’ve got a solid defense.
Of course, with the commissioner targeting certain sites, independent providers could take a hit. Some of these sites have been safe havens for independent workers. But with them now being put under a microscope, providers could lose some of that safety—or worse, their anonymity.
No matter how you look at it, this is going to change things. It’ll take time, and as I said, VivaStreet says they’re already taking precautions to keep trafficking off their platform. Hopefully they can weather this storm and things can settle back to normal. Still, you can’t really blame the commissioner for wanting to stop trafficking. As much as it sucks, shitty people will use any system they can to exploit others, and if consensual workers get caught in the crossfire, sadly, that’s the cost.
Here’s hoping you UK boys don’t lose one of your main directories. For more information you can read the article.
We all know how easy it is to find providers now. Unlike back in the day, when you had to go to a certain part of town or a hotbed location, it’s nothing more than a click away. And when something is that popular, of course, people are going to take advantage of it. By people, I mean sex traffickers. The UK has noticed this and is paying extra attention to certain sites advertising providers in their country. One of the big ones on their radar is the very popular VivaStreet.
For those of us stateside who don’t know much about VivaStreet, just picture Backpage. That’s essentially what it is—a site where people buy and sell all kinds of things, one of them being sex. If you’ve been around in the hobby for a while, you remember the downfall of Backpage. For a long time it was the go-to for guys jumping into the hobby—until it was shut down by LE for trafficking and a laundry list of other charges. The UK is basically taking the same approach now, but being a little more thorough.
The UK’s Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, is leading the charge. As part of the investigation, she’ll be speaking directly with trafficked women to get an in-depth look from their perspective. Her team has been studying all the telltale signs of a trafficked victim: multiple ads for the same woman in different cities, or ads with different women all using the same phone number. Sound familiar? We’ve seen the same thing on directories here in the States. This committee isn’t pulling any punches—they know that since 2021, online escorting has risen dramatically, and without regulation, from their point of view, it’s only going to get worse.
But VivaStreet isn’t going down without a fight. They’ve made it clear they take steps to keep their site regulated. They abide by the Online Safety Act meant to protect users—especially kids. They claim to report suspicious ads to LE and use indicators informed by law enforcement to flag potential trafficking. On paper, they’ve got a solid defense.
Of course, with the commissioner targeting certain sites, independent providers could take a hit. Some of these sites have been safe havens for independent workers. But with them now being put under a microscope, providers could lose some of that safety—or worse, their anonymity.
No matter how you look at it, this is going to change things. It’ll take time, and as I said, VivaStreet says they’re already taking precautions to keep trafficking off their platform. Hopefully they can weather this storm and things can settle back to normal. Still, you can’t really blame the commissioner for wanting to stop trafficking. As much as it sucks, shitty people will use any system they can to exploit others, and if consensual workers get caught in the crossfire, sadly, that’s the cost.
Here’s hoping you UK boys don’t lose one of your main directories. For more information you can read the article.
