Tonight tens of thousands sex workers are devestated that their safer tool for finding clients is shutting down. Exploitative sex trafficking will continue unabated, but independent working people will be forced into more dangerous situations.
We cannot launch our project too soon [details in profile]. We will do what we can to prevent trafficking: asking for ID and verifying they have an escorting presence is a good start. Analytics to look at payment flow and see if one entity is controlling multiple escorts is another.
Asking for ID and verifying they have an escorting presence, but what if they don't meet your bar? What will you do if you suspect someone is a victim of sex trafficking? Your business model is "extra judiciary" so ... what does that mean for the sex trafficking victims you will invariably come in contact with? How are you specifically planning to change an industry that exploits people?
If they do not meet our bar then they will not be able to join for now. Over time we will increase our methods to verify escorts.
If we feel someone is not operating under their own agency we will disable their account.
Will this fix everything? No. But it is an improvement over existing systems. And we are open to suggestions. If there is broad user/community consensus on how we should handle some scenarios then we can implement those ideas. The critical part of being extrajurisdictional is that we are not compelled to take a specific approach therefore allowing us ethics over legality.
When you say "always" are you indicating you've been using the site roughly since its inception? I have, and my memory of its first 10 years or so does not match your description at all.
Good. Sorry, but if you are not being exploited through human trafficking then you are exploiting and taking advantage of your clients deepest emotions of loneliness and love for profit.
Anyone close to that industry will tell you that the majority of your money is made off "whales" just like in Mobile gaming. Whales that fall in love and spend 5 figures and up a year on one person. Not some construction worker wanting a quickie after a long day of work.
Where did this fantasy of sex workers being some kind of net positive for the world come from?
I don't feel sex work needs to be illegal, but I'm certainly not going to have much sympathy for that industry as a whole. Go into a profession that makes the world a better place. No better than Payday loan dealers.
Hilarious to read a comment equating sex work with mobile game design. And then being ok with oppressive rules against the former. On a tech site full of people working in the latter.
