Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips says tough new laws will give courts the power to suspend adult service sites behind sexual exploitation as MPs demand paying for sex is made illegal
Vile “pimping websites” have been warned “we’re coming for you” by a government minister.
Jess Phillips said it was “sickening” that traffickers are making huge profits from selling exploited women for sex online. The Safeguarding Minister said new laws will give authorities the power to ban adult services sites that facilitate sex trafficking.
But she stopped short of pledging to make it illegal to pay for sex despite growing calls from MPs. The Government is under pressure to change the law to target buyers and those who profit from exploiting others – while ripping up existing prostitution offences.
Ms Phillips told MPs it is “utterly despicable” that men post online reviews of women who are coerced into having sex. She said: “These men disgust me with their attitude towards women generally and also the suggestion that they should be able to pay for somebody’s horror and then give a bad review.”
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And Ms Phillips continued: “These sites – we know what they are – we’re coming for you.” She said legislation going through Parliament will allow courts to suspend websites behind sexual exploitation. And she said the Government will be publishing its strategy for tackling violence against women and girls later this year.
The remarks came after Labour backbencher Tracy Gilbert read out a number of sickening reviews posted about women online. Under current law it is legal to pay for sex and adult services websites – branded “supermarkets of the vulnerable” by critics – are not breaking the law.
Ms Gilbert told MPs that those who pay for sex must face prosecution. She said: “Sex buyers rely on being unseen while they ruin lives leaving us as a society and the individual women left to pick up the pieces of the carnage they cause.
“The demand from men who pay for sex fuel a brutal prostitution and sex trafficking trade. It’s funding predatory websites which make millions of pounds using women for sexual exploitation every day.”
And the Labour MP added: “The law must accept that prostitution is is violence against women.” It comes after Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi tabled amendments to the landmark Crime and Policing Bill calling for those who pay for sex – predominently men – to face prosecution.
Her proposals, backed by more than 50 MPs, would also tear up prostitution offences, which campaigners say trap exploited women from escaping their abusers.
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