'Sex for rent' ads will be BANNED as part of Online Safety Bill
Social media firms who allow 'sex for rent' advertisements will face prosecution under planned new laws in the United Kingdom. The UK government said that it will bring in new laws to curb 'sex for rent' ads as part of its Online Safety Bill which aims to crack down on social media abuse and harmful content.
Minister for Safeguarding Rachel Maclean said that the bill will "capture user-to-user sites, where the majority of "sex for rent" advertising takes place". A list of offenses to be made a priority in the legislation published earlier this month includes "controlling, causing or inciting prostitution for gain".
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Offering housing in exchange for sexual favors is already against the law. However, there has only been one prosecution under current legislation despite claims that the practice is on the rise.
The House of Lords, supported by 206 votes to 176, ordered the creation of the Online Safety Bill as an attempt to reduce the abuse and harmful content circulated on social media. The bill was published as a draft on May 12, 2021. The government will now bring in a law to stop 'sex for rent' ads. The practice will be further tackled in the bill by placing "a duty on certain companies to take action in respect to content that is harmful to adults," Maclean said in a written answer to a question from Labour MP Barry Sheerman.
According to a BBC investigation in 2017, young, and vulnerable people were being targeted by classified ads offering sex for rent on websites like Craigslist. One student who had fled an abusive home and had nowhere to live said she felt she had no other option but to agree to the arrangement.
In response to that investigation, then-Justice Secretary David Lidington said 'sex for rent' deals were already a criminal offense under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Crown Prosecution Service guidance was updated to reflect this in January 2019.
However, Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse told Politics Home in 2020 that sex for rent was still on the increase despite the attempts to make the legislation work. She said, "The new guidelines have meant very little when it comes to being able to prosecute the landlords who take advantage of tenants in this way."
Until now, only one person has been convicted for the offense under this legislation.
In January this year, Labour peer Baroness Kennedy, director of the campaign group Generation Rent, highlighted the prevalence of sex for rent ads in the House of Lords. She said, "Predators online attempt to coerce men and women to exchange sex for a home by exploiting their financial vulnerabilities. Despite the adverts being clear in their intention, they go unchecked. They're placed without consequence."
She added, "They're largely ignored by law enforcement and the online platform providers."
According to research by polling company YouGov, nearly 1 in 50 women have been propositioned for 'sex for rent' in the last five years