What Australian Sex Workers Need to Know About The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) & Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) 97-2 in the USA
The United States Congress is currently moving forward to implement new legislation that will target Internet websites, including social media, in order to combat sex trafficking online.
These bills are known as the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) 97-2 bill and the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) bill.
This new legislation aims to fight online sex trafficking by making a website's owner legally liable if any user promotes or facilitates sex trafficking on their site. A website can be any website, large or small. For example: dating sites; personals / classifieds sites such as Craigslist, Cracker, Backpage, etc; Twitter; Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, forums and chat sites, sugar daddy websites, Snapchat, escort directories, etc.
Under current USA law, website owners can't be held legally liable if someone uses concealed terms and wording to solicit commercial sex (such as prostitution or erotic massage) through the website. This new FOSTA bill in will change that, opening up every digital platform to potentially serious legal and financial implications should it accidentally or knowingly "promote" or "facilitate" prostitution in any shape or form.
These bills are legislation for websites based in the United States of America. These bills do not seek to impose rules or laws upon Australians, Australian websites or Australian sex workers.
That said, many Australians, both sex workers and their clients, make use of websites and online businesses that are either based in the USA or their computer servers which are hosted in the USA.
The stark reality is that, yes, there are trafficked women, children and men online, and this is upsetting. However, trafficked women, children and men are unlikely to be found on websites that are expensive to advertise on, require photographic identification that matches their professional images, and whom also apply sound advertising verification processes.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ADVERTISERS ON AVAILABLE ANGELS?
Available Angels is Australian based, with Australian employees and Australian web servers.
Although we have an International Touring Page, whereby an escort can enter in a city of their preference globally, we do not expect our website to be impacted by these law changes in the USA.
These new laws in the USA are not targeting Australian sex workers or directly penalizing those who exchange sex for money. Prostitution remains illegal in several states within the USA, and if the US government wanted to target sex workers specifically, it would be easy for them to do so.
These new USA laws are primarily designed to penalize websites that are likely facilitate online sex trafficking.
"Low end" or free classified websites such as Craigslist, Cracker, Backpage and other free online classified personal dating websites are the main targets of the US government.
Some USA websites that have free classifieds directories and personal ads sections are shutting themselves down as the legal liability isn't worth the potential risk. As these websites offering free classifieds and free personal ads don't make a profit from these listings, there is little point in keeping them available and online when faced with these new laws.
WILL THIS AFFECT SOCIAL MEDIA?
Foreign websites such as Backpage, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat, Instagram and the like are privately owned companies. What rules and user agreements they choose to implement on their websites in order to comply with these US laws is entirely up to them. At the time of writing no changes have been made by the abovementioned major websites.
Australian sex workers will need to either need to abide by these user obligations, whatever they end up being, or look to promote their business on other platforms or via different means.
Worst case scenario, if the major social media companies, notably Twitter and Instagram, decide to remove all accounts held by escorts and sex workers, please be assured that you do not need to rely only on these websites to tweet and promote your services, tours and availability. Available Angels has always been the place for Real-Time escort promotion and marketing.
Since 2014 we have patented our Real-Time availability directory and hold exclusive rights to showcasing our advertisers in our Available Now galleries, boasting top placement on our main and city pages. Not only that, but our original subscriber notification service sends your availability status instantly.
These are just some of the features we provide to you as a part of our advertising packages on our website.
Available Angels is a legitimate Australian based directory and is a trusted brand in the industry. We have a rigorous verification process in place for all of our advertisers. We have the right to advertise you.
