Sydney, Sep. 30 (ANI): A growing number of prostitutes in Australia are now finalizing sex deals through phone apps, according to a report.
Police have been targeting the clients of sex workers in the St Kilda area since last September, issuing more than 470 ban notices, and are now preparing to roll out on-the-spot 280 dollar fines for those caught soliciting sex.
But, halfway through the crackdown, police and welfare groups noticed that hookers were now using apps such as Grindr, Blendr and Skout to meet clients in unsafe areas
"If we do push them out of the area, they won't necessarily all leave the industry - and they'll either adopt online or they'll go and work in another location," The Age quoted a police official, as saying.
"We might be creating things that we haven't thought of yet," he added.
The under-age, transgender and male workers who already exist on the fringe of the street-sex trade are seen as more likely to be using the social apps. The apps were designed to encourage flirting and hook-ups between users, but can be easily adapted for soliciting paid sex, the paper said.
One welfare worker, Lee FitzRoy, said most street-sex workers she supported had smart phones and some were also using social media sites to arrange a meeting point with clients.
"One consequence of this is that it could be taking them to more dangerous areas for work," said FitzRoy, a program manager for Resourcing Health and Education in the Sex Industry.
A police official said those dangerous areas could include suburbs where there was a less-defined beat than Greeves, Grey and Inkerman streets in St Kilda, the paper said. (ANI)
null
|
|
Comments:
