Vulnerable teenagers are being recruited at school and university to sell sex under the guise of legal prostitution before being sexually exploited, a major report into modern slavery in the UK has warned. The report, titled ‘Behind the Profile’ and published on Thursday, draws on testimony from survivors and analysis of 62,900 adverts across 12 sex-for-sale websites.
Eleanor Lyons, the independent anti-slavery commissioner, warned that sexual exploitation of women and girls is on a “clear and sustained rise” in the UK, with pimps using the internet to reach new victims and advertise them online. Subscription platforms that sell sexual content are acting as a “gateway” to abuse, the report found.
Survivors said women and girls were sometimes offered discount codes for signing up to adult service websites and told it would lead to a life of glamour and financial independence. One survivor said platforms deliberately targeted young women by offering free premium accounts to students with a university email address. Another recalled a “university-issued manual” promoting prostitution as a way to pay off student loans.
The report warns there is a “concerning cultural shift in which sexual exploitation is increasingly mainstreamed and reframed as empowerment”. One survivor, who was from a stable, supportive family, said that the mainstreaming of online subscription platforms had made it seem normal. Another girl recalled being influenced to join a sugaring website by a school friend when she was just 16, which quickly escalated into selling sex.
Organised criminal gangs are using adult service websites to recruit, control and profit from vulnerable victims, the report found. One survivor described how online accounts create an illusion that the woman is acting freely, saying she was “being raped on webcam essentially” while viewers were unaware. Others said some men openly discussed having sex with trafficked women on the platforms.
