Amendment to crime and policing bill would make it criminal offence to profit from selling sex online
A ban on pimping websites has been proposed by MPs, as part of measures designed to rewrite legislation regulating the sexual exploitation of women.
Campaigners say ordering a woman to be sexually exploited has become as straightforward as ordering a takeaway online, with the proliferation of websites that allow buyers to browse images and videos of women, and refine their search by postcode.
A group of 59 cross-party MPs have signed an amendment to the crime and policing bill, to be debated on Wednesday, which would make it a criminal offence to “enable or profit from the prostitution of another person, including by operating a website hosting adverts for prostitution”.
The all-party parliamentary group on commercial sexual exploitation has published research saying that the ease and speed with which pimps and traffickers can now advertise their victims to potential customers has “turbo-charged the sex trafficking trade”.
