Adult World News

Harry Reems was the stage name of one of the most active and popular pornographic actors of the 1970s and star of the 1972 cult classic, Deep Throat. He died on March 19, 2013 at the age of 65 from pancreatic cancer.

Reems's famous appearance in Deep Throat led to his arrest by FBI agents in New York City in July 1974, and indictment in June 1975 on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines.He was convicted in April 1976 with 11 other individuals and four corporations. His conviction was overturned on appeal in April 1977, because his activities in making the film occurred before a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on obscenity in 1973 (Miller v. California), and Reems was granted a new trial. The charges against Reems were dropped in August. Reems's defense claimed that he was the first American actor to be prosecuted by the federal government merely for appearing in a film, and he received considerable support from established Hollywood and New York celebrities during his trial.

Here's a small selection from his 189 appearances listed on iafd.com

Amazing Dr. Jekyll	1975
Butterflies	1974
College Girls	1976
Deep Throat	1972
Deep Throat 2	1986
Deep Throat 2	1974
Devil in Miss Jones 1	1973
Forced Entry	1974
Grafenberg Spot	1985
Loose Ends	1985
Meatball	1972
Memories Within Miss Aggie	1974
Sex Wish	1976
Sometime Sweet Susan	1974

French sex workers are hopeful of being able to return to French city centres in their traditional attire after President Hollande's government moved to lift restrictions that forced many to work in jeans and anoraks.

In the latest French move over the world's oldest profession, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the minister for women's rights, said the Head of State would repeal a ten-year-old law designed to curb prostitution in France.

The announcement represented a notable victory for French call-girl unions, who demonstrated in Paris over the weekend as part of their campaign against what they describe as police harassment.

However, lest people celebrate to quickly, the Government seems to be seeking a replacement which could easily be a lot worse.

Minister of Women's Rights Najat Belkacem-Vallaud said Saturday in Le Parisien that the campaign pledge of Francois Hollande on the repeal of this offense would be honoured...But...

A proposal for comprehensive law on prostitution and trafficking should be developed by the fall, she said, adding that penalizing the client was an avenue among others.

In the meantime Senator Esther Benbassa has filed a bill to repeal the offense of soliciting, which will be debated in the Senate on March 28.

Language that would ban all online pornography throughout the EU has been dropped from a report approved by the European Parliament but other worrying aspects of the policy remain.

Christian Engstrom, MEP with Sweden's Pirate Party, explained to RT:

The European Parliament said no to turning Internet service providers into porn police, and they said no to setting up authorities to regulate media.

The controversial wording about a porn ban was dropped following a show of hands but controversial proposals calling for the creation of regulators with the power to police the depiction of women in media were voted through.

MEPs voted for the establishment of independent regulation bodies with the aim of controlling the media and advertising industry and a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls.

The report also still contains references to an earlier resolution passed by the parliament in 1997 which calls for statutory measures to prevent any form of pornography in the media and in advertising.

Marina Yannakoudakis MEP, the Conservative spokesman on women's rights and in the European Parliament, remained critical of proposals despite the dropping of the ban.

This would be a charter for ultra-feminist interference in the way countries choose to run their media systems

As such it would do women and women's rights more harm than good

The report Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU is nominally about improving rights for people across the gender spectrum. The Dutch gender extremist MEP for the Socialist Party, Kartika Tamara Liotard, tabled the report in the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) late last year.

Although the resolution accepted by the European Parliament is not legally binding, it can be used as a basis to form legislation.

The European Parliament will vote next Tuesday on a report that could lead to a blanket ban on pornography in any forms of media, not limited to advertising, television and radio, but also the Web.

Titled Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU , the report is nominally about improving rights for people across the gender spectrum. The report states that there is an increasingly noticeable tendency... to show provocatively dressed women, in sexual poses it also notes that pornography is becoming mainstream and is slipping into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealised, cultural element.

Christian Engstro m, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Pirate Party, said on his blog that the devil is in the detail. He warned that the wording in older resolution from 1997 could lead to statutory measures to prevent any form of pornography in the media.

A Dutch PC extremist for the Socialist Party, Kartika Tamara Liotard, tabled the report in the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) late last year. In one section of the new report, Liotard calls on the European Union to enforce a blanket ban on pornography in the media of the the 27 member states, which could also include online pornography. The report makes several calls on the EU:

Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism.

Points out that a policy to eliminate stereotypes in the media will of necessity involve action in the digital field; considers that this requires the launching of initiatives coordinated at EU level with a view to developing a genuine culture of equality on the internet; calls on the Commission to draw up in partnership with the parties concerned a charter to which all internet operators will be invited to adhere;

Calls on the Member States to establish independent regulation bodies with the aim of controlling the media and advertising industry and a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls;

This initiative report, which will be voted on is not a draft legislative measure, though it is a report to suggest that legislation should be in the future drafted and voted on.

Update: News makes the UK press

9th March 2013. See article from telegraph.co.uk . Thanks to David & MsDemmie

MEPs to vote on EU ban on all forms of pornography MEPs will next week vote on a ban on all forms of pornography including censorship of the internet in a bid to eliminate gender stereotypes that demean women.

Update: Voted Down

12th March 2013. See article from news.cnet.com

EU politicians have voted against a pan-European ban on all forms of porn, including on the web, at least for now.

European citizens can breathe a sigh of relief after a vote in the European Parliament has rejected proposals to ban all forms of pornography -- including on the Web -- in the region.

The European Parliament voted in favor of the report, but rejected the porn ban section.

Today, 625 members of the European Parliament voted 368-159 in favor of passing the report, which aims to stamp out gender stereotypes in the region, with 98 abstaining. However, the controversial porn ban section of the proposal was rejected.

This vote forms a majority opinion based on Europe's voting politicians, from which the European Commission can form legislation. Such a law would again be voted upon, and become legally binding in the 27 member state bloc of the EU.

Because the opinion of the parliament has now been made, it will make it extraordinarily difficult for the Commission to draw up similar porn-blocking legislation only to pass it back to the parliament for another vote.

Universal Studios has completed a settlement with the makers of Fifty Shades of Grey: A XXX Adaptation .

According to a court filing, Smash Pictures will make a payment of a confidential sum to payoff the lawsuit and will also consent to a permanent injunction that will prohibit the distribution of the XXX Adaptation.

Smash Pictures and James Lane (aka Jim Powers) thought the story was a natural adult movie, so they made one. Smash exec Stuart Wall told a newspaper, Since they are going to make a mainstream [film] of the books too, dabbling in the adult world, we're choosing to go with a XXX adaption which will stay very true to the book and its S&M-themed romance.

Slapping a parody tag onto the title wasn't enough to keep Universal from protecting its rights. Along with Fifty Shades Ltd., the copyright owner of the original material, a lawsuit was filed in November that called the XXX Adaptation a willful attempt to capitalize on the reputation of the book.

Another bid will be made to decriminalise prostitution in South Australia. Labor MP Steph Key will introduce new laws to parliament next week to decriminalise all forms of sex work.

The new bill will require owners of brothels to register their business with consumer and business services to allow for more regulatory controls. Ms Key said sex workers would be required to go through the same planning approvals as other businesses.

With MPs to be given a conscience vote, she believes the legislation will pass this time after her previous attempt in November last year was rejected.

But Family First MP Dennis Hood said the legislation was being brought back to parliament just 12 sitting days after it was voted down. Hood claimed it would be a waste of time to have another debate on the issue.

Police in Stockholm were surprised to find that a man they had arrested for buying sex from a sex worker was the duty prosecutor to whom they were obliged to report the crime.

The chief prosecutor had spent the evening enjoying the company of  a female prostitute in a central Stockholm hotel. A police squad, however, had been tipped off and was waiting for him in the staircase outside the room.

Police were surprised to learn of the man's status while arresting him, as he was the prosecutor on duty to whom they should report the crime.

The victim of Sweden's PC extremism had paid 1,500 kronor ($232) for the sex, according to the Expressen newspaper. He told Aftonbladet that in his experience as a prosecutor, he knew that the stupidest thing he could do was to lie:

I have done what I've done, I'm standing with my pants down. The worst is what I have done to my family and friends.

PC extremists on Amsterdam Council have voted to increase the legal age for prostitution from 18 to 21 as part of a series of new regulations aimed at repressing the sex industr.

The city council decision will be now be written into local bylaws, along with closing hours for brothels and red-light windows between 4am and 9am. Dutch language tests will also  be introduced for the same reason. A council spokesman claimed:

Younger women tend to be more vulnerable. This is part of a set of measures designed to tackle abuse in the sex industry, and strengthen the independence of prostitutes. The logic of the language tests is the same: if women get into trouble, they need to be able to communicate.

In addition brothel managers will have to produce business plans which show how health and safety regulations, particularly in relation to working hours, are being applied to their employees. If they are renting windows to individual prostitutes, the businesses will have to produce contracts showing the price being paid and any other conditions.

How will the courts decide what constitutes porn?

The question of what exactly constitutes pornography, as always, is problematic no matter where such laws might be implemented. Sex is sex is sex, you say? People pay to watch fully-clothed women do unspeakable things to bowls of jelly specifically for the purposes of sexual arousal. The I know it when I see it obscenity argument, aka the Hicklin Test, is indicative of the sort of thinking that usually surrounds such issues. Would we have to appoint a Pornfinder General?

What about your own naughty photos? Would they be banned too?

People would rightly be concerned about the status of private entertainment. Would partners taking naughty pictures of each other for their private consumption be prosecuted? Or is it only paying for it that's considered problematic? In that case what about the people in Iceland who pay to advertise on swinger's websites or go to fetish club nights? Britain's culture of swinging, dogging, and fetish clubs is leaps and bounds beyond Iceland's, by the way. How can you tell the difference between images produced for free and images produced for pay, or who the intended audience is? And who gets prosecuted?

How do you delete people's hard drive?

Finally there is the reality of porn consumption in countries like Iceland and Britain that have had longstanding access to internet porn: people who view porn online don't just stream it, they save it. Would it be possible to eliminate the porn already in the country? Of course not. Would it be feasible to stop people from being able to share it through peer-to-peer applications, email attachments, and the myriad other ways of transferring files? Unlikely. Is any government prepared to institute and pay for a system by which all of the country's electronic traffic passes through some checking bottleneck?

People can and did exchange contraband information long before the advent of the internet. They always will. And if so, be prepared for early-90s computing skills re-emerging - you know, back in the pre-World Wide Web days when internet porn collectors used to share and decode files. Simply applying some iteration of a pink block filter wouldn't stop this.

Extract: Even Russia Today has published an article about the stupidity of porn blocking

24th February 2013. See  article from  rt.com

A former MI5 agent Annie Machon warns, this could be a slippery slope to even more censorship from the government.

RT: If Iceland introduces this ban, what effect would that have on the rest of the world?

AM: I think it is unlikely that they will introduce it. But if they do, then I think it is very quickly going to be seen as failed. As I said people will find a way to tunnel around it, they will be up against the innovation of the porn industry. So, it would probably be a failed experiment within a year or two. But I think if a western country seen to be doing this it will be a justification for other more totalitarian regimes to say Well, you know, Iceland's doing this. So we can do it, too. And of course it might well encourage ill thought out policies in other western democracies.

RT: Critics have been pointing out that censorship technology is linked to surveillance technology. If Iceland gives the green light to this ban, can we be sure it will be just about child protection?

AM: We absolutely can't. As soon as you start allowing certain technologies to be input onto the internet to stop and censor certain information they will be misused by police, by intelligence agencies and as soon as we are aware that the internet is being censored and we might be being watched or monitored all times, then we start to self-censor as well. We will not download books or information as freely as we might in case it might be deemed radical or subversive and we are going on some domestic extremists hit-list. And then, of course, we self-censor what we say on the internet as well. So, it will be very quick to slide in some sort of Orwellian big brother dystopia.

...Read the full article

Amsterdam moralists of the local council are considering going it alone with repressive attacks on the sex industry after efforts to get their way at that national level appear to have failed.

In particular, the council is considering raising the legal age to become a prostitute from 18 to 21 and introducing a language test. A council spokesman claimed:

A language test is important because it will not only enable the prostitute to speak to police and social workers but take care of herself in an emergency situation.

The proposals will be discussed by the city council executive next week.

The upper house of parliament is currently considering legislation which would require all prostitutes to register as sex workers. It would force clients to check whether the prostitute is registered or not. Both these requirements have come in for heavy criticism.

The former Stringfellow's Club in Dublin has given way to a bargain shop (A 2 Euro shop).

The club originally opened in February of 2006 but failedto attract a sufficient number of customers and ceased to operate in July of that year. Local nutters took credit for the failure after organising pickets and the like.

The building has been disused ever since so the nutters are pleased that it has finally found a use. Independent councillor Christy Burke said the new shop will bring a bit of vibrancy and employment . It will bring a bit of life and it is better what was there .

Canadian drink censors have ordered stores in the province of Manitoba to remove bottles of Ron de Jeremy rum from shelves. The bottle features an image of Jeremy's face on its label above the slogan the adult liquor

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries spokeswoman Andrea Kowal explained that they erred on the side of caution after it received several complaints.

But on Thursday the rum was back in stores, after the drinks censors changed their mind and deemed the bottle unoffensive.  Kowal told Canada's The National Post:

There's nothing offensive about the name of the product or its label; you have to know who Ron Jeremy is and what his former profession was --- and then that has to offend you,

The man behind the Ron Jeremy-dedicated booze said he was thrilled his product was back on shelves.

The Anti-porn campaigners of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have announced that Assemblymember Isadore Hall III hasintroduced Assembly Bill (AB) 332, which would change the California's Labor Code to require that adult movie actors use engineering and work practice controls when performing sexual acts in adult movies.

Specifically, the bill would create a new Section:

An employer shall maintain engineering and work practice controls sufficient to protect employees from exposure to blood and any potentially infectious materials. Engineering and work practice controls shall include, but are not limited to, the following:

Provision of and required use of condoms and other protective barriers whenever acts of vaginal or anal intercourse are filmed.

Also under the definitions section of the bill, the diseases which the protective barriers are to be effective against include not only HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, [and] hepatitis, but also genital human papillomavirus infection, and genital herpes, both of which can be transmitted by any bare-skin contact between an infected person and a non-infected person. Hence, it would appear that the only way to prevent transmission of all of the listed diseases would be for performers to attempt to have sex while wearing full-body hazardous material ( hazmat ) suits.

Miserable Tokyo police have targeted brothels for the elderly.

A Japanese woman has been arrested for allegedly running the brothels. Local TV news reported that 10 women aged in their 40s to 70s were working in one of the brothels, whose main clientele were men and women drawing a pension.

Sex workers advertising on Facebook and Twitter Sex workers are openly using Facebook, Twitter and other social media to openly advertise their services.

Sex workers and escort agencies have created hundreds of unrestricted pages on Facebook. Now prohibitionists are claiming that they are 'thinking of the children' when having a whinge about the website.

Pages supposedly include explicit photographs, descriptions of services alongside phones numbers, addresses and prices.

Facebook has removed dozens of the pages after being contacted by The Times newspaper. The site said it has a clear set of rules and these pages broke them , but said it could only take action when offensive items were reported to them by members of the public.

The postings were also reported to Twitter, but the microblogging site declined to comment or take action. Under the company's rules, content would need to be illegal to be considered in breach of its terms and conditions. 

According to The Times, a parliamentary committee on prostitution has pledged to investigate the problem after the 'revelations'.

Mills Kelly, from George Mason University in the US, who has studied the impact of the internet on prostitution, said:

If you want an escort or sex worker in any major city in the world, Facebook is a good place to start your search.

LodgeNet, a major distributor of adult entertainment through its hotel cable TV network, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection..

US nutter campaigners will be well pleased, they have been campaigning against hotel room porn for quite a while. Unfortunately for them it probably just means that people are downloading or bringing their own porn.

LodgeNet said that fewer hotels used its services --- 1.5 million currently, down from two million in 2009 --- and guests ordered fewer pay-per-view movies. For years LodgeNet has been under threats posed by laptops, streaming Internet TV and portable devices. But prior to the boom of portable electronics, the hotel room was a virtual monopoly for cable TV suppliers. One of its most lucrative areas is porn. Analysts back in 2011 speculated that about half of the company's revenue came from adult entertainment.

Eastbourne Borough Council are putting political correctness ahead of basic humanity by investigating a nursing home that allowed residents to enjoy a bit of sex life.

Managers at Chaseley, a nursing home caring for 55 people in Eastbourne, East Sussex, had been compassionately assisting residents to arrange for sex workers and entertainers.

Staff had kindly been phoning sex workers who met residents in a special room. A red sock is put on the door handle so they are not disturbed. Such visits are known there as a special visits . Care workers said the sex surrogates were therapeutic and experts claim they are a basic human right .

Sue Wyatt, Chaseley's manager, confirmed prostitutes were welcomed but said staff no longer made the calls to them directly. She said:

People have needs, so sometimes we might need to set up a room in a certain way. We are there to help.

We use a private consultant who arranges everything. She puts people in touch with people. We respect our residents as individuals so that's why we help this to happen.

The home's former manager Helena Barrow Explained that residents always paid for the call girls themselves:

Sex workers are allowed by law to sexually enable people but care workers are not.

If someone asked, we'd often call in a professional. It's known as a resident's 'special visit'. We'd help them with the phone, dial the number, or use the computer to contact someone. If we refused, we would not be delivering a holistic level of care.

But East Sussex County Council has launched an investigation into possible exploitation and abuse of vulnerable people. A council spokesprat said they had been unaware of Chaseley's policy and did not welcome it. He spewed:

This has the potential to place vulnerable East Sussex residents at risk of exploitation and abuse.

Chailey Heritage Foundation, which works with the Sexual Health and Disability Alliance, who campaign for disabled people to be allowed access to sex workers, helped Chaseley develop its policy. Denise Banks of the Foundation said:

If someone asked us to contact a sex worker for them, we would have to be open to that. If we resisted we would be going against the Human Rights Act.

Dr Tuppy Owens, of the Sexual Health and Disability Alliance, said:

Many disabled people are living in perpetual frustration. If someone wants to access a sex worker they should be allowed to do that.

The Authority for Television On Demand (ATVOD) has written to Culture Secretary Maria Miller proposing that banks should withhold payment processing to international porn sites that don't implement its ludicrously impractical age verification requirements.

ATVOD urged the Government to target banks and payment processors which facilitate the provision to UK consumers of hardcore pornography without age verification.

It claims that blocking payments, estimated to total about £ 180million a year from British customers, would be a significant step towards child internet safety.

Under the proposal, banks and other payment processors would receive a blacklist of all companies making pornography available without extreme age verification. The banks would then be responsible for ensuring that no British customer could make a payment to any of those companies.

Peter Johnson, of ATVOD, also claimed that overseas companies are potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act. He admitted that the most popular porn sites often offer free hardcore pornographic images and video clips. He added:

Banks will deploy lots of arguments as to why they shouldn't be the gatekeepers for this. 'But following the money and making it difficult for these sites to earn it would be a powerful step towards reducing children's exposure to hardcore pornography.

The Government's Mary Whitehouse, Claire Perry welcomed the proposal. She said:

Recruiting the financial services into the attempt to try and make websites more responsible is a very, very good idea. There is a collective responsibility here.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the report will be considered carefully as part of a recent communications review.

A group has been set up in parliament presumably with the intention of further repressing the sex trade in the UK. The All Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade (APPG) include anti prostitution campaigners such as Fiona Mactaggart. 

Note that despite sounding like a government group, this whole project is financed by  CARE (Christian Action Research and Education): a well-established mainstream Christian charity providing resources and helping to bring Christian insight and experience to matters of public policy and practical caring initiatives, according to themselves.

The stated goal of the group is:

To raise awareness of the impact of the sale of sexual services on those involved and to develop proposals for government action to tackle individuals who create demand for sexual services as well as those who control prostitutes; to protect prostituted women by helping them to exit prostitution and to prevent girls from entering prostitution.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade is launching an inquiry to assess the current UK legal settlement surrounding prostitution, and to identify how legislation to tackle demand could safeguard those in danger of sexual exploitation and abuse.

The group have launched an online Call for Evidence, a misnomer as they are just asking for opinions and feelings, no evidence at all. They have also created an online survey which reveals the intentions of the group in a series of leading questions with an assumption that those surveyed will support a ban on buying sex.

This is not the way to make a serious inquiry or hold a consultation. The online questionnaire is not long. Skip if you want to from the introductory palaver to where the questions begin. You may answer anonymously. You may answer as an individual. You may be anywhere in the world.

The deadline for responses is Monday 4 February 2013 at 16:00 .

Scottish politicians have called for an investigation into a website which introduces Scottish cash-strapped female students to sugar daddies in an effort to help them cover university costs.

The SeekingArrangement website claims the average college Sugar Baby receives approximately £ 5,000 per month to cover the cost of tuition, books and living expenses. The site describes sugar daddy dating as a mutually beneficial arrangement between seekers and finders where the sugar babies state the amount of money they expect to earn from the relationship and the sugar daddies state their budget.

Brandon Wade, chief executive officer and founder of the US-based site, which has two million members worldwide, said:

While some may argue that these women are just using men for their own personal gain, I believe that they are proactive in pursuing a higher education.

Unfortunately, because of the of recent tuition hikes, the college experience has become greatly unbalanced.

But Liz Smith, MSP, Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman claimed that such sites could put female students at risk.

I do not think I will be alone in having deep-seated concerns about this. I am sure there will be many parents, members of staff and indeed many students themselves who will rightly be very wary of the approach of this type of website.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay, a member of the education committee, said:

The company may like to spin this as students 'being proactive in pursuing a higher education' but I am very concerned that this may take are more sinister turn.

Updated: Corrected to absolve Scottish politicians of all blame

Thanks to Alan who kindly pointed out:

I know some Scottish politicians are sanctimonious, authoritarian dipsticks - especially the insufferable Johann Lamont and Nicola Sturgeon, but this time I think you're unfair to them. To give haggis-noshing politicians their due, they abolished tuition fees for Scottish students at Scottish universities. It's English politicians who have imposed fees that may encourage students to earn a bit of dosh as sex workers.

The Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has endorsed a bill that is pending in committee in the House of Representatives which would decriminalize prostitution but punish those who control and profit from the flesh trade.

The Anti-Prostitution Bill pending in the House committee on justice seeks to repeal the clauses under Articles 202 and 341 of the Revised Penal Code which punish women who, for money, engage in sexual intercourse, or lascivious conduct.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Dinky Soliman said the bill was one of the agency's priority pieces of legislation. The DSWD, however, clarified that it did not support the legalization of prostitution in the country.

Soliman said the bill would provide social protection to the victims and ensure the prosecution of persons who control and profit from the trade by exploiting the victims' poverty. The bill would also offer programs and services that would promote their economic well-being.

We all know that most, if not all, prostituted persons are forced to engage in this activity because of compelling reasons such as poverty if they are not victims of human trafficking. The government will continue to provide programs and services to uplift their economic well-being.

One of the UK's most famous madams is to open a brothel for people with mental and physical disabilities.

Becky Adams, who ran an illegal brothel for 20 years and wrote an award-winning memoir about her exploits in 2010, plans to open her sexual health centre in 2014, and has invested around £ 62,000 in the project.

Adams' memoir won 2012's Brit Writers Award as well as the Erotic Award, a prize given by Outsiders, an organisation helping disabled people lead full lives.

Adams, who currently runs Para Doxies, a non-profit telephone-based service where volunteers find trusted sex workers for people with disabilities, says such an organisation is vital for those with unique physical and mental problems, and that her clients have included boys with autism whose parents wish them to have some physical contact and injured soldiers returning from Afghanistan.

She now describes herself as a sexual activist and facilitator . Speaking to ABCNews.com, Adams said:

You cannot stop a disabled person from having a normal life or having the same opportunities of an able-bodied person - it's discrimination.

So I am a facilitator working on behalf of the person to find a sex worker - and it's completely legal. To refuse to do it is a breach of human rights. I act as their voice and limbs.

There are people who have literally spent their whole lives in institutions who have never had physical contact with anyone other than a nurse or doctor.

They have never been held at night by another naked person. And a person who cannot use his arms can't relieve themselves. Literally, they have no way of sexual release, but they have all these sexual feelings.

A year-long research project into people's attitudes to lap-dance and striptease clubs in towns and cities in England and Wales has found that most people are only concerned by them if they are situated too near their own homes or local schools.

Lead researcher Professor Phil Hubbard, of the University's School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, found that although many residents consider lap-dance clubs lower the tone of neighbourhoods, most do not consider clubs located in town centres to be a source of nuisance.

The research - funded by a £ 118,000 grant from the Economic and Social Research Council and jointly carried out by Dr Rachela Colosi of the University of Lincoln - is the first of its kind to study the regulation of the 241 lap-dance and striptease clubs in England and Wales and their impact on people's feelings of safety at night. It was prompted by the introduction of new powers to regulate Sexual Entertainment Venues under the Policing and Crime Act 2009.

Professor Hubbard said:

Opposition to lap dancing venues appears mainly based on perceptions that clubs normalize sexism and promote anti-social behaviour rather than any direct experience of crime. Our study did not uncover any evidence that these clubs cause more nuisance or crime than other night-time venues.

The majority of our respondents appeared unconcerned about clubs so long as they were not located near schools or places where they might be particularly visible to young people.

Professor Hubbard said that most local authorities have now adopted the new powers for licensing lap dancing clubs and have sought to develop guidelines indicating where clubs may or may not be located.

55% of all respondents in the research felt lap dancing clubs are appropriate in town and city centres. However, the majority of people felt lap-dancing clubs are inappropriate near to schools (83%) or religious buildings (65%). Very few (3%) felt clubs are suitable in residential areas, even though those living closer to them were no more likely than those living further away to report any nuisance being generated by lap-dancing clubs.

Around one in ten respondents felt that there is no suitable location for lap-dancing clubs whatsoever; women constituted the majority of these respondents, though it was also evident that those over forty were less tolerant of lap-dancing clubs than younger people.

However, not all clubs were perceived to have similar impacts on their locality. Some clubs were judged to be better managed and less likely to be lowering the tone, primarily on the basis of their external appearance. Signage or club names that implied sexual connotations were more likely to attract comments and anxiety, while blacked out windows appeared to arouse suspicion and were thought to lend some clubs a sleazy appearance .

Dr Colosi said: Those viewed as 'sexualising the street are most likely to cause offence, and create fear among those already fearful of the city at night.'

Ireland's Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality yesterday heard arguments for and against the criminalisation of buying sex.

It was good to hear of a little compassion from one lawmaker.

Senator Mary White said she had compassion for those who had no access to legitimate sexual relationships . She said people had an obvious psychological and physical need for sex and she asked if the selling of sex should not be legitimised to protect the buyer and the seller.

...Read the full article

GameLink.com , a porn site and on-demand adult video company, is holding a contest to see who can best integrate its video catalog with a motion control device similar to Nintendo's Wii or the Kinect technology on an Xbox 360.

GameLink in press release and via Jeff Dillon, a vice president claimed:

Leap Motion will be able to sense the user's hand and finger movements for direct 3D interaction with the screen.

Nobody wants to use their keyboard or mouse anymore -- why not just a flick of the hand. Porn is eventually going the way of Minority Report ... or a hologram thing like Tupac at Coachella.

So far Dillon's had some good ideas, like a Fleshlight -- a sex toy -- that syncs up with the video playing in front of you. He said that motion-control technology has come a long way, and that complete sex simulations are only a wham-bam-thank-ya-ma'am away.

Unfortunately both Microsoft and Nintendo are miserable gits when it comes to adult fun. They don't seem keen on allowing people to use their systems for this type of thing.

The US Supreme Court has agreed to review a First Amendment dispute over whether the United States can force private health organizations to denounce prostitution as a condition to get AIDS funding.

Justices said they will hear the government's appeal of a lower court ruling that found the anti-prostitution pledge, in a provision of federal law, violated the health groups' constitutional rights.

At issue is the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003. It requires groups seeking federal money to announce publicly that they oppose prostitution and sex-trafficking.

The government often attaches conditions to the receipt of federal funds, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the law went well beyond what is permissible.

Four organizations that work in Africa, Asia and South America filed a constitutional challenge to the law in 2005. A federal judge sided with the groups and a 2nd Circuit panel affirmed that ruling in a 2-1 vote. The majority said the rule doesn't merely force organizations to refrain from certain conduct, but also requires them to espouse the government's viewpoint.

The case probably will be argued in April, with a decision due by the end of June.

Two major US porn producers have taken legal action to try to overturn a law requiring porn actors in Los Angeles County to wear condoms.

Vivid Entertainment and Califa Productions say the measure violates the guarantee of free speech in the US constitution's First Amendment.

Condom usage is a big issue to porn producers as a sizeable proportion of viewers choose not to buy porn withy condoms.

Steven Hirsch, founder of the Vivid Entertainment, told AFP:

Overturning this law is something I feel very passionate about.

I believe the industry's current testing system works well.

The measure was pushed for by the anti-porn nutter group Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which said claimed it would shield actors from HIV, even though the current regime extensive testing has done a remarkably good job at keeping the problem at bay.

Adult production companies have threatened to move out of California because of the requirement, but there are other issues. A 1988 ruling by the California Supreme Court prevented producers from being prosecuted under anti-prostitution laws, and only one other state - New Hampshire - has a similar ruling.

A district court judge in South Korea has requested that the courntry's Constitutional Court review the constitutionality of a law punishing sex workers. Judge Oh Won-chan of Seoul Northern District Court argued in the request:

Sexual contact between adults, unless it involves coercion or extortion, should be left for the parties to decide in view of their right to self-determination. The current law does not reflect a change in social views that the state should not interfere in such matters.

There is little evidence that punishing sex workers is effective in curbing the sex trade. Also, they are some legal issues regarding how to draw the line between forced or voluntary prostitution.

Subject to the review is the clause 1, article 21, of the nation's criminal law which stipulates that both the purchasing and selling of sex carry a penalty of up to 1 year in prison or a fine of up to 3 million won.

This is the first time that the law on prostitution, enacted in September 2004, has been brought to the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court now must decide within 180 days and the original trial will be suspended until its verdict is out.

Prostitutes in one of Brazil's biggest cities are signing up for free English classes ahead of this year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.

Cida Vieira, president of the Association of Prostitutes in the city of Belo Horizonte, has said 20 women have already signed up for the courses. Classes are expected to begin in March and last up to eight months. Vieira explained:

It will be important for the girls who will be able to use English to let their clients know what they are charging and learn about what turns them on.

And for the same reasons we are also thinking of offering free French and Italian classes

Prostitution is legal in Brazil.