Adult World News

US campaigners are a little 'disheartened' by the fact that porn is incrediblypopular. The organisation published an article on its PornHarms website from which the following is an excerpt:

With over 1.68 million visitors per hour, Pornhub was the world's largest pornographic video sharing website in 2013. Recently, their statisticians collected data from 2013 and summarized a few disheartening facts about pornography use around the world. This data was gathered from Pornhub's amazing 14.7 billion visitors!

Now 14.7 billion is a big number. In monetary terms, if you had 14.7 billion dollars, you could buy 150 Boing 737's. And in people terms, 14.7 billion is more than twice the population of the earth. In celestial terms, 14.7 billion years ago, scientists postulate the Big-Bang happened. Needless to say, Pornhub has created a destination for an amazing number of pornography purveyors.

On the average, a Pornhub visitor spends 8 minutes and 56 seconds on the site per visit and typically revisits the website six times a day. That's a 5.1% increase over 2012 figures. Americans spend the most time on Pornhub per visit at 10 minutes and 39 seconds.

Although there are various searches and videos available on Pornhub, users are drawn to the same search term worldwide. For the past two years, the search term teen has been the top search around the world. This search team alludes to the topic where the porn viewing public is digressing. The implication could be that sexual predators may be seeking younger victims.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is suing a brothel owner for opening a club bearing the initials DSK, the former IMF chief's widely used nickname.

Dominique Alderweireld, aka Dodo la Saumure , is set to open the Dodo Sex Klub in the town of Blaton in Belgium, where sex work and owning brothels are legal.

Strauss-Kahn's lawyers said they were suing Alderweireld for deliberately choosing a name that reproduces his (Strauss-Kahn's) initials which identify him to all.

Dodo la Saumure, who is currently facing charges in France of aggravated pimping and supplying prostitutes to Strauss-Kahn earlier told AFP that the name was a good publicity stunt. He said the name of the establishment, which will be staffed by seven girls, of whom one is a transsexual was commercially brilliant... as everybody talks about DSK.

Alderweireld has said he plans to open another sex establishment in Belgium called the Carlton, the name of a posh hotel in the northern French city of Lille where Strauss-Kahn attended sex parties.

Police in the Philippines say they have arrested dozens of suspects linked to an online blackmail syndicate.

The suspects persuaded people in foreign countries to expose themselves in front of webcams or send explicit material, police said. They then threatened to send the footage or photos to relatives unless payment was made.

Philippine National Police chief Allan Purisima said 58 people had been arrested in a probe involving Interpol. He explained:

The modus operandi of this group is to create an online account on social networking sites with the purpose of locating and attracting prospective clients, especially old male individuals abroad.

Whilst they created this account they would pose as Asian attractive females.

After getting acquainted with the victims... they'll invite and further entice their would-be victims to use video-call and engage in cybersex and this will be recorded, unknown to the victim.

The footage was then used to extort money, usually ranging from $500 to $2,000, he said.

The two clubs (Wildcats and Deep Blue) which appealed against Leeds City Council's decision not to renew their licence have failed to have this decision overturned at Judicial Review.

The decision confirms that the discretion available to local authorities to refuse renewal or initial license consent is very wide, and that restrictive policies can still be justified so long as there is a clear justification given.

The SEV Licensing Blog tellingly asks:

Which takes us back to the crux of the matter: who defines what is in the general public interest? Are local authorities consulting adequately to ensure different publics have their views felt? Do we trust Licensing Committees to balance the interests of the general public with the rights of those who want to run a legitimate business?

These questions are rhetorical, but need to be asked repeatedly given it is now clear that SEV legislation gives total power to local authorities to ban lap dance clubs in their locality so long as they justify that ban with reference to the public interest.

Meanwhile Wildcats is refusing to admit defeat and has launched a fresh challenge in the courts. Owner Paul Gourlay said:

We are disappointed to hear that we have lost our judicial review of Leeds City Council's decision to remove our license. We challenged the decision based on the council's new policy, that was taken despite the club having no complaints, disturbance issues or any kind of problem in the 12 months from the licence being granted in 2012.

The club's new challenge will focus on the way the council drew up its policy on lapdancing clubs which banned them from prominent areas and limited the total number in the city to four. Gourlay said the move had been:

Driven on moral grounds by a select few and this is firmly against the government's legislation on this matter. It is our view that the vast majority of people couldn't care what we do. We are a law abiding business, employing people and paying taxes, I continue to be at a loss to understand the council's behaviour. We will fight on and hope that we can win our case and make the council see sense.

High demand in Canberra's fly-in fly-out sex industry proves the Australian territory's prostitution laws should not be tampered with.

That is the message from Australia's most experienced brothel madam, Mary-Anne Kenworthy, who will open a new branch of her popular Langtrees brothel next week in Mitchell.

The 30-year industry veteran praised the ACT's laws on prostitution but called for better enforcement of health and safety regulations and further assistance for women to leave sex work.

She said demand continued to outstrip supply in the local sex industry, which resulted in as many as 20 women flying to Canberra each week to provide sexual services.

The new Mitchell brothel will feature seven luxury theme rooms, including Arabian Nights and Fantasia decor, as well as a cocktail bar and AAA service . There will be six women available on weeknights and as many as 12 at the weekend.

I work in Perth with probably about 65 ladies a week, and 80 per cent of those are fly-in, fly-out, Ms Kenworthy said. We'll have a lot of our Perth clientele who come to Canberra to work with government come and see us. I understand business is a lot more quiet when Parliament is not sitting.

Promising a complete guide to the sex industry, Ms Kenworthy called on parliamentarians to visit local brothels before travelling to Europe or Asia.

Police carried out inspections of Edinburgh's sex-for-sale saunas hours before a new system came into force that is likely to make brothel raids more difficult.

The prospect of endless challenges to the system led to councillors proposing that saunas should no longer be part of the licensing regime. The radical shift was approved in February and came in to force at midnight on March 7.

Prior to the change, officers conducted last-minute inspections of 12 saunas. No arrests were made. One insider said the 11th-hour inspections were undertaken as it was the last time police could freely enter the premises to check whether licensing conditions were being met. Police will now require a warrant, voluntary admittance, or the use of other police powers to enter the unregulated saunas, which will now fall under the council's trading standards regime.

Margo MacDonald MSP said Police Scotland had destroyed a settled policy and made life harder for officers: 

Last year's raids have backfired badly on the police. There was a successful policy in place for 30 years, but now the women have less protection and police will have less access to intelligence. Trust has been shattered.

Superintendent Matt Richards said: Police Scotland and partners planned and carried out routine inspections of Edinburgh's licensed saunas on March 7 as part our continuing commitment to harm reduction and protecting vulnerable individuals.

Dozens of Danish researchers have protested against the EU parliament's decision last week to recommend that EU member states criminalise the purchase of sex.

The 26 researchers, who specialise in the areas of prostitution, sex work, human trafficking and sexuality, have signed their names to a petition because they argue that criminalising the purchase of sex will lead to a more insecure existence for sex workers.

They further contend that the EU politicians are ignoring the vast research about the issue, including reports from the UN, World Health Organisation and Human Rights Watch, which recommend decriminalising sex work.

Christian Groes Green, a researcher at Roskilde University and one of the petition's signees, told tv2.dk:

When the EU chooses to ignore the research results, then it's down to ideological beliefs that it is morally wrong to sell one's body. The parliament has chosen to ignore all the international research that argues against criminalising buying sex.

The researchers point to Sweden where the criminalisation of sex work has weakened the prostitutes' trust in the authorities and driven them underground and made them more dependent on pimps and other criminals.

It's problematic that they have ignored the research and it goes against tendencies in other areas such as drug abuse, which has been decriminalised. Apparently, it is different with buying sex: a battle based on old-fashioned ideas and beliefs. That's why we've signed this protest.

Like the numerous popular sites offering reviews of travel destinations, video games, and restaurants, PunterNet.com is designed to help consumers choose where to spend their money. It is just that in this case the shoppers are (mostly) male customers, and the products are sexual services offered by women.

Protected by online aliases, men write reviews of sex industry workers they have patronised. Anti-sex work campaigners have selected some of the inevitable negative comments for an exhibition called Invisible Men . It is designed to turn the spotlight on men who use prostitutes and challenge social acceptance of the trade.

The words of male customers are superimposed on to blank white face masks and allowed to stand for themselves, with only a price tag added, to show how much the reviewer paid for the encounter.

After showing for two days at the annual Cosla conference in Edinburgh on Thursday and Friday, the same images will be on show to the public at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow from Saturday March 15 until Sunday March 23.

Glasgow City Council' said:.

We would encourage as many right-thinking adults in society to see it as possible. It does provide a unique insight into the reality of prostitution and how horrendous it is for the women involved.

Update: An Exhibition of Propaganda

11th March 2013. See  article from  heraldscotland.com

The Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow is facing calls from two prostitute support groups to cancel an exhibition about men who buy sex and their explicit views on the sex workers involved.

The adult video site Pornhub is planning its first ever national advertising campaign, and it's asking the public to help.

The limelight, the site is holding an open contest asking people to submit their best ideas for clever, safe-for-work advertising to run on television, in magazines, and on the Web. The winner will be awarded a one-year contract to be the site's first creative director. Pornhub.com Vice President for Marketing Corey Price said. He said that users frequently email him with their own marketing ideas.

PornHub is a sort of YouTube for porn, a place where people come to upload and watch free adult content. According to the online tracking company Quantcast, the site was visited by around 15 million unique users each month as recently as this past fall.

In the past year or so, Pornhub, one of a handful of adults sites owned by the company MindGeek, has worked to bring itself out of the shadows and into the mainstream. In early 2013, it ( perhaps facetiously ) sought to purchase a Super Bowl ad, but CBS rejected the ad on the grounds that CBS' policy prohibited it from promoting pornography.

Chauntelle Anne Tibbals , a sociologist who studies the pornography industry, said major corporations are unlikely to touch an ad for adult content, and that Pornhub's contest was likely a publicity stunt.

The contest will accept applications through March 31, with submissions being posted for the public to see at pornhubcampaign.tumblr.com. As an idea of what the site is looking for in a creative director, Price said the image above right had the appropriate level of humor without being explicit:

A group of moralist parliamentarians has recommended that people who pay for sex should be jailed or fined

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Prostitution and the Global Sex Trade is sponsored by the Christian campaign group CARE who acts as the group's secretariat

Chairman of the group is Gavin Shuker, a member of the Christian Socialist Movement and was previously leader of City Life Church in Luton. The rag tag army of moralists and religious nutters making up the group include Fiona Mactaggart, Gary Streeter, Philip Davies, Peter Bottomley, Andrew Selous, Julian Lewis, Julian Brazier, Steve Brine, Meg Munn, Heidi Alexander, Susan Elan Jones, Keith Vaz, Madeleine Moon, Virendra Sharma, Kerry McCarthy

The MPs and peers will recommend that the UK adopts a system whereby soliciting is no longer a punishable offence, but anyone who pays for sex is committing a crime.

Prostitutes who are caught loitering on streets plying their trade should be given anti-social behaviour orders rather than being prosecuted, the group will say.

Following a year-long moralist love-in, the group unsurprisingly concludes that the current law on selling sex is hopelessly confused, with 16 offences listed under five Acts of Parliament spanning 53 years.  The group argues that the apprehension and prosecution of prostitutes thwarts efforts to prevent women being drawn into the trade or support their exit from it. The report will call for all existing statutes to be wrapped into a single Act of Parliament, aimed at persecuting those who purchase sex, not those who sell it.

Fiona Mactaggart gloried in the chance to jail men:

The inadequacy of existing legislation has created lucrative market conditions that are exploited by criminal gangs profiting from the sale of women. This inquiry makes substantial proposals which could prevent this vile trade.

Niki Adams, of the English Collective Of Prostitutes, which campaigns for the abolition of prostitution laws, said:

Criminalising clients will not stop prostitution and won't stop the criminalisation of women who work as prostitutes. All it will do is make it more difficult for women to protect themselves and stigmatise sex workers even further.

Comment: Jailing all men

6th March 2013. From DavidT

There are about 32,000,000 males in the UK.

Mature, capable, active and interested in heterosexual encounters = 2,000,000.

If they were all jailed for 6 months they would each use 60 square metres of jail room including common areas.

That's 120,000,000 square metres.

That's 147 square miles.

Which is a hell of a big city.

Maybe these church do-gooders should take a maths course.

In sound bites, the Swedish Government has been spinning their sex purchase ban, known as the Swedish model or sometimes the Nordic model though it is not adopted by all Nordic countries, as a success. However, research does not show it has reduced sex trafficking or sex work. In addition, their own police report demonstrates it has pushed prostitution indoors with nearly three times as many Thai massage parlours in Stockholm and the vicinity:

...Read the full article

Hunted

See article from huffingtonpost.co.uk by Laura Lee

Now, let's think about sex workers' rights in the UK and Ireland. Again, here we have two groups, but the conflation now is consensual sex work versus trafficking/coercion. The first group believe the propaganda they read from abolitionists, you only have to look at my coverage of Abolition Scotland and their Nefarious road show to see just how inflated that information can be. This group really believe that those of us who have not been trafficked nevertheless require rescue because we are undoubtedly the product of a broken home, abuse, addiction, low self esteem - the list is endless.

The second group are far more heinous. They know very well that there is a vast majority of independent and content sex workers who just do our work and pay our bills. This group have met us, debated with us and tried every trick in the book to undermine us.

You're not representative, you're in an ivory tower. You consort with pimps, therefore your 20 years of experience is invalid. You are psychologically damaged, PTSD, therefore we cannot trust what you say.

...Read the full article

The European parliament has voted in favour of a resolution to criminalise the purchase of sex.

On Wednesday, 343 MEPs backed a report proposed by the London MEP and Labour spokeswoman for women in Europe, Mary Honeyball, which recommends legalising selling sex but criminalises buying it. Some 139 MEPs voted against;105 abstained.

The yes vote formally establishes the EU's stance on prostitution and puts pressure on member states to re-evaluate their policies on sex work. However it was not a binding vote that requires states to enact new laws.

Comment: Why the European Parliament Has Got the Sex Trade All Wrong

See  comment from  huffingtonpost.co.uk by Marina Yannakoudakis, Conservative MEP for London, Spokesman on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

I recognise that a great number of those working as prostitutes are doing so as a result of having being trafficked. The trafficking of human beings is akin to slavery, it is a criminal offence and every one of us has a moral duty to fight against it.

But the problem with the proposals which will be put before the European Parliament this week is that they don't acknowledge that some women - and men - choose to sell sex for a living. Whether we approve or not of such an activity, it is the case that some people enter into prostitution freely and without coercion or violence.

I don't believe that the EU should be telling anybody what to do and that includes what they do with their bodies. What's more EU member states have long held differing legal views on prostitution and it is not the job of Brussels to interfere in the legal matters and decisions of sovereign nations.

...Read the full comment

La Strada statement ahead of the vote in the European Parliament on the Report of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality on sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality

La Strada International (LSI), the European NGO Network against Trafficking in Human Beings, and its partners in the LSI NGO Platform, united against trafficking in human beings, strongly oppose the report by the FEMM committee, prepared by Rapporteur Mary Honeyball, which calls for criminalisation of clients of sex workers (the so-called Swedish model ) as the only prostitution policy that successfully combats human trafficking and protects the rights of trafficked persons.

The partners of the LSI NGO Platform have supported many women and men who were trafficked in the sex industry in the past nearly two decades. We know from experience that criminalisation does not solve any of the problems that our clients face, nor does it prevent or stop human trafficking.

Criminalisation stigmatises and marginalises both domestic and migrant sex workers and it deprives them of the tools to protect themselves from violence and seek redress. It drives the sex industry even more underground, which results in less access to health, social and legal assistance for sex workers, and significantly lower chances to identify individuals who have been trafficked.

We do acknowledge that the sex industry is one of the economic sectors in which human trafficking occurs, as it does in many other industries, in particular those where workers are invisible, unprotected, excluded and disempowered. Therefore, we believe that sex workers rights organisations, just as trade unions, are important allies in the efforts to protect workers from exploitation, violence and abuse and to prevent trafficking in human beings.

By equating sex work to trafficking in persons, the very complex phenomenon of human trafficking is narrowed down to a moral issue, an approach that fails to address the economic, political and social root causes of trafficking. Moreover, by doing so, trafficked persons in all other industries are not recognised and remain unprotected.

The conflation of sex work and trafficking in persons leads to inadequate counter-trafficking policies and to counter-productive prostitution policies. The two issues are both complex and need their own individual approach and policy. Furthermore, it leads to a polarisation in the international counter-trafficking debate, which takes away the focus from what is needed now the most: the protection of the rights of those who have been exploited, violated and abused.

The partners of the LSI NGO Platform - united against trafficking in human beings, therefore call on Members of the European Parliament to vote against Ms Honeyball's report on sexual exploitation and prostitution and to support the Alternative Motion for a Resolution on Sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality.

The Northern Ireland police force has withdrawn its opposition to proposals to criminalise men who pay for sex -- but stopped short of backing the plans, as they could deter people in the sex industry from giving information to the police.

The new law being proposed for Northern Ireland is based on repressive Swedish legislation.

Senior officers have also pointed out that most convictions in Sweden are achieved through phone tapping and surveillance of suspects -- which would not be allowed in Northern Ireland.

Giving evidence at a justice committee meeting yesterday, Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said:

We don't oppose it... if the Assembly passes this legislation, we will use it to the best effect we can.

However, he pointed out that men who paid for sex were already risking ridicule and knew they were taking a risk so it is difficult to assess how much effect the threat of prosecution would have .

ACC Harris and Chief Superintendent Roy McComb, who also gave evidence, pointed out that it was already an offence to have sex with a person who had been trafficked and that ignorance was no defence.

Six men have so far been arrested for this offence, but none of them have been convicted because of a legal time limit on how long police have to bring charges. That limitation is now being removed and police are hopeful it will help secure future convictions.

Sex workers in Spain will demonstrate in central Madrid against a plan to fine street walkers and their customers.

The sex workers' rights group Hetaira said it would rally on Saturday fearing that the plans will force them to work in dangerous conditions. The demonstration will take place at the foot of Calle Montera, a street next to Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square where prostitutes habitually stand waiting for customers.

Madrid city hall has drawn up proposals to fine those who pick up prostitutes in the street, while the national government plans to fine those offering or soliciting sex near schools or other children's areas.

The Madrid proposals would fine a person caught soliciting sex in public up to 750 euros, or up to 3,000 euros if it is done near schools or shopping centres.

Update: Protest report

18th February 2013. See  article from  libcom.org

Around 150 sex workers demonstrated on Saturday 15th Feb 2014 in Madrid, protesting against the criminalisation of prostitution and against the city government's Civil Space Ordnance and the Interior Ministry's proposed Law of Civil Safety.

Under the slogan, No to persecution, bargaining space now! the prostitutes marched and called for a space to work in peace, without disturbing and without being disturbed in the city, according to Karolina Hernandez, spokesperson for the Hetaira Collective and sex worker.

She condemned the new state and municipal regulations that damage prostitutes' working conditions. They also called for the Commission to meet with the organisation:

We'd like the local government to meet us, they talk about us a lot, all the world seems to know all about prostitution but very rarely do they talk to the people involved and one of those is us.

In reference to the local government campaign against sex workers' clients, Hernandez says:

I work freely in the streets, I have decided to do this on my own terms. I and many companions have freely decided to do this work. When campaigns punish our clients, this also affects me. It's absurd to say that it's in my favour, it's completely the opposite, it worsens my working conditions and my ability to negotiate with the client.

Men who are prosecuted for paying prostitutes in Sweden need help to prevent them re-offending, according to a government-commissioned report.

Anti-prostitution work needs to focus even more on men's role, according to the report entitled Men and Equality .

Tthe authors of the report claim that more needs to be done to target men who continue to pay for sex. Their recommendation to do more to prevent men going to prostitutes contrasts with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's call for a tougher approach, including the enforcement of prison sentences.

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have announced an impending three month-long anti-prostitution campaign, after a television expose in Dongguan prompted an oppressive raid.

The expose' and heavy-handed response have proved surprisingly controversial in China , where prostitution is technically illegal but practically ubiquitous. Internet users and human rights groups have criticised authorities for shaming and intimidating female sex workers rather than offering them help.

The UN estimates that four to six million women work in the country's sex industry nationwide, many of them in brothels thinly disguised as hair salons, massage parlours and karaoke bars.

In the expose, aired by state broadcaster CCTV, undercover reporters visited a range of upscale hotels and karaoke bars in the city of Dongguan, known as a prostitution hot spot. In one segment, a reporter enters a room divided by one-way glass; on the other side, two scantily-clad women dance provocatively to a Lady Gaga song. A venue employee identifies them by their numbers, prices, and hometowns.

The city responded to the broadcast by dispatching 6,525 police officers in a raid. They arrested 67 people and closed 12 entertainment venues. Pictures posted online showed lines of men and women kneeling on the floor in the middle of a hotel lobby, their heads down and their hands cuffed, surrounded by scores of uniformed police.

Guangdong authorities will now launch a three-month, province-wide crackdown on prostitution. Local police officers who are found protecting the sex industry or who organise sexual services will be severely punished, said Li Chunsheng, the province's vice-governor.

In addition to a news feature on China Central Television about the corruption of the sex industry in Dongguan, the official Sina Weibo published an eight-hour population in-flow and out-flow map of Donguan city, which has been interpreted as the escape path of prostitutes and prostitution clients during the crackdown. Generated by Baidu Qianxi with data from Baidu map, the map indicated that most people fleeing the crackdown escaped to Hong Kong.

Originally, Baidu Qianxi was designed as a visualization tool that could map population flows during the Chinese Lunar New Year. But as Luo Changping at Letscorp pointed out [zh], the fact that Baidu Qianxi was able to appropriate the data surrounding the prostitution crackdown suggests that authorities are using mass surveillance to track these patterns, rather than only targeting criminal suspects, and thereby violating the personal privacy of untold numbers of citizens.

The use of geolocation tracking technology in this crackdown by the party propaganda authority indicates to the public that the police authority, through Baidu and other mobile application developers, is capable of tracking mobile phones and thus the real identity of individuals, as nearly all mobile numbers are linked with the owner's identity card. In reaction to this threat, many Hong Kong netizens said that they planned to shut down their mobile when traveling in China.

Update: Police chief sacked

15th February 2013.  See  article from  theguardian.com

The Chinese government has sacked the police chief of Dongguan following a report by the main state broadcaster, China Central Television (CCTV), on the underground sex industry there, the Xinhua news agency has reported.

Yan Xiaokang, who was also Dongguan's vice mayor, was removed from his posts for dereliction of duty, Xinhua said, quoting Communist party officials in Guangdong province.

Yan's dereliction of duty led to the persistent illegal sex trade in Dongguan, which has reflected very badly on the city, both domestically and internationally, Xinhua reported, citing a party statement. It added that another seven Dongguan officials were also sacked in relation to the case.

Each evening thousands of tourists stroll down the narrow canal-side streets of Amsterdam's famed Red Light District, gawking at ladies in lingerie who work behind windows. Now a small new educational museum in the heart of the district shows the reality from the other side of the glass.

Organizer Melcher de Wind says the Red Light Secrets museum is for those who want to learn more about how the area works. I

The museum focuses on the era since 2000, when prostitution became legal in the Netherlands. Yolanda van Doeveren, who manages the city's prostitution social programs, says the district is regulated by police officers, social workers, health workers, tax authorities and civil rights groups. A new girl who appears in a window will be noticed in a matter of hours and must be able to show that she's old enough and has approval to work. The legal age to work as a prostitute in Amsterdam has recently been raised from 18 to 21.

Very few women who work as prostitutes ever earn more than a middle class income at best. Ilonka Stakelborough, an escort who heads a sex-workers union called the Geisha Institute, says it's not the prettiest or youngest girls who get the most customers or earn the most. And escorts and high-end brothel prostitutes don't necessarily do better, they have fewer customers, longer sessions and lots of costs, for taxis or splitting profits with brothel owners. A window typically rents for 150 euros ($202) for a half-day. Given the standard cost of about 50 euros ($70) for a 15-minute session, their take-home pay before taxes is only 150 euros after seeing six clients, or 250 euros ($338) after eight.

The Red Light Secrets Museum of Prostitution is located on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal 60-62 in Amsterdam. The museum is open daily from noon to midnight. Admission cost: 7.50 euros.

Proposals to scrap the licensing of saunas and massage parlours in Edinburgh will be considered by councillors today. The number of parlours has already been reduced after recent police raids.

Edinburgh is the only Scottish city to operate a licensing scheme, part of a tolerant approach to the sex trade.

If all are withdrawn, the saunas could stay open, subject to trading standards and public health rules.

Speaking last week, Gavin Barrie, City of Edinburgh Council's convener of the regulatory committee, said it was no longer appropriate to consider saunas and massage premises for a public entertainment licence.

Update: Licenses terminated

4th February 2013.  See  article from  heraldscotland.com

Edinburgh City Council have announced that six saunas which had previously been granted entertainment licences would lose that protection in 28 days. The council has terminated the licences of six establishments: Paradise, The New Gentle Touch, the Dundas Street Sauna, Scorpio Leisure, Blair Street Sauna and New Town Sauna.

The move marks a change in the city's long-standing tolerance of the sex trade and it follows a number of police raids, which were widely regarded as a sign that the policy of turning a blind eye to such premises over the past two decades had come to an end.

But during a meeting yesterday, the council said the arrangement was no longer effective and decided it would be scrapped. This does not mean the saunas will close but they will now be open to more frequent raids by the police.

MSP Margo MacDonald, who supports the licensing of saunas, said that the raids flew in the face of promises to keep policing local after the merger of the eight distinct forces.

Representatives of sex workers said the decision not to license saunas could put them more at risk. The charity Scot-Pep, which campaigns for the rights of sex workers, said it was disappointed by the council's decision. Its spokeswoman said:

This will mean women are working in constant fear of traumatising and counterproductive raids on their workplaces. Premises will be driven underground, away from service providers such as health workers.

Tens of thousands of people have descended upon the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area this week for tomorrow's Super Bowl, accompanied by the usual media frenzy. A now familiar feature of this coverage, wherever the Super Bowl is held, is an abundance of stories, from Reuters to CNN, reporting that the event will cause a surge in sex trafficking to capitalize on the influx of fans and tourists.

The problem is that there is no substantiation of these claims. The rhetoric turns out to be just that.

No data actually support the notion that increased sex trafficking accompanies the Super Bowl. The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, a network of nongovernmental organizations, published a report in 2011 examining the record on sex trafficking related to World Cup soccer games, the Olympics and the Super Bowl. It found that, despite massive media attention, law enforcement measures and efforts by prostitution abolitionist groups, there is no empirical evidence that trafficking for prostitution increases around large sporting events.

The Super Bowl sex-trafficking hype isn't just unfounded, though --- it is actively harmful because it creates bad policy. In the days leading up to Sunday's game, local law enforcement dedicated tremendous resources to targeting everyone engaged in prostitution.

This week's Super Bowl-related operation has required officers to be pulled from their regular details to serve on prostitution arrest squads. The New York Police Department said it had made 298 prostitution-related arrests through Jan. 26. In Manhattan --- a borough that has approximately 300 arrests for prostitution a year --- there have been more than 100 arrests in the past several days. When Midtown Community Court opened on Wednesday morning, 25 women arrested on Tuesday night were sitting in holding cells waiting to be arraigned after a sting operation at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Midtown.

Remove the guise of preventing human trafficking, and we are left with a cautionary tale of how efforts to clean up the town for a media event rely on criminalizing people, with long-lasting implications for those who are then trapped in the criminal justice system. If we continue to perpetuate fallacies like the Super Bowl sex-trafficking phenomenon, we will continue to perpetuate the harm caused by prostitution arrests in the name of helping victims.

...Read the full article

Porn production is struggling in California. Since the passage of Measure B in 2012, which strictly imposes the use of condoms on all porn sets in Los Angeles, adult movie production has largely begun to move out of the San Fernando Valley. However, gay porn company Falcon Studios is now attempting to hearken back to the days before the measure was passed. In their latest release California Dreamin' 1 , the studio filmed all its scenes with condoms but managed to digitally remove the prophylactics in post-production.

Director Tony DiMarco stated on the Falcon Studio blog that the film is meant to tap into fantasies of bareback sex in the 1970s and 80s, while also aligning with the safe sex ethos that is currently being enforced in LA:

With this movie I really wanted to capture the essence of that time, when life seemed more carefree and spontaneous. In keeping with this concept, I felt that condoms need to be addressed. The decision to go with this technique appears to strike a middle ground between Measure B and the porn industry's belief that scenes without condoms are a better sell with consumers.

Nevertheless, while Falcon Studios seems committed to their new style of filming, it's unclear if it will catch on. The company doesn't make clear how expensive it is to painstakingly remove condoms during sex scenes.

The European Parliament's Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee has voted through a report that recommends the adoption of the Nordic Model of prostitution laws.

Put forward by Mary Honeyball, Labour MEP for London, the report recommends the EU takes on the Swedish model of prostitution laws, which punishes the clients of prostitutes, rather than the sex workers themselves.

Fourteen of the European Parliament committee members voted in favour of the Swedish model, with two against and six abstentions.

The report can also now be put forward to the full European Parliament to vote on. This will take place at one of the Strasbourg plenary sessions in February, most likely during the week starting the 24th.

Commenting on the vote, Honeyball said:

This is a fantastic outcome. It will form a key part of the sea-change taking place in the way we view prostitution across Europe. We are now a step closer to an approach which recognises the fundamental injustice that takes place when a man buys a women's body. Related

The following are a small selection from the many winners of the 2014 AVN Awards and the 2014 AVN Fan-Voted Awards:

Best Cinematography, Francois Clousot:
Best Director, Brad Armstrong:
Best Drama:
Best Screenplay:
Movie of the Year:

Underworld by Brad Armstrong for Wicked Pictures

Best Actor: Tommy Pistol

Best Actress : Remy LaCroix

Best All-Girl Release Meow! 3 , Jennaration X/Jules Jordan

Best All-Sex Release Slutty & Sluttier 18 , Manuel Ferrara/Evil Angel

Best Amateur Release 100% Real Swingers: Meet the Rileys , Vivid Entertainment Group

Best BDSM Release The Submission of Emma Marx , New Sensations Erotic Stories

Best Comedy Band Sluts , BurningAngel/Vouyer

Best Foreign Feature The Ingenuous , Marc Dorcel/Wicked

Best MILF Release MILF Revolution , Lisa Ann/Jules Jordan

Best New Starlet Mia Malkova

Best Parody -- Comedy Grease XXX , Adam & Eve Pictures

Best Parody -- Drama Man of Steel XXX , VividXXXSuperheroes

Best POV Release The Hooker Experience , Jekyll & Hyde/Evil Angel

Best Romance Movie The Temptation of Eve , New Sensations Erotic Stories

Director of the Year Axel Braun

Female Performer of the Year Bonnie Rotten

Female Foreign Performer of the Year Anissa Kate

Mainstream Star of the Year James Deen

Male Foreign Performer of the Year Rocco Siffredi

Male Performer of the Year Manuel Ferrara

Fans' Favorite Female Porn Star Riley Steele

Fans' Favorite Male Porn Star James Deen

Fans' Most Promising New Starlet Christy Mack

Sex workers on the Spanish tourist island Ibiza have formed a cooperative to pay taxes and gain social security benefits - the first such group legally registered in Spain, they say.

Eleven women registered with local authorities as working members of the Sealeer Cooperative providing sexual services, said their spokeswoman, Maria Jose Lopez. She told AFP:

We are pioneers. We are the first cooperative in Spain that can give legal cover to the girls.

Like any workers' cooperative, Sealeer members declare their income and pay taxes, which entitles them to public healthcare, a pension and other benefits.

Strip shows and wet t-shirt contests in bars are now legal under provincial law.

The latest move to loosen up Saskatchewan's liquor laws went into effect New Year's Day. It's the end of an era in a province where the combination of alcohol and stripping has long been banned. Performers still cannot be fully nude: women will still have to cover their nipples and full frontal nudity is not allowed.

It's good news for Anna Scott, who is artistic director for the Bottoms Up Burlesque Club. Her dancers are burlesque performers, in contrast to exotic dancers that work in bars. However, before the change, her dancers could not even remove a glove or feather boa in a licensed facility, she said.

It's not known if any bars are planning to immediately start strip shows or wet t-shirt contests.