Adult World News

About 210,000 people have signed a petition against the import of life-size sex dolls into South Korea.

The petition was started on the Cheong Wa Dae website a month after the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to allow the import of such dolls.

The petition author wrote

They are not ordinary sex toys. A life-size sex doll resembles a woman's body in every detail. It can even be customized to fit an individual's needs for hairstyle, facial structure, birthmarks or anything.

Nowadays, deepfake celebrity porn videos can easily be found online. There's no guarantee that sex dolls won't be used for such purposes. People may be shocked to find sex dolls that look just like them. If that happens, who will take responsibility for the damage?

The Korea Customs Service refused to allow the import of life-size sex dolls of any kind on legal grounds as there is a ban on the import of morally degrading products. But it faced a legal challenge in 2017 by a Korean company that took the issue to court.

A district court in Seoul ruled in favor of Incheon Main Customs, saying such dolls would degrade human beings' dignity. But an appeals court overturned the decision, saying state intervention must be minimized in such private matters, which was upheld by the top court.

Amsterdam Council has banned guided tours of its red light area from the 1st January next year.

The red-light district usually sits quite high on a tourist's list of must-sees when visiting this interesting city but according to The New York Times, Amsterdam's deputy mayor, Udo Kock, recently made a statement explaining it's outdated to allow tourists to gape at sex workers' windows and view them as an attraction.

He claims that as the number of tourists walking through the red-light district grows, the amount of local paying clients decreases. Sex workers then lose business.

Tour companies are a bit put out and claim that tourists will still find themselves strolling the red-light district, but without guides reminding them to keep quiet and refrain from taking photographs.

The state of Utah is set to make sex outside of marriage legal.

In a bill cleaning up Utah's criminal code, lawmakers repealed the misdemeanor crime of fornication. The House passed Senate Bill 43 on a 41-32 vote. It previously passed the Utah State Senate and now goes to Governor Gary Herbert for his signature or veto.

The legislature previously passed a bill removing adultery and sodomy among consenting adults as crimes in Utah. Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, said court rulings have found the laws are unenforceable and it was time to remove them from the books.

A group of New York state lawmakers on Monday announced what could be a landmark effort to roll back laws against prostitution, an effort that could lead to legalization of consensual sex work in New York.

The criminalization of sex work disproportionately impacts LGBTQI+ NYers, immigrants, and people of color, wrote State Senator Brad Hoylman, chair the New York Senate Judiciary Committee and a co-sponsor of the legislation. It perpetuates stigma, and it furthers a devastating cycle of incarceration. We need change.

Senators Jessica Ramos and Julia Salaza are also backing the proposed package of legislation.

The move in New York comes soon after a Rhode Island lawmaker introduced a resolution to study decriminalizing sex work in that state, and about two months after the mayor of New Orleans , Louisiana, called for increased legal protection for sex workers.

The bills set to be introduced by the New York lawmakers would repeal a state statute that makes loitering for the purposes of prostitution a criminal offense. Under another provision of the proposed new laws, any conviction for prostitution deemed to be the result of sex trafficking would be immediately voided.

Thai military police raided multiple street vendors along Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road yesterday, confiscating THB2 million (about US$64,000) worth of illegal sex toys and pills.

Officials ultimately shut down ten stores and detained four store owners while about 10,000 sex and pills were confiscated.

Under Criminal Code Section 287, the trade or distribution of 'obscene 'materials or things is currently illegal and punishable with up to three years in prison.

A repressive French law passed in 2016 that shifted the criminal responsibility for prostitution from the sellers to the buyers has come under a challenge in court by a group of French sex workers, backed by a consortium of non-profits and activist groups. The law was supposedly intended to help sex workers but the law has made work as a prostitute more dangerous. The sex workers also say the law violates their sexual and commercial freedoms. The group of about 30 prostitutes and activists took their cause to France's Constitutional Council last week.

France made the customers of prostitutes the criminals. Buying sex now carries a fine of about $1,700 for a first offense and up to $4,200 for repeats. Prostitution consumers who get caught under the law must also attend a workshop to be 'educated' on the conditions of life for a sex worker.

But sex workers in France say that rather than protecting their safety, the law has driven their business farther into the shadows, and as a result, put them in a higher degree of physical danger. They blame the law for the murder last August of Vanessa Campos, a 36-year-old Peruvian transgender sex worker who was killed in a dark, wooded area of the Bois de Boulogn by criminals attempting to rob her client.

Girls are now forced to hide and promise their clients that the police won't find them, sex worker-turned-activist Giovanna Rincon told The Times.

The constitutional court is expected to hand down a decision on whether the law is compatible with the French Constitution on February 1.

Update: French court rules that endangering sex workers is constitutional

2nd February 2019. See  article from avn.com

The French Press Agency reported on Friday that the Constitutional Council failed to be persuaded by the group of 30 sex workers and nine rights organizations, not only upholding the law but also claiming that it actually increased safety for prostitutes by depriving pimps of their profits.

The Council ruled that the law fights against this activity and against the sexual exploitation of human beings, criminal activities founded on coercion and enslavement.

Under the law, a client of prostitutes can be fined up to $1,700 for a first offense, with penalties hitting $4,200 for repeat patrons. French authorities are serious about enforcing the law, making about 2,800 arrests since the legislation passed about two-and-a-half years ago, according to a New York Times report.