UK Porn Age-Verifying Law Threatens Sex Workers’ Earnings, Safety

CYBERSPACE—The United Kingdom’s new law requiring that users upload official documents to prove they are old enough to visit online porn sites takes effect on July 15, after two years of delays, as AVN.com reported. But in addition to the deep concerns about privacy and security, as well as the workability of the law itself—with numerous means to get around the age verification process—there is yet another problem with the upcoming law.

As a report by the magazine Elle detailed this week, many of Britain’s more than 70,000 known sex workers may be directly harmed by the law, both in terms of their income, and their personal safety.

A U.K. government report found that of the country’s “off street” sex workers, three out of four use sex work as a means to support children and cover everyday household expenses. But those appear to be the sex workers who will be affected most directly by the age-verification law.

“My biggest worry is income,”  sex worker “Eve” told Elle. “I have absolutely no clue how it's going to affect the clip and cam sites I'm on. There's no way to predict it.”

Another cam performer who spoke to the magazine, Elysia Downings, said that the additional requirement that viewers go through the cumbersome and potentially embarrassing step of uploading personal data and documents just to view online porn, including cam sites, will take a bite out of her income.

"As any business owner knows, generating traffic can be difficult enough as it is, so the extra step needed for verification due to the porn ban will make it even more difficult,” Downings told Elle. "We are incredibly impatient as a society and we want everything available to us immediately, so if a user has to scan in their ID documents, they may find the process too time consuming."

Downings said that she found her online sex work “empowering” because it saved her from homelessness. She is also a single parent. Performing only for clients online—“I never meet my clients,” she says—allows her to generate an income without putting herself in dangerous or awkward situations.

But she adds that she is concerned about her friends, who may now be forced to take their work offline, to engage with clients in “real life.”

“If sex workers feel that they need to be on the street, the risks are much higher. There is no proof," she said. “I do think the porn ban could potentially result in higher rates of violence.”

Photo By msmornington / Wikimedia Commons