Beyond the Gaze:The working practices, regulation and safety of Internet-based sex work in the UK

科技，尤其是数码通讯，对我们如何组织生活、处理人际关系，以及商业和零售交易，都产生了深远的影响。性产业也顺应了这一趋势，线上性爱市场不断扩大和多样化，改变了性交易的方式。然而，没有监管，也没有什么监管集中在基于互联网的性市场上。我们的首要问题是：互联网如何塑造了英国21世纪的成人商业性产业？监管的作用是什么？我们的研究重点是市场如何结构、如何运作以及目前如何监管等方面的知识差距。我们关注的是那些在自己家里合法工作的人，或者作为护送到酒店和客户家里呼喊的人，所有这些都远离了普通的警察视线。人们没有注意到技术与各种类型的商业性行为之间的互动，比如网络摄像头性行为；现场性行为和聊天；性故事讲述；以及利基市场是如何发展起来的，既允许性工作者创新，又打开了工作机会。因此，我们的总体调查试图解释监管如何与互联网环境中有关脆弱性和安全的经验相互作用。通过互联网工作对性工作者来说更安全吗？是否存在意外的安全问题？性工作者是因为与世隔绝的互联网而变得更加脆弱，还是技术提供了增强安全性的机制？因此，这项研究的目的有三个：a)了解新技术对于改变性消费和性产业的社会实践的更广泛的理论意义。B)绘制趋势图，了解因特网性工作市场在英国性工作监管和监管的更广泛进程中的工作做法。C)促进将因特网性工作纳入与安全和健康有关的规定、政策和机构。我们打算使用混合方法来回答这些问题，以收集新的经验性知识，并设计了一个项目，包括对性工作者的大型在线调查；对80名性工作者的定性访谈，以及对参与监管网上性工作活动的人(如警察、内政部代表、IT专家)的40次访谈。同行研究人员将协助招募参与者、促进项目以及审查影响计划的进展情况。此外，通过一名研究、支助和发展网络干事，将综合服务提供和发展作用纳入项目小组。除该学院外，该项目还有三个主要受益群体，他们是该项目的合作者：1)通过警察局长协会的警察和全国卖淫领导机构、政策制定者(地方和国家政府)。2)在网上工作的性工作者和更广泛的性工作社区。3)与性工作者--包括法定部门和第三部门--合作的性工作项目和从业者，包括向性工作者提供特定临床服务的性健康从业者。这些群体将从以下方面受益：1)将每周通过互联网(称为NetReach)向性工作者(所有性别)提供从业者外展服务，提供有关安全、健康和福利标志的信息，并提供为期3年的保密监听服务。2)与英国性工作项目网络的合作伙伴合作，为互联网外展的良好做法模式开发一个NetREACH工具包。3)减少针对性工作者的暴力和犯罪，扩大这一群体诉诸司法的机会。4)总体影响的目标是通过参与政府程序和专家证人请求，告知和影响管制卖淫的立法和政策。

Technology, particularly digital communication, has had a profound impact on how we organise our lives, conduct our relationships and the transactions of commerce and retail. The sex industry has followed this trend, with the online sex markets expanding and diversifying, changing the shape of how sex is bought and sold. Yet no regulation and very little policing focuses on the Internet-based sex markets. Our overarching question is: How has the Internet shaped the 21st Century adult commercial sex industry in the UK and what is the role of regulation? Our research focuses on the gaps in knowledge, in terms of how the market is structured, how it functions and how it is currently regulated. We are concerned with those individuals who work legally in their own homes, or as escorts doing outcalls to hotels and clients' homes, all away from the ordinary gaze of policing. There has been no attention to the interactions between technology and types of commercial sex such as webcam sex; performing live sex acts and chat; sexual story telling; and how niche markets have developed both allowing sex workers to innovate as well as opening up working opportunities. Therefore our overall inquiry seeks to explain how regulation interacts with the Internet setting in relation to the experience of vulnerability and safety. Is working via the Internet safer for sex workers? Are there unintended safety issues? Are sex workers made more vulnerable by the isolation of the Internet or does technology provide mechanisms to enhance safety? Therefore the aims of this research are threefold: a)to understand the wider theoretical significance of new technologies for changing the social practice of sexual consumption and the sex industry. b) to map the trends and understand the working practices in Internet-based sex work markets within the broader processes of the regulation and policing of sex work in the UK. c) to facilitate the integration of Internet-based sex work into safety and health-related provision, policies and agencies. We intend to answer these questions using a mixed methodology to gather new empirical knowledge, and have designed a project consisting of a large national online survey of sex workers; qualitative interviews with 80 sex workers and 40 interviews those involved in the policing and regulation of online sex work activities (such as the police, Home Office representative, IT specialists). Peer researchers will assist in the recruitment of participants, promoting the project as well as reviewing the progress of the Impact Plan. In addition, there is an integrated service provision and developmental role built into the project team through a Research, Support and Development Netreach Officer. Beyond the academy, the project has three key beneficiary groups who are collaborators on the project: 1) Police through the Association of Chief Police Officers and the National Lead for Prostitution, policy makers (local and national government. 2) Sex workers who work online and the broader sex work community. 3) sex work projects and practitioners who work with sex workers - both statutory and third sector, including sexual health practitioners who deliver specific clinical services to sex workers. These groups will benefit in the following ways: 1) a practitioner outreach service with sex workers (all genders) via the Internet (known as Netreach) will be delivered on a weekly basis providing information on safety, signposting to health, welfare and offering a confidential listening service for 3 years. 2) In collaboration with partners the UK Network of Sex Work Projects, the development of a Netreach toolkit for good practice models of Internet outreach. 3) Reduction in violence and crimes against sex workers and broader access to justice for this group. 4) Overall impact aims are to inform and influence legislation and policy in the regulation of prostitution through engaging in government processes and expert witness requests.