On May 26th a conference was held “How do we stop the digital brothels”, a day that has the potential to be a breakthrough in the work against sexual exploitation in Sweden. There was a big attendance, more than 1600 participants watched digitally and the politicians have shown a will to take action to stop the exploitation. The conference was arranged by Child10 in cooperation with Realstars, ROKS, Unizon, County Administrative Board of Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Västernorrland, survivors and experts as well as representatives from the police, the law and politics.
We finished an amazing day with all five parties backing up our political demands connected to the conference. During the conference, problems and challenges, as well as needs and possibilities were discussed.
A central part of the conference was about the violations of human rights that occur on a daily basis through the so-called digital brothels that openly bring together perpetrators with vulnerable people without those responsible being brought to justice. The digital brothels constitute a kind of motor for prostitution and human trafficking and collaborates with the big demand among sex-buying men. According to a survey carried out in March 2021 by Realstars and Child10 there were 1.9 million visits in Sweden on five of the biggest online sex-buying sights (280 000 unique visitors). A summary of sentences also show ongoing human trafficking and that there are advertisements showing children on these online sites. There certainly exists difficulties to shut down these sites, the responsible people for example, often operate from other countries with a different pimping legislation than we have in Sweden. Critical voices are at the same time also being raised by the police to shut down these pages. Realstars noticed the problem in 2018 when we released the report “The Digital Brothels” together with the paper Faktum. Now we see that the time is right, we see a momentum to close these digital arenas and platforms that are operating without risk and that are making money on people’s vulnerability.
–That the biggest sex-buying sites had 1.9 million visits in only a month says a lot about the huge demand that exists. If those who visit a digital brothel, should visit a physical brothel or gather on Malmskillnadsgatan, politicians, the police and the general public would go through the roof, says Malin Roux Johansson General Secretary Realstars.
The conference can now have a ripple effect. The work, the discussions and the joint effort is up and running. The question is spread and concrete measures to combat commercial sexual exploitation are being put forward.
At the end of the year, a follow-up conference is taking place, to follow up on the promises made by Centerpartiet, Miljöpartiet, Socialdemokraterna, Moderaterna and Kristdemokraterna, that they are actually kept and that the committee-motions keep rolling in.
A big thanks to all and Child 10 who have organized the work with several partners!
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