IMPACTS OF SEX WORK CRIMINALIZATION AND CENSORSHIP FOR INDOOR WORKERS: EXPLORING HOW BARRIERS TO ONLINE ADVERTISING SHAPE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Abstract

Introduction

Advertising tools used by sex workers for solicitation and client screening have been identified as supporting occupational health and safety (OHS); however, sex work legislation continues to criminalize advertising by third parties. We explored how the criminalization of third-party advertising and online censorship shapes indoor sex workers’ access to OHS measures such as client screening, and negotiation of prices and services, in addition to income security.

Methods

As part of a community-based study in Vancouver, this analysis drew on 47 interviews (2017–2018) with indoor sex workers and third parties (e.g., managers, receptionists). Interview transcripts were coded by applying a collaboratively-developed framework drawing on structural determinants of OHS to explore multilevel risk and protective factors shaping sex work environments, including access to advertising.

Results

Participants’ narratives highlighted that most third parties provide support with online advertising on behalf of sex workers; however, criminalization limits potential safety and income security mechanisms. Third parties take on the financial and labour burdens of advertising and screening for indoor workers, particularly for racialized, im/migrant workers who might face language barriers. Sex work laws and online censorship severely restrict communication, and resulting vague advertisements undermine sex workers’ OHS by limiting advance screening, and negotiation of prices, services, and use of PPE.

Conclusions

Third-party criminalization, coupled with online censorship, hinders advertising, with related harms exacerbated for im/migrant sex workers who would otherwise benefit from the OHS measures offered through advertising.

Policy Implications

Legislative reforms to decriminalize all aspects of the sex industry, including sex workers’ right to third-party advertising, are urgently needed to increase OHS of sex workers.

INTRODUCTION

Client screening—the ability to vet clients, establish boundaries, and negotiate terms of service (i.e., services offered, prices, use of condoms/lube)—has been identified as supporting sex workers’ occupational health and safety (OHS) (Krüsi et al., 2014). Sex workers offering services in managed, indoor venues often work with third-party supports (e.g., managers, phone handlers, security) meant to facilitate day-to-day operations and OHS practices, including screening. However, criminalization impedes client screening across sex work environments, including indoor venues. In indoor venues, client screening is impeded as prohibitions against both the purchasing of sex work services and third-party support roles necessitate ambiguity during initial communication and negotiation between clients, third parties, and sex workers (Anderson et al., 2015, 2016; McBride et al., 2020; McDermid et al., 2022). Clients may be hesitant to share identifying information, while third-party supports may avoid communication with clients or the collection of fees in fear of criminal charges. Thus, screening is often done in the context of in-person negotiation between the worker and client in private spaces (Anderson et al., 2015; Bungay et al., 2012).

For many sex workers and venues, client screening is facilitated online, and supported by advertising websites and digital communication tools. However, sex workers are increasingly barred from online or phone-based screening options due to multiple layers of criminalization (Blunt & Wolf, 2020; Koenig et al., 2022), including third-party laws. Yet, there is limited evidence of the implications of criminal code provisions that prohibit third parties (i.e., a manager/owner of a sex work venue) from posting advertisements on sex workers’ behalf. In the context of ongoing criminalization and increasing online censorship, this paper explores how barriers to online advertising shape indoor sex workers’ access to OHS measures such as client screening, particularly for sex workers who work with third-party supports. Here, we demonstrate how advertising prohibitions, compounded by international laws governing the internet, hinder open communication with clients and severely limit the possible OHS benefits of online tools and platforms. Furthermore, we argue that for racialized, im/migrant sex workers who are overpoliced and face intersectional forms of criminalization, the implications of advertising prohibitions are especially harmful due to the increased risk of arrest and deportation.

The Criminalization of Third-Party Advertising under “End-Demand”

After previous sex work laws were deemed unconstitutional for violating sex workers’ rights, the Canadian federal government implemented “end-demand” criminalization (the Protection of Exploited Persons and Communities Act) in 2014. These laws took aim at the demand for sex work— criminalizing clients and most third-party activities surrounding the sex industry, but leaving its sale legal under narrow circumstances (i.e., in private settings) (Government of Canada, 2014). This end-demand approach, adopted by an increasing number of global jurisdictions (e.g., Norway, Sweden, France) (Bail et al., 2019; NSWP, 2011; Platt et al., 2018), frames sex workers as victims of violence and exploitation, rather than as workers with rights and occupational protections, and third parties as perpetrators, rather than co-workers. This framing is based on the conflation of sex work with human trafficking, restricting sex workers’ freedoms under the guise of their protection and has severe consequences for sex workers’ occupational conditions, particularly for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC), im/migrant (Machat et al., 2019; McBride et al., 2022), and queer and trans workers (Koenig et al., 2023; Scheim et al., 2023). End-demand approaches to sex work, borne from anti-trafficking discourses, serve to further entrench white supremacy while increasing the need for carceral institutions, such as police departments (Agustín, 2006; Durisin, 2022; Raguparan, 2017).

End-demand criminalization in Canada also includes advertising prohibitions, whereby individual sex workers are allowed to post their own ads, while any business or third party who knowingly advertises the sale of sexual services of others can be prosecuted. Therefore, sex workers can legally advertise their own sexual services online or in print, while the services they use for advertising risk prosecution. For example, a newspaper or website that hosts sex work ads could be criminally liable for advertising another person’s sexual services. As well, a sex work venue (e.g., massage parlor etc.) could also be charged for advertising the services of its staff (Government of Canada, 2015). Under such laws, sex workers who work in managed indoor venues face multiple barriers to advertising, as both website providers and third-party supports (e.g., venue managers) face risk of persecution. Penalties for third-party charges can include imprisonment for up to 10 years. While end-demand laws have been taken up in several jurisdictions, with much evidence demonstrating the harms of third-party criminalization overall (Brouwers, 2023; Bruckert & Law, 2013; McBride et al., 2019, 2021a; NSWP, 2016), very little has specifically explored criminalization of third-party advertising.

Benefits of Online Advertising and Ongoing Barriers

For sex workers able to access digital spaces, online advertising constitutes an essential screening mechanism. In many high-income contexts, digital advertising has been linked to enhanced client screening and safety (Blunt & Wolf, 2020; Cunningham et al., 2018; Machat et al., 2022; Sanders et al., 2016). The ability to explicitly advertise services offered and rates, and communicate with clients digitally or over the phone prior to meeting, increases clarity of terms of service and can mitigate risk of violence and support financial security (Machat et al., 2022). Still, sex workers navigating end-demand laws face barriers to such health and safety strategies due to criminalization of third-party advertising (Argento et al., 2018; Koenig et al., 2022; Machat et al., 2022; O’Doherty, 2011; Sterling & Meulen, 2018).

The prohibition of advertising under end-demand legislation prevents sex workers from advertising their services in print or online. For this reason, sex workers may use websites hosted in other countries, beyond Canadian jurisdiction. However, a growing number of international internet policies, fueled by anti-trafficking discourse, also interfere with sex workers’ abilities to post advertisements and communicate using mainstream Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The implementation of the US policy, Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act/Fight Online Sex Trafficking ACT (SESTA/ FOSTA), for example, has restricted many prominent adult websites utilized by sex workers around the globe, consequentially increasing the use of less secure or informal online sex work spaces (Blunt & Wolf, 2020; Blunt et al., 2020). However, even the use of alternate online spaces does not support workers in managed venues, who generally rely on co-workers or managers, as in third parties, to post advertisements on their behalf.

Impacts of Third-Party Criminalization for Racialized, Im/migrant Sex Workers

Within Metro Vancouver, Canada’s third largest city, over 40% of the population are im/migrants, the majority of whom are from Asia (Government of Canada, 2016). Previous research has shown that in Metro Vancouver, im/migrant¹ workers are overrepresented in formal indoor sex work spaces (e.g., massage parlors, beauty spas, apartments) and are primarily of East Asian origin. The unique challenges faced by im/migrant sex workers (e.g., limited English fluency, racist policing, immigration laws) make them more likely to rely on formal indoor venues with third-party supports (Goldenberg et al., 2014; McBride et al., 2021, 2022). Following the enactment of end-demand criminalization, im/migrant sex workers based in formal indoor spaces were most likely to report negative changes to OHS (Machat et al., 2019). Research has demonstrated that racialized im/migrant and indoor sex workers are over-policed due to third-party criminalization and the conflation of im/migrant sex work and sex trafficking (Goldenberg et al., 2017), but also face significantly lower odds of reporting violence to police (McBride et al., 2020). As East Asian im/migrant sex workers are overrepresented in managed indoor settings, it is important to pay particular attention to how the various provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code that regulate sex work (i.e., providing third-party services and advertising) faced by third parties who assist with advertising uniquely shapes access to online advertising for racialized, im/migrant workers.

While a growing body of research has begun to document the harms of online censorship for sex workers (Blunt & Wolf, 2020; Campbell et al., 2018; Cunningham & DeAngelo, 2019), less evidence exists on the implications of advertising laws, wherein assistance is provided by a third party (i.e., a manager/owner of a sex work venue) posting on workers’ behalf. This includes implications relating to income security and financial stress, an under-researched aspect of sex workers’ health and safety. As well, existing literature has failed to discuss the specific harms of third-party advertising provisions for sex workers who work in managed, indoor venues, among whom many are im/migrant workers.

We explored how the criminalization of advertising and online censorship, under end-demand legislation shapes indoor sex workers’ income security, financial stress, as well as access to OHS measures such as client screening, service and pricing negotiation, and use of PPE (e.g., condoms, lube, masks), with a focus on how these experiences intersect with racialization and im/migration status. We argue that advertising prohibitions, compounded by international internet laws, hinder open communication with clients and limit options for advance screening and establishing terms of service. Furthermore, the criminalization of third-party advertising has unique implications for racialized, im/migrant sex workers who are overpoliced and surveilled due to problematic assumptions of exploitative work environments, including detention and deportation.

METHODS

As part of a longstanding community-based study in Vancouver, this analysis drew on a total of 47 in-depth interviews with sex workers who work indoors, including managed, indoor venues and third parties who provide services for indoor sex workers. This qualitative study is situated within a longitudinal research project that evaluates how evolving approaches to sex work regulation shape sex workers’ health and safety, known as AESHA (An Evaluation of Sex Workers’ Health Access). The current qualitative interview series runs alongside the AESHA longitudinal cohort of 900+ street and off-street sex workers across Metro Vancouver. This research builds on community partnerships with sex work organizations since 2004 and has included experiential staff (current/former sex workers) on the project team since inception (Shannon et al., 2007). Recruitment, data collection, and analysis are informed by the study team’s varying lived experience, ongoing outreach to sex work venues, and decades of engagement with the broader sex worker community in Metro Vancouver.

For this analysis, sex workers and third parties (i.e., venue owners/ managers/ security/ receptionists/ phone handlers) working in massage parlors, beauty parlors, and private apartments (common indoor environments where sex work takes place in Metro Vancouver) were invited to participate in the context of ongoing AESHA outreach. Recruitment was facilitated by the AESHA outreach team who conduct weekly outreach to various indoor sex work venues and provide sexual health supplies. Eligibility criteria for qualitative interviews included currently working in an in-call venue (as a sex worker or third party) and being 18 or older. Many of the study participants already had longstanding relationships with the project through regular contact with AESHA outreach workers, who provide sexual health supports such as condoms, lube, and other harm reduction supplies, access to Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) and HIV testing, and make referrals where appropriate. Outreach staff purposively invited participants reflecting diverse ages, lengths of time working in the sex industry, and third-party roles. In addition, we used snowball sampling within larger venues, where participants passed study information to their co-workers.

Trained interviewers (including experiential staff) conducted semi-structured interviews in English/Mandarin/ Cantonese with 47 participants between July 2017 and November 2018 (Table 1). The interview guide explored four major topic areas: (1) criminalization and policing post-end-demand law reform; (2) sex workers’ experiences with third parties; (3) access to health and social services; (4) intersections between sex work and immigration. Interviews were conducted in a location selected by the participant (usually a private room in their workplace) and were 25 to 105 min long. Led by multilingual team members, interviews were audio-recorded, translated into English when necessary, transcribed verbatim, and checked for transcription and translation accuracy. We maintained participant confidentiality by removing personal identifiers from all documents, and all participants provided informed consent and received $30 CAD for their time and expertise. The study received ethical approval from the Providence Health Care/University of British Columbia Research Ethics Board.

Table 1.

Individual and structural characteristics of indoor sex workers and third parties in Metro Vancouver, Canada (n = 47), AESHA 2018

Characteristic	n (%b)
Migration status
Canadian-born	16 (34%)
Immigrant	31 (66%)
Racialization
BIPOCa (e.g., Black, Asian, Latinx)
Asian	24 (51%)
Latinx	5 (11%)
Black	4 (8%)
White	14 (30%)
Age (mean age)	39 (19–63)
Gender identity
Women	42 (89%)
Men	3 (6%)
Gender queer or gender diverse	2 (4%)
Sex work involvement
Sex work experience, no third-party role	21 (45%)
Dual role (third party and sex worker)	13 (28%)
Third party, past sex work experience	4 (8%)
Type of workplace
Massage parlor	37 (79%)
Brothel and micro-brothel (> 2 workers)	3 (6%)
In-call (i.e., apartment)	2 (4%)
Out-call/hotel	3 (6%)
Beauty spa	2 (4%)

^aBlack/Indigenous/ People of Color (due to the small sample size in some categories, throughout the results section we removed identifying racial information in order to protect the anonymity of specific participants)

^bParticipants were able to select more than one option, resulting in sums of > 100%

The research team discussed the interview content, emerging themes, and coding framework throughout data collection and analyses. Data analysis drew on deductive and inductive approaches (Bradley et al., 2007), and utilized a multistep approach to coding. First, the research team, including multilingual interviewers and outreach team members, research assistants, and the Principal Investigator (PI), collaboratively developed an initial coding framework based on the interview guide, participants’ accounts, and fieldnotes. To establish a valid range for these codes, we consulted literature on third-party criminalization (e.g., Bruckert & Law, 2013) and drew on a structural determinants framework to explore the multilevel risk and protective factors shaping sex work environments (Shannon et al., 2015). The use of a structural determinant framework allowed for an intersectional coding scheme capturing the ways that sex work occupational health and safety, including access to advertising, is shaped not only by criminalization, but by intersecting systems including gender inequity, racism, and im/migration law, and conditioned by work environments, thus centering the diversity in lived experience among sex workers (Bingham et al., 2014; Crago et al., 2021; Deering et al., 2014; Krüsi et al., 2016; Lyons et al., 2017; Raguparan, 2017; Shannon et al., 2015). Examples of these codes were impacts of working together (how working collectively impacts health and safety), interactions with police (participant interactions/relationships with police), and narratives related to advertising. Next, using this coding framework, two members of the research team (BM and AM) coded the interview transcripts using the qualitative analysis software (NVivo). Lastly, using the subset of data coded as “advertising,” the first author (JP) applied a second round of more focused, primary inductive codes, including self-censorship, client screening, and cost and accessibility of advertising, to identify the ways advertising criminalization shaped participants’ experiences of OHS and income security.

RESULTS

Results drew from a total of 47 in-depth interviews with sex workers and third parties, who work in indoor spaces, including managed, indoor venues. Interviews were conducted with 21 sex workers, 13 third parties who provide services for indoor sex workers, and 13 participants who currently held a dual role as a sex worker and third party. The majority, 39 participants, worked in massage parlors or beauty parlors and 8 worked in in-call venues (e.g., apartments, micro-brothels), and 3 worked in out-call spaces (work settings often less likely to be supported by third parties). Three participants also noted experience with online sex work such as webcamming. Participants represented 18 separate sex work venues, but most discussed their experiences of working in various massage parlors during the interviews. Participants were aged 19–63 (median age: 39), and their sex industry involvement ranged from 18 months to 28 years. All participants with sex work experience identified as women, gender queer, or gender diverse. In contrast to popular assumptions that position third parties as exploitative male “pimps” (Bruckert & Law, 2013; Shelby, 2002), 17 of the 25 third parties in this study were also current/former sex workers and 22 identified as women. Consistent with the broader demographics of indoor sex workers in Metro Vancouver (Goldenberg et al., 2017; Mackenzie & Clancey, 2020b; McBride et al., 2021), 31 participants were im/migrants born outside of Canada, and more than half identified as Asian (Table 1).

Participants, including sex workers and third parties, largely described the use of popular adult websites as their main advertising strategy, posting online ads for their venue, rather than hosting their own website or using print advertising. Participants’ narratives highlighted that most third parties advertise on behalf of sex workers; however, criminalization limits potential safety and income security mechanisms, such as pre-screening clients and advance scheduling of bookings. Our findings indicate that end-demand laws necessitate the use of vague language and limit the negotiation of transaction terms and client screening from a safe(r), virtual distance.

Organization of Labor

Sex workers and third parties in our study described third parties, including owners, managers, phone handlers, and receptionists, as supporting day-to-day operations of the venue. This includes cleaning and maintenance, scheduling, answering phones, greeting clients, and also advertising the venue. Participants’ narratives highlighted that criminalization undermines how they organize their labor in the context of indoor venues, including who takes on advertising and client communication:

“Posting advertisements is considered illegal. If you help girls post advertisements, it means you are helping them get customers”

—Lacey, im/migrant, manager/owner.

When asked about advertising, participants described that because of third-party criminalization, advertising online has become increasingly cumbersome and expensive, as ad sites continue to increase prices in case of potential legal action. As well, third parties described their payment options being blocked due to international policy:

“Lately it’s been harder and harder and more expensive. Because, the US is cracking down, they purposely block your credit card [from paying for ads]”

— Daniel, im/migrant manager/owner.

However, as exemplified by the below quote, managers continue to take on the financial and labor burden of advertising as it both contributes to their own business but also benefits the workers by securing income and reducing their work stress:

“We have done a lot. Do you know how much it costs us? We put on ads. Do you know how expensive are those online ads? We bring business to them [sex workers working at massage parlour]. … We put on ads for them. Everything is included. They just come here to make money”

—Aimee, im/migrant manager/owner.

Participants indicated that most often, third parties take on the financial and labor burdens of advertising and client communication for workers, who often face language barriers and thus rely on third parties for this type of support. When asked about advertising and impacts of end-demand laws, many workers noted that venue managers were responsible for advertising, among other essential aspects of their work including client communication and support with conflicts.

“She does the advertising, which apparently is illegal. She does it for all of us. You know what I mean? She’s there to, deal with the, difficult clients. She gets clients in for us… she does her fucking job well”

—Kat, Canadian born, racialized worker and co-manager.

Kat’s narrative highlights ways in which third-party support is essential and frames the criminalization of third parties as incompatible with common divisions of labor within venues.

Other participants’ responses indicated that independent sex workers (working without third parties) bear all the financial and labor burdens of running a business. The narrative of a participant who works independently illustrated how criminalization of advertising can make it difficult for individual sex workers to afford ads, limiting their ability to solicit clients via diverse methods:

“I don’t advertise in newspapers or the backs of newspapers anymore because I just found that I ended up spending way too much money on my ads… I did see a significant drop-off in the clients who were inquiring. Now [my] website as well went through a transitional period because clients started to drop off from there too”

—Steph, Canadian born, worker and phone handler with experience as a webcammer and former manager.

Safety and Security Benefits of Online Advertising

Income Security

Participants’ narrative highlighted that an online presence or other forms of advertising is essential for sex workers who do not solicit clients in public/outdoors. Participants noted that despite criminalization, advertising is essential to attracting clients to their business, and ensuring all workers have sufficient, consistent income, similar to other service industries:

“Of course I have to advertise in newspapers and online. If you don’t, people won’t know you. Other businesses use advertisements too”

—Grace, im/migrant, manager/owner and former sex worker.

“Without the ads, customers don’t know about us because there are so many massage parlours. They would go somewhere else. We can’t make money if they don’t come in”

—Marnie, im/migrant, worker.

As websites dedicated to adult advertisements dwindle due to increasingly restrictive internet policies, some participants also used social media platforms to solicit clients. However, these spaces are also subject to advertising criminalization. Despite this, participants highlighted the necessity of online platforms in increasing and maintaining a client base and ensuring financial stability:

“A lot of sex workers advertise on social media now. People use Tinder and Twitter. Twitter even, slightly limiting the exposure, of sex worker accounts will affect their business. It’ll affect how many, potential clients see their advertisements on Twitter. Like to an extent sex workers’ income, or escorts’ income is defined by Twitter”

—Erin, Canadian born, in-call worker and former massage parlour worker.

Advertising is essential to operating a business or as a self-employed worker, and participants note how this is no exception for the sex work industry. Participant narratives highlight the ways that advertising shapes income security, and that barriers to advertising reduce visibility, limiting client base and earning potential:

“An advertising site, if they decided to ban me then I would be without any place to advertise and that would mean I would very quickly run out of money”

—Ruby, Canadian born BIPOC worker.

Self-censorship, Screening, Price, and Service Negotiation

Participant narratives highlighted hesitation around direct communication of services offered due to of fear of censorship and other punitive measures. Online services that do not want to risk prosecution may refuse to carry sex workers’ ads or require sex workers to remove potentially incriminating explicit language such as explicit communication about the type of sexual services offered and prices for various services. Due to the threat of deletion, or law enforcement surveillance, sex workers and third parties often self-censor to meet websites’ strict guidelines, resorting to ambiguous language to avoid having their posts or advertisements blocked (O’Doherty, 2011; Sterling & Meulen, 2018). In the current study, some participants spoke of using ambiguous language, with the hopes that clients will be privy to the implicit meaning and coded terminology:

“There’s a lot of… cat and mouse gaming here in terms of terminology when we’re talking to sort of get through the black and white or whatever it is, I’m sending them these messages so they can sort of see this is what I’m providing”

—Steph, Canadian born, worker and phone handler with experience as a webcammer and former manager.

In addition to Steph’s above narrative of coded messages, third parties in our study explained that in order to circumvent criminalization, they do not describe sexual services in their advertisements and only advertise the venue:

“When I post advertisements, it is just for massage. I’m not doing anything else. I just say it is for massage not like oh this and that is this amount of money… It all depends on how you post. I think when you post advertisements, don’t post nude photos or say oh we provide sex for this amount of money. This is not ok”

—Grace, im/migrant manager/owner and former sex worker.

“I just don’t mention what we do. I don’t think I can survive a trial, they can prove, even I don’t say it’s full service. There are two different types [of ads]. Escort, and massage. And I chose the massage part”

—Daniel, im/migrant manager/owner.

Similarly, another participant described that in order to avoid criminal sanctions, they simply post an image of a model and do not provide any information on services offered, and thus leave the negotiation of services for in-person interactions between the sex worker offering the services and the client:

“And I’ve never advertised services. I never have. I’m not opening a lady to a level of danger by saying she does this and that, so I don’t. We advertise a model. This is an image you get. I’m not promising you anything, I’m not here to sell dreams”

—Julie, Canadian born owner/manager and former sex worker.

This narrative highlights that under the current legislative framework where third-party advertisement is prohibited, third parties avoid posting detailed advertisements, and therefore, the burden of service and price negotiation is placed solely on the sex worker in an in-person setting.

Pre-screening Clients

Participants’ responses highlighted that due to the self-censorship imposed by the criminalization of third-party advertising and without the ability to clearly communicate about which services are offered in advance, sex workers and managers must wait until clients enter the venue to confirm terms of service (e.g., services, prices, use of PPE):

“For unfamiliar clients who ask about prices over the phone, I would just say I’m sorry I can’t talk about that. But you can come to the store and negotiate with the girls in person. I’m afraid to talk about that”

— Kat, im/migrant, manager/owner.

As outlined above by Kat, when there is fear of criminalization, third parties may place the burden of negotiation on the workers, which increases risk of miscommunication, violence, or known violent perpetrators posing as clients entering the work space. Participants’ narratives further indicated that when sex workers and third parties are unable to clearly set terms of service (services, including those not provided, prices, PPE requirements), the potential for miscommunication with clients increases, as does the risk of misunderstandings, aggression, and violence. One participant, Laine, notes that following end-demand laws, clients were more likely to give fake names and “didn’t want to talk much.” Laine further explained the impacts of criminalization on client communication:

“When we put on this other layer of criminalization, when [clients] get sketched out, this is when things can go awry, as you know. Their energy shifts, they get a little wigged out, and now it’s not clear communication, they get fearful. Usually fear can lead to aggression”

—Laine, Canadian born, BIPOC massage parlor worker.

Another participant described negative experiences with payment and price negotiation, as third-party supports are often hesitant to do this work in advance and collect payment upfront:

“[At] the end of the session, you know I told them ‘oh this is how much it cost this and this’. I’ve done it. I did the whole thing, the service that he wanted, and he didn’t pay me. There was like couple of times like that and I think this is not happening just to me. It’s happening to a lot of girls”

—Gwen, im/migrant manager and worker.

Participants’ narratives included here highlight how criminalization hinders advance client screening, resulting in aggression and theft.

Barriers to Online Advertising, Racialization, and Im/Migration Status

In addition to alleviating financial and labor burdens associated with advertising, third parties are even more critical for workers with limited English language fluency, for whom advertising would be both cumbersome and more likely a site of miscommunication. Participants’ narratives revealed that laws that limit other persons from posting advertisements on a sex worker’s behalf have specific implications for im/migrant sex workers who face language barriers. This contributes to the inequities of who can reasonably enjoy the economic and safety benefits of online advertising and client screening and communication. One participant, a massage parlor manager and former sex worker, describes the importance of her role in being able to communicate with clients in advance:

“It’s like a bridge to do the communication between two, parties [sex worker and client]. And I think it’s uh, it’s really important [to have that] because a lot of girls get confused. Sometimes they hesitate to do a certain service, and then the customer, already paid for it. It’s just a lot of confusion… It’s really hard for them to say no, I don’t do that… To go through us to say it, it’s so much better”

—Gwen, im/migrant manager and worker.

As Gwen describes, her presence as a third-party support is essential in establishing clear communication with clients on services offered by workers.

Because Canada’s end-demand laws do not criminalize the sale of sex in certain settings for workers with citizen status, white and presumed “Canadian-born” sex workers are more likely to evade the legal risks of online advertising. As discussed by Canadian-born participants, the risks of advertising criminalization are related to removal of content, client screening, and financial security. However, participants’ narratives suggest that in a context where im/migrant sex workers are criminalized, and because third parties are also criminalized, racialized and presumed “im/migrant” sex workers face increased fear of criminal surveillance. East Asian im/migrant sex workers in particular not only face online censorship and content removal, but are also hesitant to post online due to surveillance and policing of work venues. One participant, a venue manager and owner, who noted that most of the workers at her business are not fluent in English, explained they do not feel the workers at the venue are “safe” from police surveillance and feels the need to censor advertisements:

“Even though they are legal, they are still not safe. It would be more dangerous if they were working alone and have to advertise themselves. I help them advertise. I can’t really put too much on it, just stuff about how there are pretty girls working at this beauty parlor. If I were to explicitly advertise the truth, I probably will get more business, but I am afraid, so this affects the girls too. But we have no choice since the government is like this. We cannot advertise without hesitation”

—Anne, im/migrant, manager/owner.

For racialized, im/migrant sex workers, the conflation of im/migrant sex work and trafficking, as per Canada’s criminal code, means that workers and third parties must protect themselves against police surveillance. Participants highlight how fear of arrest and workplace raids as a barrier to online advertising is specific to racialized, im/migrant workers, due to the compounding criminalization of both im/migrant sex work and third parties.

DISCUSSION

Our findings highlight that in managed, indoor sex work venues, third parties, who are mostly women and current/ former sex workers, offer sex workers essential supports, including advertising and client screening. However, the criminalization of third-party advertising undermines sex workers’ OHS by hindering open communication with clients and limiting options for advance screening and establishing terms of service. In addition to end-demand criminalization, our findings demonstrate increasing impacts of punitive online policy. Lastly, our findings further illustrate how the criminalization of both third parties, such as managers, and advertising exacerbates harms against racialized, im/migrant sex workers who would otherwise benefit from the OHS measures available via online advertising.

Client screening, in the context of outdoor work environments, has been previously identified as essential to sex workers’ OHS (Krüsi et al., 2012, 2014), and has been recommended as one of the most significant ways sex workers are able to establish consent, and protect themselves from potentially violent perpetrators or undesirable clients (Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, 2013). Our findings demonstrate ways that the criminalization of advertising and third parties undermine such recommendation. Indoor settings have also been shown to support women sex workers’ OHS, including enhanced options for screening and negotiation (Deering et al., 2013; Goldenberg et al., 2015; Krüsi et al., 2012), while supportive third parties play a critical role in enhancing sex workers’ OHS (McBride et al., 2019, 2021a). However, end-demand laws that criminalize third parties hinder the potential benefits of both indoor workspaces and third party supports (Machat et al., 2019; McBride et al., 2021). In managed indoor settings, the threat of police inspections can result in ambiguous service postings and a lack of communication, leading to potential conflict between clients and workers regarding service expectations (Anderson et al., 2015).

The current study builds on such research, finding that the criminalization of both advertising and third parties further reduces indoor sex workers’ ability to screen clients. The narratives of participants in this study emphasized that advertising criminalization, and specifically criminalizing a person advertising on another person’s behalf, interferes with third parties’ abilities to support workers OHS by taking on administrative tasks such as advertising and advance client screening. As well, the current study found that prohibiting advertising creates significant barriers to working indoors, establishing a consistent client base, and maintaining income security and fair rates for sex workers (via open communication and comparison among workers), and thus placing workers in precarious positions.

The findings of our current study highlight the ways third-party advertising can facilitate screening and establishment of terms of service and shed light on how the continued criminalization of third-party advertising undermines such supports. Aligned with other Canadian research with diverse sex work communities (Koenig et al., 2022; Sterling & Meulen, 2018), the findings of this study also elucidate the ways in which end-demand legislation and international policies intersect to hinder invaluable advertising and screening tools (e.g., advertising sites, social media and chat platforms) by putting pressure on internet platforms to censor their users and bar sex workers from online spaces. Online advertising and client communication have been previously identified as enhancing sex workers’ OHS and financial security and have been directly linked to reduced experiences of violence, reduced risk of STIs, and work stress (Argento et al., 2018; Cunningham & DeAngelo, 2019; Machat et al., 2022) for men, women, and trans sex workers. For sex workers, online platforms can allow them to advertise to a greater client pool, screen clients more thoroughly, and build community with other sex workers (Campbell et al., 2018; M. Smith, 2018). The current findings further suggest that when advertising is prohibited, clear and direct communication with clients becomes a liability for website providers. Under circumstances that necessitate ambiguous, coded language, the potential for online communication to act as a screening tool is severely limited. Our findings support existing research documenting the ways sex workers are facing censorship online which limits their ability to book and screen clients in advance (Blunt & Stardust, 2021). Despite this, sex workers throughout digital history have developed strategies to better navigate these spaces, including the development of sex work–specific terminology to use online, use of VPNs, and building personal websites (Decoding Stigma, 2021).

Strategies for avoiding censorship, however, tend to favor more privileged sex workers (e.g., those holding economic or racial privilege, or greater access to resources), while continuing to leave marginalized sex workers vulnerable to law enforcement surveillance and punitive measures (Smith, 2019). Community researchers have documented the ways in which sex workers are increasingly surveilled, policed, and restricted through both traditional law enforcement and online platform policing (Blunt & Wolf, 2020; Blunt et al., 2020). Adding to this body of work, the current findings highlight the unique and compounding barriers to online advertising faced by sex workers who work in indoor venues and with third parties, as they rely on others to assist with advertising.

While increasing scholarship and community work have documented the impacts of online censorship on sex workers’ OHS, very little has centered the experiences of im/migrant workers and those who work in managed, indoor venues. The findings of this study have highlighted that the harms of online surveillance for racialized/immigrant sex workers extend beyond censorship. Racialized im/migrant workers are categorically presumed to be exploited by third parties, while third parties are categorically depicted as male exploiters (Government of Canada, 2014). This conflation of sex work with sex trafficking results in enhanced police harassment, racial profiling, and discrimination in how laws are enforced (Goldenberg et al., 2017; Lam, 2018). Recent work has highlighted the increase of punitive policing targeting third parties under end-demand legislation, as police raids on massage parlors in several cities have resulted in third parties facing arrests and charges (Lam, 2018; Seymour, 2017). While more privileged sex workers may utilize ambiguous language online to avoid deletion of their advertisements, racialized, im/migrant sex workers who are assumed to be trafficked must do so to also avoid violent police raids. The current study has contributed both to the growing literature on internet censorship among sex workers to highlight the unique experiences of im/migrant and racialized workers, while also contributing to the large body of work on im/migrant sex workers’ OHS through our novel discussion of advertising access within managed, indoor venues.

Lastly, our findings demonstrate the continued state-sanctioned, carceral approach to anti trafficking, both via Canada’s end-demand laws and online policies such as FOSTA/SESTA. Such approaches, while packaged as “protection,” feed the racial profiling and surveillance of risky or deviant populations (Durisin, 2022), resulting in the surveillance, criminalization, and detention of sex workers and im/migrants, but also racialized and poor communities (Bernstein, 2010; Kempadoo et al., 2012; NSWP, 2019). Our findings add to the existing literature by demonstrating ways in which the carceral creep has spread to online tools and spaces used by sex workers. Furthermore, the racialized impacts of these highlight the intensifying fallout of anti-trafficking regimes, including harming marginalized communities beyond sex workers. The conflation of both sex work and racialized bodies with victimization/deviance has implications for how future censorship may continue to erase diverse communities from online spaces.

Policy Implications

In a long overdue governmental review of Canada’s end-demand laws, the House of Commons recommended in June 2022 that client criminalization and the criminalization of third parties be upheld (Standing Committee on Justice & Human Rights, 2022), in disregard of the evidence clearly documenting the negative impacts of this approach to criminalizing sex work (Machat et al., 2019; NSWP, 2018; Platt et al., 2018). While the review did suggest the repeal of advertising criminalization, our findings further demonstrate that the full decriminalization of sex work, including sex work third parties is urgently needed to facilitate sex workers’ client screening strategies and service negotiation, particularly for those who benefit from third-party supports. The decriminalization of sex work must also include im/migrant workers to reduce policing, surveillance, fines, and deportation threats faced by im/migrant workers, and particularly racialized workers who are often assumed to be trafficked im/ migrants. Decriminalizing sex work within one jurisdiction cannot resolve barriers related to international internet censorship policies. Therefore, in order for more sex workers to have access to digital spaces and associated safety and security benefits, efforts need to focus on the establishment of diverse and accessible online spaces for sex workers, and limit the introduction of additional punitive censorship policies.

Limitations and Strengths

This study has several strengths and limitations. Challenges in accessing criminalized populations may have constrained participation, as im/migrant workers and third parties fearing surveillance may be more likely to have declined to engage in this research. However, the research team has worked to mitigate this by building longstanding relationships with sex work venues through over a decade of outreach. Considerable overlap between sex worker and third-party roles is a major strength of this study, as it offers dual perspectives on the impacts of third-party advertising prohibitions in managed indoor settings. As our initial interview guide covered a wide range of topics related to end-demand sex work laws, specific discussions of advertising were not emphasized in each interview. As well, as some sex workers had little experience or knowledge of sex work advertising, the data was limited for these participants. Further research on the intersections between sex workers’ OHS and financial security and advertising criminalization is recommended, particularly in informal indoor settings. Due to the small sample sizes of Black and Latinx sex workers and third parties, we aimed to protect participant anonymity through use of a broader BIPOC descriptor. Therefore, this research is unable to describe the unique experiences of Black, Latinx, or other BIPOC indoor sex workers. Further research is needed, which engages with larger and more diverse groups of BIPOC sex workers, to address the impacts of diverse forms of racism, including anti-Black racism on indoor sex workers’ access to advertising and experiences of online censorship. Similarly, as our sample consisted largely of women sex workers, there is a need for continued research with sex workers of all genders to explore gendered impacts.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights how the criminalization of advertising shapes OHS and income security among sex workers who work indoors. Our findings show that third parties offer support with advertising services which afford enhanced client screening and financial security. Our findings offer new evidence demonstrating that end-demand models, including advertising criminalization hinder sex workers’ access to OHS resources afforded to other industries (e.g., establishing terms of service). Lastly, the criminalization of third-party advertising has unique implications for racialized, im/migrant sex workers who are more likely to utilize third-party supports due to language barriers, but are overpoliced due to the problematic assumption of sex trafficking. The current findings underscore the ongoing conflation of im/migrant sex work and trafficking and of third-party supports with perpetrators, and how these ideologies are increasingly shaping the regulation of online sex work spaces. Further research and close collaboration with sex workers, including im/migrant sex workers, are needed to establish best practices for online platforms and ISPs to provide rights-based spaces that are safe for sex workers. Legislative action to fully decriminalize all aspects of the sex industry for all workers, including sex workers’ right to work with others for the purpose of advertising, is urgently recommended in Canada and globally to uphold sex workers’ health, safety, and human rights.

Availability of Data and Material

The data presented in this study are available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.