Tracy Gilbert

I wholeheartedly agree. A recent report found that commercial sexual exploitation is so linked with organised crime that it could not be further underground. All of that is linked to violence against women and girls, and our Government are working hard to challenge and solve that over the coming years. We should be in no doubt as to the gravity of the implications: pimping websites are the largest human trafficking operation in modern UK history. Police Scotland should launch an immediate criminal investigation into the individuals running pimping websites in Scotland for human trafficking—an offence that carries a maximum life sentence. Under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act, an exploiter must fulfil three key criteria for their activities to constitute human trafficking. First, they have to “take a relevant action”. Secondly, they have to take that action “with a view to another person being exploited.” Thirdly, they must intend “to exploit the other person” or “know or ought to know the person is likely to be exploited.” The individuals operating and profiting from pimping websites tick every box. I will consider each criterion in turn. First, taking a “relevant action.” The relevant actions in the Act include “the transportation or transfer of another person” or “the arrangement or facilitation” of it. Pimping websites openly and explicitly facilitate the transportation or transfer of individuals for prostitution. The operators of these platforms publish prostitution adverts in a standardised format, which includes specifying whether the individual being advertised will do outcalls. Vivastreet helpfully clarifies on its website in a blog targeted at individuals being prostituted that “An outcall is where you go to the client’s location”. In a separate blog aimed at sex buyers, it says: “If it’s an outcall, they will also have to factor in travel and finding the meeting space.” Vivastreet also advise those advertising on its website: “Don’t forget to set your incall and outcall - as well as overnight fees.” AdultWork, meanwhile, provides a function on its website explicitly facilitating what it calls “escort tours”. Sex buyers were advised to use that page to locate members offering escort services “on tour”: “Specify your preferences and location below to see who will be visiting your area.” Prostitution adverts published by Vivastreet and AdultWork specify whether the individual advertiser will travel to the sex buyer. Crucially, website visitors are also able to filter adverts according to whether those individuals will provide outcalls—that is, travel for prostitution—using a sorting function designed and provided by the website. That is crystal-clear facilitation of “transportation or transfer of another person” for prostitution. Facilitating the transportation of individuals for prostitution is built into the architecture of AdultWork and Vivastreet. The second element of the human trafficking offence in Scotland is that the relevant action is taken “with a view to another person being exploited”. The crucial issue is of course what constitutes exploitation. Under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act, exploitation includes exercising “control, direction or influence over prostitution by the person in a way which shows that the other person is aiding, abetting or compelling the prostitution.” Pimping websites openly and explicitly aid prostitution. In 2023, a representative of Vivastreet told the Home Affairs Committee that most of its profits came from sex-trade adverts. The standardised prostitute adverts that pimping websites publish contain a long list of sex acts, with the advertiser having to indicate which acts the person advertising will perform. The adverts also feature sexualised or sexually explicit images of the person advertised, prices and a contact phone number. AdultWork and Vivastreet have not even attempted to hide the fact that they aid prostitution, presumably because—at least until now—they have assumed that they do not need to. As far back as 2017, a judge sentencing a sex-trafficking gang that advertised victims on Vivastreet observed: “No one, including those who make a profit from Vivastreet, could have been left in any doubt prostitution services were being offered.” The adverts on pimping websites are not incidental to the prostitution that takes place. After sex buyers view the ads, they call the phone numbers contained in them and make arrangements for the women to travel. The adverts are indispensable to the resulting prostitution, and they are how buyers and advertisers connect and communicate. I turn finally to the third criterion: for an activity to constitute human trafficking in Scotland, the pimping website must intend “to exploit the other person”. That is, they must intend to aid prostitution or know, or ought to know, that the person is likely to be exploited “during or after the relevant action”. As is abundantly clear from the activities that I have described, Vivastreet and AdultWork are not unwitting or accidental hosts of hundreds of thousands of prostitute adverts every day. Their knowledge and intent to aid prostitution are immediately obvious to anyone who visits their sites. Every prostitution advert is displayed in an identical format, because the website operators designed it that way, complete with a predetermined list of sex acts. The operators have intentionally designed the website to enable visitors to filter prostitution adverts according to whether the advertised individuals will do outcalls—that is, travel for the purpose of prostitution. AdultWork, for example, provides a function that enables sex buyers to contact advertisers directly through the website’s internal messaging function. The website states: “AdultWork.com has booking forms for escort meetings that use the prices you’ve set”. Again, that is crystal-clear intent to aid prostitution. Pimping websites operating in Scotland constitute human trafficking operations in and of themselves. That is even before we have considered the industrial-scale trafficking by third parties advertising their victims on those platforms. It is a national scandal that the individuals operating AdultWork and Vivastreet have been allowed to operate for years with total impunity, and yet they have also been presented by Government and the National Crime Agency as partners in tackling sex trafficking.