In ‘Gig Economy,’ Legal Sex Work Will Be Like Uber, Activists Say

In June, the Australian state of South Australia took a major step toward decriminalizing sex work, when as AVN.com reported, the Upper House of the state’s legislature finally passed a bill that would lift criminal punishments for many commercialized sexual activities. Now, as the bill awaits consideration by the state assembly in Adelaide, pro-decriminalization advocates are trying to allay public fears by portraying the 21st-century sex work economy as very different than in previous eras.  While opponents of the South Australia bill have warned that decriminalization would lead to a boom in “mega-brothels,” Green Party legislator Tammy Franks, a backer of the bill, says that in the contemporary “gig economy,” legal sex work would look more like Uber, where sex workers do business as independent contractors, connecting with clients via online apps, making their work essentially invisible to the general public, according to a report by The Weekend Australian published Saturday.  “The critics keep talking about brothels popping up everywhere but what we are looking at here is a model more associated with the disruptive economy where these women will be able to go about their business legally and no one will be any the wiser,” Franks told the paper. Even without decriminalization, according to the report, the sex work business already functions predominantly under the high-tech model, rather than via physical brothels, or on the streets. There are currently between 2,000 and 2,500 sex workers doing business in Australia’s fifth-most populated state, the paper reported. About two-thirds of those operate their own businesses, either independently or with a small group of associates. South Australia reportedly has fewer than 35 illegal brothels. But while operating their businesses online allows sex workers to screen out potentially abusive or otherwise undesirable clients, as long as they are operating illegally, their occupation remains a dangerous one, the sex workers say. “Just about every sex worker I know has been visited by the police,” one South Australian sex worker identified only as Anya told The Weekend Australian. “It’s got to the point where we are so scared to report any crimes against us because it makes us a target.”  No date for a vote on the bill in South Australia’s assembly has yet been set. Photo By Hipsta.space / Wikimedia Commons