New government has 100 days to put pimps out of business
More than 1,000 women and girls advertised for prostitution online are being moved from brothel to brothel right across the island of Ireland in co-ordinated operations designed to meet the demands of sex buyers. Picture: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
While there have been many positive steps taken by the outgoing Government, including the official recognition of prostitution as gender-based violence, the harsh reality is those behind the billion euro online commercial sex trade are constantly evading justice.
They do so by staying one step ahead of our laws, changing the ways and means they use to carry out their crimes, often using borders and technology to avoid detection.
The resulting mental and physical harms to vulnerable individuals trapped in the sex trade, but also to wider society, is immense.
We see it in so many ways in Ireland. Our children and young people are being exposed to the most extreme acts of sexual violence that is now the standard fare of mainstream pornography, many before theyâve even had their first teenage sexual experience.
More than 1,000 women and girls advertised for prostitution online are being moved from brothel to brothel right across the island of Ireland in co-ordinated operations designed to meet the demands of sex buyers. Many are too terrified or tightly controlled to seek refuge.
Meanwhile, predators exchange information online to seek out the locations of vulnerable children living in difficult circumstances, sometimes after arriving in Ireland as a result of trafficking.
Our team in The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute (The SERP Institute) have spent the past eight years highlighting each of these concerns, gathering research evidence and survivor testimony that can inform future policy.
The web of crime which surrounds commercial sexual exploitation is complex and international. Our research demonstrates there are many women and girls being exploited who exist in the shadows, and are unable to access comfort, safety, and security. Typically, the servers which allow exploitative platforms and websites to facilitate the sex trade are located abroad, beyond the jurisdiction of Irish law.
Based on our research, we do, however, believe the five steps we outline below can be undertaken without any undue delay, and with no need for new legislation.
Indeed, some of what we propose has already been committed to â such as progress towards regularising the immigration status of women brought into the country under false pretences, often misled by pimps acting as âlover-boysâ.
All year round, charities like Ruhama are offering outreach and intensive support to victims and survivors of sexual exploitation. In recent years, there has also been a marked increase in co-operation with gardaĂ â as the force pivoted its attention from targeting women to putting the uncomfortable legal spotlight on sex buyers.
What is now needed is greater resources, greater implementation of existing laws and an ability to keep pace with the tech-savvy organised criminals of the sex trade who exploit the most vulnerable for profit.
Each proposal we make represents a concrete step that has the potential to disrupt the commercial sex trade and the damage it is creating within our communities.
As Irelandâs only independent research institute focused on commercial sexual exploitation, supported by Community Foundation Ireland, we have made comprehensive recommendations to reach and support women and girls trapped in prostitution, victims of sex trafficking and children vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
In the new Governmentâs first 100 days in office, we are asking the incoming minister for justice to take a number of urgent measures, as follows:
- Fully and effectively enforce age verification measures for all pornography platforms to prevent all children and young people in Ireland from being exposed to and traumatised by the extreme misogyny and sexual violence that are the central features of pornography;
- Adopt a comprehensive phased legal and enforcement strategy to investigate and prosecute the companies which own and manage prostitution websites for advertising the sale of controlled and trafficked women;
- Identify and investigate newer platforms being used for the online facilitation of prostitution and sex trafficking in Ireland;
- Enhance the powers and resources of gardaĂ to prosecute sex buyers who create the demand for sexual exploitation. Support this new enforcement with a high-profile awareness campaign;
- Increase resources for specialised services to reach exploited women and girls and offer them exit routes out of prostitution â including trauma, medical, immigration and welfare assistance, as well as training and education supports.
In 2017, when Ireland outlawed the purchase of sex, it joined a group of countries and jurisdictions, including Northern Ireland, France and the Nordic countries, which took a definite stand against the commercial sex trade.
In 2022, when we recognised prostitution as gender-based violence in our Zero Tolerance strategy, we stood out as an international leader in this regard.
Now we have an opportunity to again set a path for others to follow.
A serious and co-ordinated approach to shut down commercial sexual exploitation is the right thing to do. It is also timely. With Ireland set to take up the presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2026, the actions we take now could lay the foundations for a continent-wide effort to combat these crimes.
Under Irish leadership, we can offer hope to millions of victims of sexual exploitation across the globe, while also shutting down the criminal empires which have evaded justice for far too long.
- Ruth Breslin is the director of The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute (The SERP Institute), Irelandâs only independent research body dedicated to the study of commercial sexual exploitation.
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