As the sex trade has increasingly moved online, a local nonprofit has developed a pilot program that targets people who buy and sell sex through the web. And there are plenty of places to look.
“The growth of the internet has expanded the marketplace dramatically,” Val Richey, senior deputy prosecuting attorney for King County, told the BBC last month. “We found over 130 websites where you can buy sex in the Seattle area alone. One of those websites was averaging 34,000 ads a month last year.”
When they find these ads, former sex workers with Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST)—a Seattle-based Christian group that aims to help people they think are being sexually exploited—reach out via text message, offering support services or just someone to talk to. Robert Beiser, the executive director of Seattle Against Slavery (SAS), a not-for-profit group that developed the program and partners with REST, told me that in the past year, they’ve sent more than 7,000 text messages to potential sex workers whose ads they found on the internet.
