New law has limited impact on sex trade - Finnish ads back on foreign Internet servers

HIV infections from Thailand increasingly common

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Prostitution and procurement appear to have declined in Finland during August. A new law that came into effect at the beginning of the month led to the virtual disappearance of advertising for prostitution on Finnish web sites.
      However, there are signs of a comeback. One Internet service resumed the publication of contact information for prostitutes after a break of more than two weeks. The web site contained about 100 advertisements offering sex services for money in 18 Finnish cities.
      The new law makes it a crime to advertise for sex services in the Finnish printed and electronic media. However, the Finnish web site www.sihteeriopisto.net reports that it has sold its operations to a foreign company, putting it beyond the reach of Finnish legislation, even though the previous owner, Amar Line, still sells advertisements to the web site.
     
Nevertheless, Jouko Leskinen of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) feels that the new law has managed to make it more difficult for criminal prostitution rings to operate in Finland.
      "Marketing must be easy for procurement activities to be extensive. Now the wings of Internet advertising have been clipped, at least temporarily", Leskinen says.
     
Prostitutes themselves have noticed that the change in legislation has led to a reduction in their clientele.
      "Quite a few sex workers have regular customers who have their contact information. They have lost some customers, but they did not end up begging on the streets", says Anna Kontula, vice chairwoman of Salli, the organisation of Finnish sex professionals.
      Kontula says that throughout August there have been some advertisements for prostitutes on Finnish web sites, but the wording has been more cautious than before.
      "When a woman seeks the companionship of men aged 16 - 60 it is quite likely that paid sex is involved."
      Potential customers have also started posting messages on Internet message boards asking other customers for prostitutes’ contact information, or asking for those in the business to contact them.
     
Both Leskinen and Kontula recognise that the new law is a very recent one, and that its ultimate impact is difficult to predict.
      Leskinen feels that it is possible, and Kontula says that it is likely, that prostitution and its advertising will soon get back to the level it was before the beginning of August.
     
Also outside of Finnish jurisdiction are sex tourists who travel to locations such as Thailand to consort with local prostitutes.
      Finland’s National Public Health Institute reports that during the past five years the number of Finns who have caught the HIV virus during a trip to Thailand has increased considerably.
      As of October last year a total of 65 Finns had been infected in Thailand. Spain is the second-largest source of foreign HIV infections for Finns, with 45 cases diagnosed so far.
      According to a new book on the subject, some of the sex tourists in Thailand are willing to pay extra for unprotected sex. 


Previously in HS International Edition:
  New law banning advertising of prostitution services easy to circumvent (2.8.2004)
  Russian prostitutes replaced by Finns in Finnish Lapland (15.6.2004)
  Police say Russian prostitution decreasing sharply in Finnish Lapland (30.7.2003)
  Moves underway to ban purchase of sex in Finland (15.11.2002)
  Police wants to tap pimps phones; calls to prostitutes may soon be heard at police station (4.4.2003)

Links:
  SALLI - United Sex Professionals of Finland

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