Sex service marketing: off streets and online

Researcher criticises HS test advertisement

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Nearly all Finnish sex workers operate without a pimp; independent sex entrepreneurs are now using the Internet to connect with potential customers. A significant number of Estonian prostitutes in Finland also work like this, says researcher Anna Kontula of the University of Tampere. Kontula is also the deputy chairwoman of SALLI - the United Sex Professionals of Finland.
      Helsingin Sanomat reported on Wednesday on a test in which it placed an advertisement on the seksitreffit.fi sex business website, and received more than 122 enquiries in 24 hours.
     
By working online, a sex worker is able to operate fairly anonymously, which lowers the threshold to get into the business. Anna Kontula found in her research that the number of prostitutes in Finland is about 8,000.
      Kontula says that Finnish sex workers are in a relatively good position; it is fairly easy for them to negotiate on the terms of their business.
     
"Most of the sex workers that I have met feel that they have the power in their customer relations, or that the power is shared equally between them and their clients."
      Because of high demand, Kontula says that Finnish sex workers are able to keep their prices so high that they can earn quite well while doing fairly little work.
      "It is now quite possible to be a full-time student and a part-time prostitute on the side. Most sex workers take only a few customers a month, and do the work very sporadically."
     
Anna Kontula criticises the Helsingin Sanomat test, in which the backgrounds of the respondents to the sex ad were investigated. "Now fewer customers will call from their own telephones. That means that the sex workers will have to take calls from unknown numbers, which endangers their safety."
     
Professor Osmo Kontula of the Family Federation of Finland, who has researched Finnish sexuality, says that most Finnish men approve of prostitution, while only a minority of women do so. The proportions have remained the same for a long time.
      Kontula says that the great demand for sex services reflects widespread sexual dissatisfaction among Finnish men.
      "Studies show that men on average would like to engage in sex signifiantly more often than their partners. That is what maintains this demand, and that fact cannot be changed through any prohibitions."
      Studies indicate that about 15 per cent of Finnish men have paid for sex at some time during their lives.
      Kontula says that men in good social positions buy sex slightly more often than others. They tend to travel more, and have strong sexual urges. "They have the motive and the opportunity to carry it out."
     
The procedures for buying sex services have changed during the present decade, says Anna Kontula.
      "In the late 1990s the culture was to go to a brothel in Tallinn in groups. Now buying sex is a low-profile activity."
      Anna Kontula says that current debate on the sex business is taking place in a situation in which many changes are ongoing in society.
      "Discussions are going ahead on what is right and what is wrong, what is allowed and what is forbidden. Questions related to sexuality often grow into very important battlefields."
      "At the same time, sex workers and their customers are stigmatised. These are unpleasant times for sex workers. Whether or not the moral condemnation targets them, they are the ones to suffer from it."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police say many well-known hotels used by Russian prostitution ring (19.10.2007)
  Report says most Finnish prostitutes work part-time (27.5.2005)

Links:
  SALLI - the United Sex Professionals of Finland
  Pro-Tukipiste (support for civil and human rights of individuals involved in sex work)

Helsingin Sanomat