Websites based in Finaland and used by sex workers worldwide to advertise and share information with each other have been closed down following a judicial warrant by Spanish police. Spanish police issued the warrant on 26th March, since which
point the websites have been unavailable.
The websites, Sihteeriopisto (Secretary College) and the international counterpart, sexworknet, were launched in Finland but maintenance was moved overseas when the sale of sexual services was outlawed in Finland in 2003.
Sex workers report the website had a private forum for sex workers only, which was used to share information and warnings about bad clients. A sex worker in Spain said:
The sex workers are shocked. The website had forum, where sex workers were sharing warnings about bad clients, robbery. It had a private area for sex workers only. There are of course other websites, but none of them has a forum. We lost the
platform, where we could share safety tips, where we could communicate and support each other.
Amsterdam Council has banned guided tours of its red light area from the 1st January next year.
The red-light district usually sits quite high on a tourist's list of must-sees when visiting this interesting city but according to The New York Times, Amsterdam's deputy mayor, Udo Kock, recently made a statement explaining it's outdated to
allow tourists to gape at sex workers' windows and view them as an attraction.
He claims that as the number of tourists walking through the red-light district grows, the amount of local paying clients decreases. Sex workers then lose business.
Tour companies are a bit put out and claim that tourists will still find themselves strolling the red-light district, but without guides reminding them to keep quiet and refrain from taking photographs.
Websites based in Finaland and used by sex workers worldwide to advertise and share information with each other have been closed down following a judicial warrant by Spanish police. Spanish police issued the warrant on 26th March, since which
point the websites have been unavailable.
Amsterdam Council has banned guided tours of its red light area from the 1st January next year.
