Thank you so much for joining us here on
Sky News. First of all, your initial
reaction to to this investigation into
these so-called pimping websites.
>> Thank you so much for having me on this
evening. Um I absolutely welcome the
announcement by the um independent
anti-slavery commissioner on this point.
I think it's much needed. We have real
issues at the moment with pimping
websites. they are effectively
turbocharging
the sex trafficking trade because it
allows them to um advertise freely to
sex buyers across the country very
easily. So I'm so pleased that the
commissioner is going to investigate
this and look into this. Uh we um as
part of the investigation gave a right
to reply to one of these websites and
they said that they're regulated by
Ofcom under the online safety act and
that they do deploy a range of measures
to detect, report and remove potentially
exploitative uh content. What do you
make of that and where do you think that
maybe that some of the pitfalls or uh
you know yeah issues with it are?
to be frank, it's just not good enough
at the moment. And some are better than
others in terms of uh looking and making
sure that uh exploitation isn't
happening. But we do need to we need to
ramp up the measures that we're doing
it. It's just not sufficient. We have a
lot of exploitation going on right now.
So, uh we do have to look at what more
can be done and we fundamentally need to
change the law here. So we need to
recognize that uh current law hasn't
kept up with the modern world that we
have right now. So we have laws that you
know it is illegal to advertise uh
sexual services you know in a telephone
box for example or in you know a hard
copy newspaper but it is not illegal
online. So we need to bring our laws um
into the modern world so that we can
properly protect women and girls. I
mean, you mentioned, you know, that it's
illegal to advertise in phone box. I
think some of us will remember when
sometimes phone boxes when you had them
uh in cities were full of of these
cards. But, um, you sort of mentioned it
hasn't kept up with the times, but that
was a very long time ago. It might be
surprising to some that the law hasn't
kept up when actually, you know, that
the online world's been around for
decades.
>> Absolutely. I I think that's an
absolutely fair challenge. this law
should have been um updated long before
now and it's really frustrating because
uh you know we uh Tanya Atinetsi put
forward an amendment to the police and
crime bill on exactly this which wasn't
accepted. We will obviously continue um
because there's a huge amount of cross
party support for this. So it's
incredibly frustrating uh that we
haven't yet got this change in law and I
do think if we can put this change in
law in place we will see uh a
significant improvement in terms of uh
reducing that commercial sexual
exploitation.
>> There are some women uh working in the
sex industry that actually say that
having moved it online it does make it
safer for them. It gives them more
control, lets them work more
independently. I mean that may be the
case for some, but what do you think the
underlying issues are with that way of
thinking?
>> Well, people have a right to their view
and there will no doubt be some women
that do feel that way. But the reality
is there are thousands of women out
there that are being forced to do this
against their will. They're being
trafficked into this country. They're
being held in rooms and they are being
sold effectively against their will. So
to my mind it's protecting those women
that is my priority and um so it
absolutely has to be dealt with. We have
to recognize that the harms you know
outweigh any potential benefits that a
very small group of women may feel that
they get from it.
>> Yeah. It's more the sort of the shift
that we've seen to the online world that
has facilitated the sexual exploitation
of women. Just tell us in in practical
terms how you think that's done it. How
is it that perhaps vulnerable women were
spotted before everything moved online
that isn't happening now?
The online world just gives this ability
for traffickers and pimps to reach a far
greater audience. So it's effectively
just turbocharged and ramped up
something that was already there and
made it worse. Um and then you overlay
all of the other things that we've got
going on with respect to um the online
environment. So um the increase in
harmful online pornography. We've just
got this environment that is not
conducive to the protection of women,
girls um and children more broadly and
uh we urgently need to look at our laws
and make sure they're fit for purpose.
Just on a final point then, if you
mentioned that we need laws that are fit
for purpose, what recommendations would
you like to see become part of the
government's strategy on this?
>> I would like to see them uh making a
criminal offense to advertising uh
sexual services online. That would be a
real gamecher if we could get that
through. And I'm really really
disappointed that the government didn't
accept Tanya Atinetsa's um amendment on
this when we had the police and crime
bill going through the House of Commons
recently.
>> Okay. Rebecca Paul, Conservative MP and
member of the All Party Parliamentary
Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation.
Madam, thank you so much for sharing
your views with us. Thank you.