In Melbourne recently, a horrific incident followed an online dating app meeting, and a young man lost his life.  A young woman was arrested and is expected to be charged with murder (The AGE July 25, 2018).

Reports of online dating-related rape have risen by more than 450% the National Crime Agency announced recently, warning that the surge in online dating had given rise to a “new kind of sexual offender.” The number of reports of people raped during their first face-to-face meeting following initial contact online showed an almost sixfold increase.  It said 85% of those reporting rapes were women and 15% were men, most occurred on the first face-to-face meeting following online contact. Given these alarming, even frightening statistics, (and evidence that as many as 75% of these rapes go unreported) the question must be asked why do sex-workers also put themselves at such obvious risk on dating sites when the legal brothels provide a well-regulated, safe alternative?

Ladies…you are NOT safe!

• Think this is only happening to sex-workers who “aren’t careful“?
• Think this only happens to “other women“?
• Think this type of thing only happens in “other areas“?
• Think “that’s not going to happen to me“?
• Think “I don’t use THAT dating site “?

Think again. Just because it hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it won’t.  And it doesn’t mean you’re being safe.

At the opposite end of the scale, the legal brothels have an almost zero rate of sexual assault because the customers are those looking for something different – a safe, private place to enjoy the attentions of a beautiful woman.  For the odd customer who might want to over-step boundaries, layers of security are in place with the protection of the sex-workers always foremost in the minds of licensees.  Yet licensees of legal brothels still receive regular updates from Rhed, an industry support group, through their “Ugly Mugs” circulars, of sex-workers (overwhelmingly in illegal brothels or operating from private apartments), being harassed, robbed and/or assaulted by those few aberrant and dangerous men hunting for something else.

The numbers don’t lie, and they are going in the wrong direction for the young women looking to work in the private and illegal sex industry.  The lure of independence as a single operator does not even come close to the trade-off being made around your security, and the financial incentive is undoubtedly much overstated anyway.  The legal brothels provide what on line dating apps can never do: your personal safety