Now is not the time to be normalising sex work for university students – Telegraph.co.uk

One of our respected universities released a guide to how to play Russian roulette to entertain others for money in December. Among its stated aims it said the university policy was to ensure that any students who play Russian roulette are positively supported, with their personal wellbeing and safety being considered as a priority and to ensure that University staff are aware of their responsibilities to support students through a non-judgemental approach.

Its policy statement read: The University is firmly committed to sustaining an inclusive learning, working and research environment for all students, this includes students earning money or other commodities through Russian roulette. We recognise the social stigma associated with Russian roulette and support students who earn a living through Russian roulette. Students may increasingly turn to Russian roulette to fund their studies. Outing individuals about their status without their consent puts students at risk of harm.

Actually, it doesnt say that. Its not supporting students who are struggling so badly financially that they will do anything - literally as crazy as the idea of playing Russian roulette for the entertainment of others would be - to support themselves.

No, this university, and multiple other unis all over the country, are all talking about sex work - not Russian roulette - supporting students who turn to prostitution when they cannot make ends meet, by publishing Student Sex Work tool-kits which aim to offer advice and support to the vendor.

Which would be all well and good if the whole idea weren't so desperately sad and depressing. By setting out not to challenge the assertion that its a fundamentally bad idea to go into sex work to get your degree, these organisations really arent helping at all.

Lets be clear: women (and, obviously, some men) are not being offered no-strings financial support to help them sustain their degrees. Instead, they are being shown a picture of normalised prostitution.Many might think that an academic institution - which is home to those women and men, including from the trans community, who are so vulnerable and frightened of losing their places at university, perhaps even their homes, due to lack of money that prostitution becomes an option - should be stepping in to stop it. That these places should be the actual role models for showing how education is the exit route from poverty, not selling yourself.

Sure, theres a school of thought which claims sex work to be an empowering and even fun way to earn that extra dosh. Although if that were so, wed see far fewer vulnerable people in the business, their places jostled away by glamorous and robust yuppies, eager to make some extra money for next winters trip to Barbados. As if.

Anyway appearances are not the crux of the matter - safety is. Anyone who is involved in prostitution or sex work deserves to do so without fear of physical or mental abuse. But there is no evidence an online toolkit can achieve this. It may give the illusion that there are ways to sell sex without fear or stigma, but theres no proof anyone or anything can do this.

Research does show that there is a huge and always growing burden of violence against those who offer sex for sale but that one of the greatest factors in preventing this comes down not to lack of ideas but lack of data and official interest.

Violence against women (and men, and those who are trans) in the sex trade is constantly overlooked when discussions take place about violence as a whole. The funding isnt there. The taxpayers are not crying out for it. Far more energy seems spent on redefining it as an employment choice than admitting that sex work comes with unimaginably high risks.

What is documented is that violence connected to sex work can cause poor health overall, physical and sexual injury, mental health problems including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, unwanted pregnancy, abortion, and increased risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

How on earth is a policy statement going to protect a student from any of that? It really doesn't matter whether you think prostitution is a good or bad thing as a societal entity. But we can all surely agree it is one of the most dangerous ways imaginable to make up a shortfall in a student grant.

Universities offering tips to stay safe - have a mirror in your room so you can see what the client is up to at all times - is pitiful stuff. Posting a copy of the toolkits mission statement on your wall isnt going to be much cop against a violent predatory man with a history of sexual abuse and a prison record.

Policies written with the best intentions cannot possibly do the one thing any putative prostitute would need from them to remain 100 per cent safe. And that is to create an algorithm that identifies which sex-buyer is safe and which one is not.

Until then, all the online tool-kits in the world wont make selling your body safe.But they may make you feel safer. Its in that gap where the problem lies.

Were universities really interested in the safety of their students they would reduce fees, offer financial advice, save paid work on campus for those young people who need it most. They would offer cash grants not gimmicky tips.

If personal wellbeing and safety were considered as a priority, no university would sanction a guide to prostitution, any more than they would to running up and down motorways or playing Russian roulette. Because it is inherently unsafe.

The naivety is not in thinking prostitution doesnt go on and will always be with us. It is in encouraging a new generation of young people to think it is no different in risk to other forms of remuneration.

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Now is not the time to be normalising sex work for university students - Telegraph.co.uk