<story><title>Backpage founders get mistrial because US overplayed child sex trafficking claim</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/backpage-founders-get-mistrial-because-us-overplayed-child-sex-trafficking-claims/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>onion2k</author><text>If you think that&amp;#x27;s the same as paying for sex then you need to grow up, and have a think about how you regard other people. Believing that you&amp;#x27;re entitled to sex because you spent money on a date is a &lt;i&gt;super&lt;/i&gt; creepy attitude.</text></item><item><author>bongoman37</author><text>Did they also outlaw taking a woman out on an expensive date?</text></item><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>2 weeks ago, it became a felony in Texas to pay for sex. Unlike most of the other batshit laws passed in Texas this year, this one had wide bipartisan support.&lt;p&gt;As a gay man, while this is just anecdotal, it seems to me that the dynamics of gay prostitution are &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; different from most straight prostitution. I used to think it quite sad to hear about gay men paying for sex. I mean, these days, it is &lt;i&gt;extremely&lt;/i&gt; easy for gay men to find other gay men to have sex with, for free, as long as you&amp;#x27;re willing to have sex with guys who generally look like you do.&lt;p&gt;Then I had some friends who had escorted at some point, and they explained the dynamic. Quite simply, many of the &amp;quot;johns&amp;quot; were older, and they basically wanted a hot, younger guy to have sex with them (of course there were other types, for example closeted men).&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;None&lt;/i&gt; of the guys I knew who escorted ever felt coerced into doing it, beyond the fact that they needed money, and to them it was an easy way to get money.&lt;p&gt;Of course, I&amp;#x27;m sure there are guys who did feel pressured into doing it, and sex trafficking &lt;i&gt;does&lt;/i&gt; occur.&lt;p&gt;But there are still many, perfectly consenting adults who pay for sex as part of &amp;quot;the world&amp;#x27;s oldest profession&amp;quot;. We should stop this moral panic and focus laws to help actual victims of sex trafficking.</text></item><item><author>x86_64Ubuntu</author><text>Doesn&amp;#x27;t matter though.  The web property was taken down, and safer-ish sex work suffered a set back.  Sex trafficking is the new &amp;quot;terrorism&amp;quot; whereby the government or other organizations can allege it, and the targeted entity is pretty much SOL.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rjzzleep</author><text>In a lot of places of the world that&amp;#x27;s literally how prostitution works. Since you aren&amp;#x27;t allowed to pay for sex, they have tea and coffee houses where people pay for very expensive drinks and other things.&lt;p&gt;Then the women &amp;quot;decides&amp;quot; whether they have sex. At least I&amp;#x27;m not so clear on how the second part of that secret handshake works. But it&amp;#x27;s very much a concept of paying a lot for things that are not technically sex because that would be illegal.&lt;p&gt;A lot of escorts will also take perfume, jewellery or other expensive gifts instead of money.&lt;p&gt;Just a quick google search yields this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;It came to my attention on a recent trip to China that teahouses are now becoming the new center for scandal and prostitution. In fact, teahouses have had a mix meaning in China for centuries. Dating back as far as the Tang Dynasty teahouses were places to relax, play games and take in a traditional Chinese opera show. They were also a place where the equivalent of a geisha would cater to men by accompanying them with drinks, laughter and often-touchy behavior. Although this was seen as more of a custom to enhance customer service, it also gave customers negotiating room to ask the women for other services such as sex. Brothels were very common across China during this time and teahouses happened to be an outlet where prostitutes could also be ordered.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;qifullife.com&amp;#x2F;tea-house-meanings&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;qifullife.com&amp;#x2F;tea-house-meanings&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Backpage founders get mistrial because US overplayed child sex trafficking claim</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/backpage-founders-get-mistrial-because-us-overplayed-child-sex-trafficking-claims/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>onion2k</author><text>If you think that&amp;#x27;s the same as paying for sex then you need to grow up, and have a think about how you regard other people. Believing that you&amp;#x27;re entitled to sex because you spent money on a date is a &lt;i&gt;super&lt;/i&gt; creepy attitude.</text></item><item><author>bongoman37</author><text>Did they also outlaw taking a woman out on an expensive date?</text></item><item><author>hn_throwaway_99</author><text>2 weeks ago, it became a felony in Texas to pay for sex. Unlike most of the other batshit laws passed in Texas this year, this one had wide bipartisan support.&lt;p&gt;As a gay man, while this is just anecdotal, it seems to me that the dynamics of gay prostitution are &lt;i&gt;very&lt;/i&gt; different from most straight prostitution. I used to think it quite sad to hear about gay men paying for sex. I mean, these days, it is &lt;i&gt;extremely&lt;/i&gt; easy for gay men to find other gay men to have sex with, for free, as long as you&amp;#x27;re willing to have sex with guys who generally look like you do.&lt;p&gt;Then I had some friends who had escorted at some point, and they explained the dynamic. Quite simply, many of the &amp;quot;johns&amp;quot; were older, and they basically wanted a hot, younger guy to have sex with them (of course there were other types, for example closeted men).&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;None&lt;/i&gt; of the guys I knew who escorted ever felt coerced into doing it, beyond the fact that they needed money, and to them it was an easy way to get money.&lt;p&gt;Of course, I&amp;#x27;m sure there are guys who did feel pressured into doing it, and sex trafficking &lt;i&gt;does&lt;/i&gt; occur.&lt;p&gt;But there are still many, perfectly consenting adults who pay for sex as part of &amp;quot;the world&amp;#x27;s oldest profession&amp;quot;. We should stop this moral panic and focus laws to help actual victims of sex trafficking.</text></item><item><author>x86_64Ubuntu</author><text>Doesn&amp;#x27;t matter though.  The web property was taken down, and safer-ish sex work suffered a set back.  Sex trafficking is the new &amp;quot;terrorism&amp;quot; whereby the government or other organizations can allege it, and the targeted entity is pretty much SOL.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ultrarunner</author><text>I believe they are just referencing a possible way around the law, implying that prohibition doesn’t have a great track record.</text></comment>