WIKIAdvertising of Prostitution (Prohibition) Bill
The Advertising of Prostitution (Prohibition) Bill is a Private Members' Bill introduced to the Lords by Lord McColl of Dulwich in June 2015.
- A person who publishes or causes to be published or distributes or causes to be distributed an advertisement which advertises a brothel or the services of a prostitute or any premises or service in terms, circumstances or manner which give rise to the reasonable inference that the premises is a brothel or that the service is one of prostitution shall be guilty of an offence.
Internet advertising is explicitly included, and "causes to be distributed" would introduce both an obligation to for internet services to not host sites advertising sex work, and a possible obligation for service providers to block such sites (potentially blocking classified sites such as craigslist.org). The bill contains a defence for business that "did not know and had no reason to suspect" the advertisement was for prostitution which would presumably cover user-contributed content sites. Also there is no clear geographical extent, so would affect advertising for services anywhere in the world being available (e.g. via the web) to the UK public.