Should the advertizing of sexual services be better regulated?

There could be safety benefits in such an idea too by increasing the possibility that a person who could potentially pose a threat to a sex worker is more likely to seek help.

Thanks, Pondering.

If it's illegal, enforcement is seriously lacking. It's easy to find online. If it cannot be properly enforced, then the logical next best option would seem to be public education aimed at the target audience, and that would be right on those same supposedly illegal sights that operate quite openly online.

You would also think that finding every means of dealing with the demand side would be an effective way of fighting prostitution.

As a sex addict myself I would totally support fines for hiring the services of sex worker. But what are the chances of being caught? Education concerning available help would be a wise strategy too.

You are correct. I had debated whether to start this thread here or the disability issues section . It might have been more appropriate there.

Also, should the rights of one group clash with those of another? How do we balance the rights of happy sex wokers and happy clients on the one hand with those of sex workers with financial or other difficulies and clients who suffer addictions, compulsive habits or other such problems on the other?

Must the rights of sex workers and those with compulsivity, addiction, and other such problems necessarily clash?

I just watched the entire video and it was ideological propaganda all the way. I know what compulsive behaviour is. It began about a year after my divorce and a bout of depression and two suicide attempts. Compulsive sexual behaviour and increasingly risky compulsive sexual behaviour followed over the years that followed including increasingly disturbing thoughts of self-harm and other thoughts I cannot bring myself to mention even in anonymity.

It is only recently that I started thinking more seriously of seeing a professional due in part to my lack of confidence in its usefulness and due in part to fear of ridicule. I will be seeing a psychologist who specializes in 'sex addiction'. I don't know if 'sex addiction' is the right terminology they ought to use but that is what the profession uses. I would just call it compulsive sexual behaviour. I will see him this coming week and getting a blood test the next day just to be sure since I want to try to turn my life around. The situation is so shameful for me that I have already typed out what I want to tell him because otherwise there would be no way I could tell him.

You may see nothing wrong with purchasing sexual services, yet I am well aware not only of the harm it has caused me personally in terms of feelings of guilt, shame, self-disgust, depression, thoughts of self-harm, etc. but also the risk to which I have exposed them. The other factor that finally led me to see a therapist was when I had taken an escort by surprise by making a request of her that could have put me at physical risk of death. It was as if I wanted to play Russian roulette and have someone else pull the trigger to my head, and was only half conscious of what I was really asking. Naturally she refused. Once she realized I was serious, she even went so far as to explain what I had just asked of her and suggested I see a therapist. We actually never ended up having sex. Instead she decided to just have a long conversation and I went home with lots to think about. She'd even offered the money back in the end but I refused. Strangely enough the conversation alone made it worthwhile.

I should qualify that she was still very kind in the way she addressed the problem to me and I appreciate that. It's only then that it dawned on me just how disturbing my request was. She was just a regular escort, not into femdom or anything of the sort, yet once she explained it to me I realized that even someone into femdom would have found such a request to be disturbing.

Of course none of it is rational. It is a combination of factors including a desire to escape from depression and suicidal tendencies initially, followed by habit reinforced by a regular dopamine fix. Sex calms the mind for a while before depression sets in again, with always an ever growing compulsion for ever riskier behaviour or more masochistic thoughts.