Sex Workers Speak: all about the internet By Nosipho Vidima In South Africa, sex work and related activities are criminalised in national legislation, and sex workers are also harassed through various “public nuisance” municipal by-laws. These laws create oppressive conditions for sex workers, whose human rights are also frequently negated. They experience discrimination and marginalisation which often manifests as violence and abuse. Using the internet and social media platforms is becoming daily rituals - as a way to connect with family, friends and the world. It’s also on these platforms that most people are promoting their businesses. But for most South African sex workers this has not happened yet. Four sex workers and sex work(er) activists have a conversation around this gap or slow uptake on the use of online platforms for sex work. SexyC (35), Fate (28), Mickey (27) and I work in the sex work activist space/ organisations, which makes our voices not just our voices but also representing the voices of sex workers we meet on a daily basis through creative spaces, outreach, advocacy work and human rights defense interventions.
NV: I know you are part of creative spaces with street-based sex workers, you work with the Legal Defense Centre team, you do outreach. When you talk to sex workers about online sex work what are their views? Why do you think that sex workers in South Africa don’t use these platforms? M: All they know is physical sex, physical interaction with a client and then call it 12
sex work. So, they’re not informed about doing it online, they’re not informed about these platforms. That’s why some are not doing it. Some are afraid of showing their faces but also some don’t know about these platforms F: Yes, they know about online sex work, but the response is that they don’t have time for online sex work. They too busy for online sex work. F: They tell me “I do not have time to go on my phone” and all those things. They tell me they just want to go to the street, and they do not feel like online will work. Some people do both. S: They’re afraid of being online because they are not exposed to using computers and I tried to explain to them that using a computer is the same as using your phone. They also say that they do not have typing skills. The others fear and feel like there’s competition online. And others were saying that everyone online is sexy and that only the hot girls are the ones who go online. They feel like the online platform is not the one where business moves. M: Some of them are not informed about them e.g. OnlyFans people think it’s only for slay queens they don’t understand that this platform is part of sex work.
