On July 1, a new prostitution law in Sweden will go into full force with OnlyFans users in the country facing prison sentence. The law will treat buying online sex the same as paying a prostitute for sexual intercourse.
This is a big trouble of OnlyFans users in Sweden. While some are of the view that the law is right and would limit online prostitution, others think it’s harsh and should be scrapped!
“This is a new form of sex purchase, and it’s high time we modernize the legislation to include digital platforms,” Swedish member of parliament Teresa Carvalho said after the bill passed.
Under the new law, it will be illegal to pay someone to carry out a sexual act remotely — such as on a live video stream — for the specific purpose of that act being viewed by the buyer.
The law targets live, specially-commissioned interactions — which are especially lucrative and popular among many porn stars on online platforms.
Watching and paying for pre-recorded adult content will remain legal.
Carvalho, who is part of Sweden’s left-wing opposition party, the Social Democrats, said the law is not aimed at targeting OnlyFans models themselves.
Instead, she said it will protect young people and other individuals vulnerable to exploitation.
She pointed to links between online exploitation and grooming with drug abuse, human trafficking, and prostitution.
The bill was proposed by the Swedish parliament’s justice committee and received cross-party backing.
In Sweden, paying for sex is already illegal and faces a sentence of up to one year in prison. Sweden’s sex trafficking laws focus on punishing the buyers, but not the sex workers.
Pimping carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
Do you think this new law is harsh and that something should be done about it or you believe it’s in the right direction? Well, let’s see how it plays out in the coming months.
