The Death of Online Sex Work: Sweden and the UK Just Made It Worse for Everyone
- Filip
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
In case you missed it, it’s 2025 and digital sex work is getting strangled out of existence in Europe. Sweden just outlawed the sale of “live sexual content” online, meaning yes — doing a private cam session in your bedroom now gets filed under prostitution. The UK isn’t far behind, aiming to criminalize “websites that facilitate sex work.”
So if you’re a sex worker just trying to pay rent without ending up in someone’s van — congrats, you’re now a threat to national safety.
And before you roll your eyes and mutter “But it's good, it's an extended the Nordic Model,” let’s get some perspective on it: these laws don’t stop trafficking. They don’t save women. They make it more dangerous for anyone — especially queer, disabled and migrant people — to survive.
Sex Work, But Make It Digital Inquisition
In July 2025, Sweden passed Prop. 2024/25:124, which makes it illegal to buy custom porn, live content, or anything else resembling adult entertainment that isn’t pre-approved, algorithmic, and dead behind the eyes.
That means:
If you sell customs or cam shows, you’re a prostitute.
If someone buys it, they’re a criminal.
If you split rent with someone who does it, you could be charged with pimping.
Sex workers in Sweden are already reporting major income drops. People are panicking, not because they’ve been “rescued,” but because they’ve been shoved offline and told to shut up.
“Our income will decrease so much that we’ll be forced to offer services and fulfil requests we would otherwise never agree to,” a Swedish cam model said in an open letter.
Ah yes, criminalization in the name of “protecting women.” What could possibly go wrong?
UK Next? Meet the “Digital Pimping” Ban
Over in the UK, MPs have proposed a law to ban “websites that promote or profit from prostitution.” Translation: any site where a sex worker might advertise, screen clients, or make money — gone.
Platforms will be punished for simply allowing sex workers to exist. Under the already suffocating Online Safety Act, sites are now liable for “harmful user-to-user content.” Sex workers? Apparently harmful by default.
We’ve seen this before. FOSTA-SESTA in the US nuked platforms like Backpage and pushed workers into the street. This is just the EU remix.
ID Laws: Surveillance Dressed Up as “Protection”
Another trend infecting both countries? Mandatory ID verification. Sex workers are being forced to link real names and IDs to content — which sounds smart until you realize:
Most workers use stage names to stay safe from stalkers, exes, cops, and nosy HR managers.
Migrants, trans folks, and people without stable housing get flagged or banned outright.
Once your legal ID is in a company database, leaks are one hack or subpoena away.
So now you're either outed, at risk of deportation, or locked out of work entirely. All in the name of “safety.” Cute.
Who Gets Screwed the Hardest?
Short answer: the people who always do.
Migrant sex workers who can’t risk police contact? Out.
Queer and trans workers who built online followings to avoid discrimination in “mainstream” porn? Gone.
Disabled sex workers who can’t physically do in-person work? Fucked — and not in a good way.
Sex work was never “just a phase” for these people. It was their business model, their rent money, their control.
When governments burn down the safest option, you don’t get fewer sex workers. You just get more people hustling in unsafe conditions, for less money, with no backup.
Surveillance, But Slutty
These laws don’t just come for sex workers. They’re test-driving surveillance tech that can and will be repurposed.
Start with adult creators. Move on to queers. Then filter all user-generated porn. Then anything “subversive.” Sound familiar?
Policing sex work online isn’t about saving women. It’s about control — of platforms, of money, of bodies.
This Isn’t About “Safety.” It’s About Erasure
If lawmakers actually cared about sex workers,
they’d:
Legalize and protect digital labor, not criminalize it.
Invest in housing, healthcare, and consent education — not surveillance software.
Give people tools to work safely, not ban their bank accounts and call it feminism.
But instead? We get vague moral panic wrapped in legalese. And sex workers — as always — get the fallout.
What You Can Do (Besides Rant on Twitter)
Follow orgs like ESWA, Red Umbrella Sweden, and Decrim Now — they’re on the frontlines.
Demand full decriminalization, not more platform crackdowns.
If you're a creator: start asking your platforms where they stand — before they ghost you.
And if you're a buyer? Don’t vanish. Help pay for what you consume. Support people who take risks to be visible.
Because when you ban online sex work, you don’t kill the industry. You kill the safest part of it.
