The University of Leicester in England is under fire for showing their support for "sex workers" by publishing an online "toolkit" that serves as a guide for those who want to start making their own money by producing pornography. A petition that was launched to have the toolkit revoked has garnered over 11,000 signatures.
According to the Daily Mail, the University of Leicester introduced a student sex work policy and toolkit in 2020, letting students gain access to advice about entering sex work and advising staff on how to appropriately handle the topic.
The toolkit defined which types of sex work were legal and illegal, detailing how soliciting sex in public places, managing a brothel, and sharing premises with another sex worker are all prohibited under local law. Meanwhile, activities such as stripping, sex chat phone lines, selling underwear online for sexual gratification, "butler in the buff" and "sugaring" or being a paid companion for "sugar daddies" are all legal.
The toolkit also instructed staff to "be aware of specific terminology and legal context of the adult entertainment industry" and "expect their involvement with the sex industry to be hidden due to risk of stigma/judgment." They were also told not to assume that the student wants to leave sex work or "patronize" them while discussing their sex work.
CBN News reported that a group called Nordic Model Now started a petition in June to take down the toolkit that teaches students how to make money selling their own porn.
"These documents claim to be aimed at supporting 'students who are sex workers but they read more like a guide to getting into the sex trade and fail to provide substantial support for students in difficulties," the petition argued. The petition's authors also took issue with how the toolkit did not have any "guidance about protecting [a sex worker] from coercion and pimping" or that such events are "common in the sex trade."
"The toolkits fail to mention a single organization whose primary focus is helping women quit the sex trade," the petition authors wrote, saying that the toolkit also failed to provide "warnings about the well-documented physical and psychological harms that prostitution causes" and any "guidance on budgeting, hardship loans and grants, and other employment options."
The University of Leicester is fully aware of the petition and has responded through its registrar and secretary, Geoff Green, who reasoned that it's normal for students to engage in "sex work" and that it has long been happening in universities around the world. Green underscored that their priority is the "care and wellbeing of all students."
The toolkit did not sit well with nonprofit charity Christian Institute's Social Policy Analyst Dr. Sharon James, who argued that "Prostitution should never be condoned or facilitated in any way.
She added, "This guidance will only serve as a green light for abusers and exploiters."
James remarked that those students who are forced to go into sex work to make ends meet "need help to exit, not encouragement to stay. Young students should not be directed into the traps that could be laid for them by potential abusers."
