Latest news with #NordicModel
The Herald Scotland
4 days ago
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Unbuyable Bill may result in just 25 charges a year
Ms Regan, a former SNP justice minister who defected to Alba in 2023, wants Scotland to bring in what is known as the Nordic Model - a system which criminalises the buying of sex in any setting and de-criminalises people selling sex. Since 2007 the buying of sex in a public place has been a criminal offence in Scotland. Formally called The Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill Ms Regan's legislation would also quash historic convictions for prostitution and provide sex workers a legal right to financial support to leave prostitution. READ MORE: SNP complain to Facebook over Reform 'race-baiting' advert targeting Sarwar Ministers still seeking 'urgent clarity' on £85m international student tax What is the Nordic Model? The proposals to criminalise 'buyers' of sex Ash Regan claims MSPs are buying sex as she introduces new bill The Alba MSP - who has the backing of Alba leader and former justice secretary Kenny MacAskill - argues prostitution is a form of male violence against women and that sex work exploits vulnerable women who are forced into it as a result of poverty. She argues her bill is a bold and long-overdue step towards tackling the issue but has said she fears it could be voted down by male MSPs in Holyrood who use prostitutes. It has already prompted significant debate with sex workers launching a campaign against it arguing it would make them more vulnerable to attack. The financial memorandum published with the bill estimated that the annual recurring cost associated with measures in the bill, taking into account extra work for the police, the prosecution service and the Scottish Prison Service as well as financial support for people leaving prostitution would be between £1.4 million and £2.2 million. This was based on estimates of the number of new charges brought to court of between 25 and 75 a year. "The member is basing total cost estimates on 45, 90 and 135 additional recorded crimes and 25, 50 and 75 additional charges brought to court," the financial memorandum stated. Lynsey Walton, chief executive of National Ugly Mugs, the UK's national sex worker safety charity, said: 'Ash Regan is trying to have it both ways. "In public she claims that the Nordic Model is needed to stop a national epidemic of abuse, but privately she admits that changing the law would lead to only a handful of cases a year," she said. 'Sex worker groups, alongside Non Governmental Organisations like Amnesty and the World Health Organisation oppose the new law on the grounds that it will make life more difficult and dangerous for sex workers, while costing taxpayers millions of pounds a year to enforce." She added: "If we truly want to address systemic violence against sex workers, we need full decriminalisation, not another expensive, performative policy that protects no one. "An official government review of similar legislation in Northern Ireland – the only nation in the UK to enact the Nordic Model – found that there was 'no evidence that the offence of purchasing sexual services has produced a downward pressure on the demand for, or supply of, sexual services'. It also found that 'the legislation has contributed to a climate whereby sex workers feel further marginalised and stigmatised'. A YouGov poll of 1,088 Scottish adults, carried out last year, showed that Scots firmly oppose the Nordic Model, with 47% saying it should be legal for a person to pay someone to have sex with them, versus 32% who think it should not be legal. The poll showed that 69% of Scots say MSPs should focus on protecting the health and safety of sex workers, and providing support to people who want to leave the industry, compared to just 14% who support new laws to prevent people exchanging sexual services for money. A spokesperson for Ash Regan said: 'Police Scotland does not routinely record the cost for any specific operation as officers are deployed to where local policing plans necessitate their services are most required. 'If the Bill becomes law then it will be an operational matter for Police Scotland to enforce the new law and Ash has full confidence in their ability to do so." She added: "Previous Members Bills have provided no financial support for Officer Training whereas Ash Regan's Bill has prudently set out costs to support training requirements of existing police officers. The manner in which the figures have been presented is either a wilful or ignorant representation of how training needs are facilitated in an organisation."
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Is Buying OnlyFans Content Now Illegal in Sweden?
Swedish authorities have voted to criminalize the purchase of remote sexual services—things like paying someone for pictures and videos through platforms such as OnlyFans or paying someone for a live erotic webcam show. "Sweden says this model 'decriminalises the seller.' But when you criminalise the buyer, you destroy the income, safety, and autonomy of the person selling," the European Sex Workers Rights' Alliance (ESWA) posted on X. "The same thing happens online. This will push workers further into the shadows, not protect them." Sweden is the originator of the Nordic Model of sex work regulation (which is also sometimes called the Swedish Model). In this scheme, sex customers are criminalized but folks selling sex are not. The Nordic Model operates under the notion that all prostitution is exploitation, anyone being paid for sex is a victim, and anyone paying for sex is a perpetrator of sexual abuse. Now, Sweden is applying these same ideas to online sex work. Under a proposal adopted by the Swedish Parliament on May 20, working for an online sex business (such as a webcamming platform) or selling sexy pics directly to online customers will still be legal. But patronizing such businesses and individuals will not. The new scheme rechristens the crime of purchasing sexual services to purchasing a sexual act and expands the prohibition against it to include acts carried out remotely and without physical contact. In analyzing the new proposal, authorities make a distinction between purchasing pornography generally and purchasing online sexual content or performances in a way that induces someone to undertake or tolerate a sex act or allows the buyer to participate. So the new plan would not strictly ban the sale of pornographic images or videos in Sweden. But it's unclear where and how exactly lines would be drawn and seems destined to have the most disruptive effect on the direct-to-consumer sales model that tends to benefit individual sex workers rather than porn or tech companies. The new plan also covers procuring, which is currently illegal if there is physical contact between buyer and provider. This, too, will now include acts carried out remotely—and could render any website or entity that brokers the provision of erotic webcam shows or direct-to-consumer porn sales guilty of the crime of procuring a sex act. "Let us be clear: this law is not protection. It is repression," say the ESWA and the sex-worker rights group Red Umbrella Sweden in a statement, pointing out all the human rights groups and other Nordic Model opponents that lawmakers ignored: Despite receiving overwhelming opposition from civil society, academic experts, sex workers, the Swedish government has once again demonstrated its unwillingness to listen. Swedish Parliament has ignored the 1,600 civil rights organisations (including Human Rights Watch (HRW), European Digital Rights (EDRi), Access Now, and several feminist and women's rights organisations), academic researchers, digital rights advocates and legal scholars and individual supporters - many of them Swedes - who signed our joint statement calling for the rejection of this proposal. In doing so, Swedish lawmakers have chosen to ignore decades of research, including recommendations from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Amnesty International, UNAIDS, and countless peer-reviewed scientific studies, which have consistently shown that the so-called "Swedish model" of client criminalisation deeply harms sex workers, drives the industry underground, increases stigma and reduces access to health, safety and justice. Swedish lawmakers also ignored sex workers, with one—the Left Party's Gudrun Nordborg—suggesting that emails from sex workers opposed to the bill were possibly fraudulent, since they were "too articulate to be written by sex workers." "The debate showed that the Swedish Parliament did not just ignore research, it actively rejected the idea that sex workers are capable of knowing what's best for themselves," say ESWA and Red Umbrella Sweden in their statement: In doing so, Sweden has failed not only its sex workers, but its democratic ideals. We are familiar with such tactics. No matter how we speak, our voices are used against us. When we speak simply, we are dismissed as uneducated or uninformed. When we speak with clarity and eloquence, we are accused of being pimps. In both cases, the goal is the same: to silence us. And while Sweden might not have the First Amendment, "the proposal introduces inconsistencies with Sweden's own Freedom of Expression Act," as ESWA suggested in April. "Sweden's constitutional protection of free speech and media is a cornerstone of its democratic identity. Expanding criminal law into this space, without careful legal distinction, proportionality and protection for lawful expression, undermines that foundation. If sex workers and digital creators can be criminalised for engaging in or facilitating constitutionally protected expression, no one's rights are safe in Sweden." Spreading the Nordic Model of prostitution regulation to other forms of sex work is bad news, and not just for people in Sweden. Remember, this is the country that started the Nordic Model idea, and it's a model now in place in countries throughout Europe and starting to spread to the United States. It seems unlikely that expanding its provisions to cover online and remote sex work is a policy that will stay confined to Sweden. And wherever it spreads, it's likely to harm women. The new law "places Sweden among countries willing to sacrifice human rights in the name of paternalistic ideology that has proven to be harmful time and again," said ESWA on X. Whether applied only to in-person acts or to online services too, criminalizing sex work customers is often pushed by people who often claim they're helping and protecting sex workers and, therefore, helping and protecting women. But taking away sex workers' livelihoods or driving their work underground doesn't seem terribly helpful or protective. At best, it will force women who willingly choose sex work to find a new occupation—something they clearly don't want to or can't do, or else they would already be doing it. At worst, it will leave many sex workers more vulnerable to exploitation, by forcing them to work in a black market where they have less power and less control. This may mean more dangerous working conditions, having to put up with more demanding or less scrupulous customers, having to rely on pimps to find work, and so on. It may mean having to give up the relative safety of selling sexuality from behind a computer or phone screen to interacting in person with customers and encountering more risk. It seems Sweden's government is intent on ignoring the actual needs and wants of sex workers in favor of a savior fantasy in which all sex workers, no matter how independently and safely they're working, are in need of rescue. Or perhaps protection is just a pretense for banning services some find distasteful or offensive—after all, Nordic Model campaigners often suggest that prostitution doesn't just harm individuals in it but that it's bad for "society" or for women more generally. Expanding prostitution laws to cover online sex work could also be a pretense for increasing surveillance of the digital sphere. "Under the guise of protecting vulnerable individuals, this proposal risks intensifying state surveillance, expanding unaccountable policing of digital platforms, and reinforcing a legal regime that systematically erases the consent, autonomy and voices of sex workers themselves," said ESWA in its April statement. There are so many practical reasons to oppose expanding the Nordic Model to remote sex work that it almost seems silly to lodge a more philosophical complaint. But I can't resist pointing out how offensive all of this is from a feminist standpoint. Tthe Nordic Model, at its core, suggests women's assessments about their own lives can't be trusted and likens them, legally speaking, to the status of children. It essentially says, sure, some women say they're happy doing sex work, or at least that they prefer it to any alternatives, but the state knows better than them. And the state says women who do any form of sex work are victims, whether these women agree or not. To subscribe to this theory, you have to believe that men are morally culpable for their actions and should be held legally responsible when they do things the state disapproves of, like engaging in any form of sex work, but women are not morally culpable for participating in the same activity. It renders women as legally equivalent to minors, unable to give consent. There is nothing feminist or liberating about that, no matter how many campaigners for Nordic Model laws say otherwise. This is just another way of controlling women's bodies, sexuality, and economic liberty, wrapped up in progressive rather than conservative language. • Local police are using automatic license plate readers to look people up for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations, "giving federal law enforcement side-door access to a tool that it currently does not have a formal contract for," reports 404 Media. • The indigenous Marubo tribe of Brazil is suing The New York Times and TMZ over a 2024 Times article that mentioned young people in the tribe sharing porn since gaining access to the internet via Starlink. "References to porn and sex in the story were limited to five sentences" and "nowhere did the Times story call the Marubo people porn addicts or suggest it was a huge problem," notes Jody Serrano at Xatakaon. "That wasn't the story heard round the world, though. Instead, countless media outlets"—including TMZ—"ran pieces about how the Internet had caused the tribe to become addicted to porn, a claim that was untrue." • A bill awaiting Maine Gov. Janet Mills' signature would allow doctors who prescribe abortion pills to keep their names off of prescription labels. • "The next generation of online platforms is being shaped less by engineers and entrepreneurs and more by regulators and courts—and they're very bad at it," warns Dirk Auer. • "The trial of two women who promote 'orgasmic meditation' risks creating a society where we aren't responsible for our questionable choices," writes Rowan Pelling at The Telegraph. • "The British government is to rollout the use of medication to suppress the sex drive of sex offenders," reports ABC News. "Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said so-called chemical castration would be used in 20 prisons in two regions" and that she is "'exploring whether mandating the approach is possible.'" • Scottish sex workers are pushing back against a proposal to criminalize people who pay for sex. "Criminalising the purchase of sex doesn't protect anyone," said Lynsey Walton, chief executive of the sex-worker safety nonprofit National Ugly Mugs. "It pushes sex work further underground, makes it harder for people to report violence, and forces those already at risk into even more dangerous situations." National Ugly Mugs is part of a new coalition—Scotland for Decrim—formed to oppose the client criminalization plan and push for full decriminalization of prostitution. The post Is Buying OnlyFans Content Now Illegal in Sweden? appeared first on
Edinburgh Reporter
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Edinburgh Reporter
Ash Regan's Unbuyable Bill lodged in parliament
Ash Regan MSP formally lodged a bill in parliament this week creating a new offence of paying for sexual acts, and ending the criminalisation for sex workers. The name of the bill – Proposed Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill, has led to it being dubbed the 'Unbuyable Bill'. The legislation aims to repeal the offence of soliciting or importuning by prostitutes, and to repeal any previous convictions in connection with those offences. Instead it will criminalise the buying of sex. It is also intended as a way of supporting those who are in or trying to leave prostitution. In January this year the final proposal for the Member's Bill was lodged in parliament after a consultation had been conducted and the bill attracted cross-party support. Ash Regan PHOTO Alan Simpson Ms Regan said she was delighted that the Nordic Approach may yet find its way into law – even though it will be 25 years after Sweden introduced similar legislation. This model has already been adopted elsewhere including Northern Ireland. Ahead of the Bill's formal introduction, Ms Regan said: 'Prostitution is not a job like any other, as some lobby groups claim. It is a system of commercial sexual exploitation that targets the vulnerable, is driven by demand and is enabled by silence. Commodifying human beings has consequences – it's time we reframe the shame. 'I am proud to bring commercial sexual exploitation out of the shadows into a debate across Scotland, by formally lodging the Unbuyable Bill in Parliament. Unbuyable is the first key step in tackling attitudes that have shamefully normalised inequality of the sexes and underpinned the scourge of male violence against women 'It is a Bill forged by those who have survived the system of exploitation, for their own recovery and for those still trapped inside or vulnerable to such exploitation. It recognises what so many are afraid to say: that buying sexual access to a human being is a form of male violence. 'We must reframe shame. It does not belong to exploited women and men – it belongs to the men who buy them.' 'The Bill aligns with the Nordic Model— adopted in countries such as Sweden, Norway, France, and Ireland—and marks a departure from the failed approach of decriminalising the sex trade, without addressing the root cause and consequences of commodifying human beings: demand. 'On-street prostitution has been criminalised for 17 years in Scotland yet none of the pimp lobby's predictions have materialised, few convictions of buyers have been made in over the last ten years and critically the demand has not diminished – it has just moved off street. 'Scotland faces a choice. Do we continue with piecemeal initiatives to reduce harm from visible prostitution, with fragile support funding for those exploited, or will we confront the injustice of commercial sexual exploitation head-on? 'Sweden was the first to adopt what we now know as the Nordic Model twenty-five years ago, so it is the same age as our Scottish devolved Parliament. 'The Scottish Government and COSLA's Equally Safe strategy explicitly recognise prostitution as a form of violence against women and girls (VAWG), framing prostitution within the broader context of gender inequality and male entitlement and identifying it as a manifestation of systemic abuse. 'The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, has explicitly recognised prostitution as a form of violence against women and girls, with her 2024 report to the UN Human Rights Council stating that prostitution is intrinsically linked to various forms of violence and constitutes a violation of human rights. 'If Scotland is ready to stand up for women's human rights and dignity, we must legislate, and to do that, my Unbuyable Bill needs public support. I have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement from frontline services, women's support groups and many others across Scotland and beyond, but that won't be enough. I'm calling on every Scot who believes women are not for sale to join the campaign and make their voices heard. 'No one is unbuyable—until the law clearly says so.' For and against Supporters of the Bill believe that the commodification of women's bodies makes a strong, healthy and just society impossible. They support criminalising the buyers because this sends a strong signal to all of Scotland that women are unbuyable, that we do not condone a practice as inherently harmful as prostitution and that we support its victims. Supporters also believe that this Bill will have an effect not just on those involved in buying and selling sexual acts, but on all of society. Almost all of the supportive respondents who answered this question share the conviction that it will improve the equality between the sexes, safeguard vulnerable women and girls, reduce human trafficking, have a positive effect on public health and so make Scotland a better society for future generations. Frontline services share a strong belief that only legislation of this kind will improve the lives of women and girls involved in prostitution. They also believe that only if these women and girls are protected and no longer freely buyable will Scottish society achieve true equality, fairness and justice. Opponents of the Bill say that it will worsen working and living conditions for sellers of sexual acts, put them at greater risk of harm and leave them worse off. They do not believe that there will be an effect on society. Some respondents also believe that the Bill is a waste of time, will worsen inequality and increase stigma for sellers of sexual acts. Ms Regan, who leads Alba at Holyrood, said: 'This proposal for a Bill is about protecting Scotland's most vulnerable from commercial sexual exploitation of prostitution and the harms that result. This is a critical step in reframing shame in the battle to remove the scourge of male violence against women in Scotland.' The Edinburgh Eastern MSP said in her final document produced for parliament: 'A Nordic Model approach, successfully implemented in countries like Sweden and Norway, promises a more compassionate, effective solution. By criminalising the purchase of sex and decriminalising those who sell it, we hold buyers to account and recognise the true victims of exploitation. Alongside that, granting legal rights to support – exit services, counselling, and real alternatives – ensures that the women involved have a genuine path out of prostitution. We can also reduce demand by rolling out public awareness campaigns that challenge harmful gender stereotypes and uphold the principle that women's bodies are not commodities.' Read more here. AGAINST A campaign has been set up by Scottish sex workers to fight the introduction of the proposed new law. The Scotland for Decrim campaign will oppose Ms Regan's bill. The campaign says that the bill will make sex work far less safe. They refer to an official government review of similar legislation in Northern Ireland – the only nation in the UK to enact the Nordic Model – found that there was 'no evidence that the offence of purchasing sexual services has produced a downward pressure on the demand for, or supply of, sexual services'. It also found that 'the legislation has contributed to a climate whereby sex workers feel further marginalised and stigmatised'. A spokesperson for the campaign said: 'Scotland for Decrim absolutely rejects Ash Regan's attempts to bring in the Nordic Model on sex work in Scotland. As a sex worker-led coalition campaigning for our rights, we know that this offensive bill will endanger sex workers by exposing us to more violence, poverty, and exploitation. Criminalising clients does not solve the reasons why people go into sex work: because of financial need, caring responsibilities, disability, or simply preferring this work to other kinds of work. 'Sex workers are the experts on our own needs. We know that only full decriminalisation will protect our safety, health, and human rights, giving us the power to choose when and how we work. The Scottish Government must also urgently strengthen the social security system so that everyone has access to the resources they need to live, and so that no one has to do sex work if they don't want to. 'This Nordic Model bill would be disastrous for sex workers' safety, as we have seen in other countries where this model has been implemented and sex workers have experienced more violence from clients and the police. Sex workers don't want this, the Scottish public doesn't want this, and politicians from a range of parties oppose this dangerous bill.' Lynsey Walton, chief executive of National Ugly Mugs, the UK's national sex worker safety charity, said: 'This bill won't reduce harm; it will increase it. Criminalising the purchase of sex doesn't protect anyone. It pushes sex work further underground, makes it harder for people to report violence, and forces those already at risk into even more dangerous situations. 'NUM stands in solidarity with sex workers across Scotland who are calling for safety, not criminalisation. We hear every day what they need: access to justice, housing, healthcare, and a voice in the laws that shape their lives. This bill ignores that—and it puts lives at risk. 'It's therefore no surprise that opinion polling shows Scots overwhelmingly oppose Ash Regan's plans for the Nordic Model, alongside international organisations such as Amnesty, UN Aids and the World Health Organisation.' Loading… Like this: Like Related
The Herald Scotland
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
SNP to 'end hunger and homelessness' in human rights bill
The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) investigated the situation around economic, social and cultural rights in Argyll and Bute, Hebrides, Highlands, Moray and Northern Isles last year and found that people in these areas faced challenges in accessing basic needs such as health, housing and food. It said it had gathered evidence of difficulties caused by a shortage of affordable housing, centralisation of health services, fuel poverty and unreliable public transport. Ms Stewart set out what the Scottish Government planned to do to address the situation in correspondence to Professor Angela O'Hagan, chair of the SHRC, and the convenes of Holyrood's equalities committee and rural affairs committee sent earlier this week. READ MORE: Sex workers launch campaign to oppose 'dangerous' new law proposed by Ash Regan What is the Nordic Model? The proposals to criminalise 'buyers' of sex 'The SNP are terrified': 'Reform can win by-election - and take power in Holyrood' She said ministers were "committed to bringing forward a Human Rights Bill in the next Parliamentary session, subject to the 2026 Scottish Parliament election". She added: "Proposals for the Bill seek to incorporate the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), along with three other treaties, into Scots law within the limits of devolved competence. "ICESCR includes the right to health, the right to an adequate standard of living (including food and housing), and the right to cultural life, amongst other rights. 'Economic, social, and cultural rights need legal protection. A strong legal framework is required, which the Scottish Government's proposed Scottish Human Rights Bill may address if introduced. Complaint mechanisms must also be improved to ensure they are accessible, affordable, timely, and effective.' The SHRC's report raised concerns over human rights in the Highlands and Islands (Image: Getty Images) The SHRC said in its report that "urgent action is needed to eradicate rooflessness and hunger in the Highlands and Islands" and called for universal access to affordable, acceptable, and quality sexual and reproductive health services to be prioritised and properly funded. Ms Stewart responded: "We agree that rights to food, housing and health are of vital importance to everyone across Scotland and are committed to taking action now to advance these fundamental entitlements." The minister also went on to say a new National Islands Plan would be published separately this year setting out how the government would improve the lives of people on island communities. The SHRC said it carried out its research on human right in the Highlands as it did not understand issues affecting rural and island communities as well as it did those in central Scotland. The commission interviewed community leaders, campaigners, development trusts, teachers, crofters, lawyers, health workers and MSPs. Its findings included that people in Orkney were turning down job offers because they could not find a suitable home, and that victims of abuse there were unable to find accommodation away from alleged offenders. The report also found that the centralisation of health services was leading to 14,000 patients a year from Caithness and Sutherland travelling to Inverness for care, including expectant mothers to give birth. It also revealed that in the Western Isles parents and carers of children and adults with learning disabilities were travelling up to 500 miles weekly to access educational services. A further finding highlights a lack of public transport in Skye and a road infrastructure there that had remained unchanged for the past 20 years despite an increase in visitors. Human Rights were devolved to Holyrood by the Scotland Act 1998. The SHRC said across all rights examined it found not a single human right that met all the conditions of adequacy under international law. It made a number of recommendations to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government, including that urgent action should be taken to tackle homelessness, hunger and access to sexual and reproductive health services. Publishing the report in November last year Professor O'Hagan said the commission was very concerned about the poor state of economic, social and cultural rights. She said: "Too many people in Highland and Islands are hungry, homeless, without access to healthcare, and the basics for everyday life. "With this work, we are piloting a new way of monitoring, one that brings the commission closer to communities and enhances their voices and struggles. "While we continue to develop this way of working, we expect that all duty-bearers will reflect carefully on the evidence found in this report, and the action now required from them to meet their human rights obligations."
The Herald Scotland
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
MacAskill urges MSPs to back Regan's 'unbuyable bill'
It would include a promise by government to provide support for women hoping to exit the sex "industry". The Prostitution (Offences and Support) Bill, also known as the "unbuyable bill", introduced by Alba MSP Ms Regan to Holyrood on Tuesday, follows the 'Nordic Model' used in Sweden and Norway where buyers of sex are targeted by police, not sellers. If passed by MSPs, it could see those convicted of paying for sex fined up to £10,000 and jailed for up to six months. READ MORE: Sex workers launch campaign to oppose 'dangerous' new law proposed by Ash Regan What is the Nordic Model? The proposals to criminalise 'buyers' of sex Ash Regan claims MSPs are buying sex as she introduces new bill However, opinion is currently divided on the MSP's proposals with some sex workers fearing it could make them more vulnerable as sex buyers seek to take the trade out of the public spotlight because of the risk of prosecution. Mr MacAskill, the Alba leader, who was the SNP justice secretary from 2007 to 2014, said he hoped MSPs would support Ms Regan's bill. "Ash has our full support. She is single handedly pursuing an issue of great concern. Vulnerable women are suffering, predatory men are abusing them and action needs taken. I would hope MSPs would support her fully in her endeavours," he told The Herald. Mr MacAskill said that when he was the SNP justice secretary he brought in legislation on kerb crawling but a new law was now needed. "That was a modest shift to protect women from harassment and communities from nuisance. The issue has moved on with the internet changing the manner in which the exploitation and harm is carried out by predatory men," he said. "It's for that reason that Ash's bill deserves support from across the chamber. The women involved in it are being abused exploited and endangered. It is not a lifestyle choice but almost invariably tragic circumstance which is why the bill also ensures support for those suffering." Unveiling her bill on Tuesday Ms Regan said said prostitution was a form of male violence towards women. Ms Regan, a former SNP minister who is now Alba's sole MSP, said her proposals were a bold and long-overdue step towards tackling the issue. Responding to opposition from sex workers to the bill she insisted it would protect women, while putting the onus of criminality on men. She said: "Prostitution is not a job like any other, as some lobby groups claim; it is a system of commercial sexual exploitation that targets the vulnerable, is driven by demand and is enabled by silence. "Commodifying human beings has consequences - it's time we reframe the shame. Today, I am proud to bring commercial sexual exploitation out of the shadows into a debate across Scotland, by formally lodging the unbuyable bill in parliament. "Unbuyable is the first key step in tackling attitudes that have shamefully normalised inequality of the sexes and underpinned the scourge of male violence against women." She said the bill was "forged" by those who had "survived the system of exploitation" as she vowed to work with other parties to get it through Holyrood. Scottish Greens social justice spokeswoman Maggie Chapman MSP said the measures Ms Regan's was putting forward put sex workers in more danger and were widely opposed. 'The approach taken by Ash Regan in this bill will endanger sex workers and continue to drive this industry underground. This model has been widely opposed by sex worker unions, human rights groups and the World Health Organisation," she said. 'Human Rights Watch have reported that in countries with policies similar to what Ash is proposing in her bill, there have been spikes in murder, police abuse, and sexual violence towards sex workers. We cannot allow that to happen here. We must not force sex workers into more dangerous and isolated areas. 'Greens are clear that the approach must focus on minimising the harm, marginalisation and exploitation that sex workers face every day. The evidence is clear that Ash's approach not only fails to protect sex workers, but puts them in increased danger.' Ms Regan's proposal for her bill was backed by 24 MSPs. They included 12 Conservative MSPs, six SNP MSPs and five Labour MSPs. John Mason, the former SNP MSP, who now sits as an Independent, also backed her proposal legislation.
