By Hugo Gye. New fears about the effect Facebook could have on children have arisen after it emerged that prostitutes have been using the site to advertise their services. Social media has been flooded with hundreds of pages operated by sex workers, visible to any web user. While it has always been difficult to avoid adverts for prostitutes in sites such as phone boxes, the rise of social networking has made it even easier to access explicit content.
Shocking: So-called 'escort' sites offering scantily clad women are freely available on Facebook. An investigation by The Times revealed that prostitutes and sex agencies openly solicit for customers on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The pages, which can be created by anyone and do not require approval by the sites' management, provide details such as addresses, phone numbers, prices and the specific services. Some are disguised as adverts for models or masseuses, but betray their true purpose with phrases such as: 'Bianca can satisfy physically like no other provider can. Danger: The pages can be accessed by young Facebook users and cannot be automatically shut down.
Facebook removed a number of the offending pages after the newspaper drew attention to them. However, the web giant headed by Mark Zuckerberg admitted that it shuts down pages only if users of the site report them as being offensive.
When Twitter was alerted to adverts for prostitution on its site, it refused to remove them unless someone could prove a breach of the law had taken place. Gavin Shuker, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on prostitution, promised to investigate the posts. He told The Times that current legislation on prostitution was a 'Swiss cheese' which 'sends mixed messages'.
