 |
|
|
Roughly
one in 20 UK students has worked in the sex industry to earn money while at
university, a new study has found. Many students are motivated by economic
reasons, but some are also driven by curiosity. In
a climate of high tuition fees and increasing living costs, more than half of
student sex workers are motivated by the need to pay for basic living costs,
while 45 percent wish to avoid debt, the research revealed.
RT.com reports:
The
study, which is part of the University of Swansea’s ‘Student Sex Work project,’
is the culmination of three years’ research involving 6,750 students.
It
found more men than women engage in sex work, while both sexes engage in ‘direct’
and ‘indirect’ activities. Direct sex work
involves contact with clients and includes prostitution, while indirect work
includes modeling and phone sex.
For
men, the most common sex occupations were ‘naked
butler’ stripping, erotic
dancing, performing in porn films and selling sexual services online.
Women
tended to engage in glamour modeling, erotic dancing, stripping, selling sex
via phone lines and selling sex online.
The
study found 4.8 percent of UK students have worked in the sex industry, while a
fifth of students have considered turning to sex work.
Economic and
other motivations
A
motivating factor for some 56 percent of student sex workers sought to pay for
basic living expenses, while 64 percent said they wished to fund a particular
lifestyle.
Avoiding
or reducing debt were also major economic motivations discovered by
researchers.
Young
people studying in the UK today can expect to leave university with about
£50,000 of debt when maintenance loans are factored in. This figure could be
larger when personal debt is included.
More
than half of UK universities charge £9,000 per year for tuition fees, the
maximum allowed by law.
According
to the report, the findings “make it clear that for a
significant number of student sex workers, sex work is embarked upon to assist
with [university] fees and/or to avoid/reduce mounting student debt.”
“Thus,
as long as students are expected to contribute high amounts of money to their
education, and considering the rising cost of student living, it is unlikely
that the number of students who turn to sex work will go down.”
Money
was not the sole motivation however, with 54 percent of students citing
curiosity as a reason for entering the sex industry.
Some
59 percent said they thought they would enjoy the work, while 44 percent were
motivated by sexual pleasure.
While
the majority of students reported feeling safe in their work, a quarter of
respondents did not and half of those engaging in direct sex work said they
feared violence while on the job.
University
support needed
Lead
researcher Dr. Tracey Sagar called on universities to act on the findings.
“We
now have firm evidence that students are engaged in the sex industry across the
UK. The majority of these students keep their occupations secret and this is
because of social stigma and fears of being judged by family and friends,” she said in a statement.
“We have to keep in mind that not all students
engaged in the industry are safe or feel safe.
"It is vital now that
Universities arm themselves with knowledge to better understand student sex
work issues and that University services are able to support students where
support is needed,” she added.
Sagar
and co-researcher Debbie Jones were alarmed to discover that a fifth of
students working in the sex industry sought counseling. That figure jumped to
51 percent for those engaged in direct sex work.
“We
know through our research that some students are disclosing to University
staff, but we also know that staff and support services can feel unconfident or
unsure about their ability to offer the right support,” Jones said.
“This
is why the next stage of the project is to develop and implement training
packages for University staff and student support services,” she
added.
Sagar
argued it was important to include men in any initiatives. “Sex
work is widely but wrongly perceived to be an occupation that is predominantly
taken up by women,” she said.
“This
means that males may fall through the student support net because they are not
associated with sex work occupations.”
No comments:
Post a Comment