From the sidewalk to the digital highway: a study on the Web as a source of information on prostitution and victims of human trafficking in Italy

Abstract

The Web can be a source of data to shed a new light on prostitution and the information available online can fill in some research gaps in the field. This study employs the Web as a source and is made up of two parts.

1) Analysis of a sample of online ads of prostitution published on the most important Italian adult websites in the period 24.04 - 03.05.2012 to answer the following questions: how is the online supply of prostitution shaped? How many ads of Italian/foreign prostitutes? How many trans? What are the features of the supply? Do these ads hide human trafficking? If yes, how many are the victims?

2) Analysis of all tweets of prostitution ads published by the most important Italian adult websites in the period 25 - 31.08.2012 to answer the following questions: are the ads on websites/social media different? How are shaped tweets? What do they say about prostitution/escorts?