The police in Iceland want increased monitoring of prostitution and websites which advertise sexual services, according to Snorri Birgisson, detective at the Reykjavík Metropolitan Police.
Snorri has been in contact with men and women who have been advertising sexual services on the internet, provided them with counseling and informed them of resources available to them.
Around 100 women residing in Iceland are registered on international websites for escort services, Stöð 2 reports. In an interview with Vísir published yesterday, Snorri said that the police have tried to get in contact with all of the individuals. He said that although many women are registered on the websites, as far as police know, only eight to 12 women and one man are active at a time.
Snorri stressed that emphasis on the issue must be on the victims and providing them with assistance. He said that in some cases individuals have been forced into prostitution and have been subject to threats. “No 12-year-old girl or boy decides, when standing in front of the mirror, to make prostitution their life’s work,” he said.
Snorri wonders whether it is possible to place an injunction on sites which advertise sexual services. “We have shut down sites that sell illegal downloads from abroad, can’t we also shut down sites which advertise prostitution and people for sale? I wonder why we haven’t asked for an injunction on sites like these, as was done with the site deildu.net,” he says in reference to the demand by STEF, The Performing Rights Society of Iceland, for a ban on the site deildu.net in 2014.
