Sweden Outlaws Online Sex Work

STOCKHOLM—The unicameral Riksdag, Sweden's Parliament, adopted a new law today that criminalizes the purchase of "remote" online sexual services, according to a press release published by the Swedish legislative body. The proposal goes as far as criminalizing the purchase of "remote" sexual acts, potentially upending the entire Swedish market for content creator platforms like OnlyFans. In fact, OnlyFans is mentioned throughout the law. The law will enter into force on July 1, 2025. "The Riksdag voted in favor of the government’s proposals for amendments to the Swedish Criminal Code," reads the press release addressing the law that amends existing Nordic model-style laws on sex work. "The classification purchase of sexual services will be changed to purchase of sexual acts, and the criminal area for the offence and for procuring will be expanded to include acts carried out remotely, that is, without physical contact, for example, via a webcam," notes the press statement. Sweden is notorious for punitive laws governing sex workers and sex buyers. Many critics of the country's backing of a punitive "Nordic model" or "Equality model" for regulating sex work suggest that it causes greater risks. As AVN reported, criminalizing sex buying on the internet and any other remote means of communication is a significant bulking of Sweden's Nordic model. The Nordic model makes it a crime to buy sex from sex providers, who are immune by way of decriminalization. But many critics of the model, especially major sex workers' rights organizations, say it makes sex work a lot more dangerous for those engaged in the variations of the profession. A several weeks before the vote adopting the law, the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance and Red Umbrella Sweden sent an open letter to members of the Riksdag asking them to kill the proposal. Now it is the law. "Digital sex work, such as webcamming or erotic content creation and distribution, is a legitimate source of income and form of self-expression," notes the open letter, with the organizations characterizing the law as criminalizing "consensual digital labor." The letter adds, "Sweden’s model of criminalizing clients has been repeatedly shown, by global research, to harm sex workers, not help them." The organizations reference many academic studies and investigations by human rights NGOs to indicate that Sweden's laws on sex work are quite harmful. Groups such as these include Amnesty International, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), and Human Rights Watch.