News

As part of the wider Beyond the Gaze participatory action research project into the working practices, safety and regulation of internet based sex work. The Beyond the Gaze team are carrying out an online survey of the customers of  internet based sex workers in all  sectors of  internet enabled sex work  (escorting, BDSM, webcamming, and other sectors) and all genders (male, female, transgender, none binary).

If you are  a customer of escorts/sex workers  who advertise on line or via apps, or if  you purchase webcamming services, are a customer of a professional dominatrix or purchase services from people in other sectors of internet enable adult entertainment services. Please Help Us Out & contribute to an important study of internet based sex work.

If you work in any of the sectors of the sex industry/adult entertainment and utilize online platforms, apps etc to advertise or provide your services please spread the word in your networks and amongts your customers about the survey, if you feel that is appropriate. We really value the support the research is getting from sex workers!

The  research project ‘Beyond the Gaze’ is the largest study to date of internet based sex work and is being carried out by an experienced team of researchers at Leicester and Strathclyde Universities, who have many years experience of carrying out research with people working in adult services/sex industry including their customers.   It is a legitimate and important UK wide study which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and is exploring the use of online and digital technologies in the sex industry.   Go to our website to find out more about the research and the team who are carrying it out http://beyond-the-gaze.com/  twitter: @BeyondtheGaze  As part of this research we are seeking the views and experiences of customers  through an online survey which should take no longer than 10 minutes.  The survey is anonymous and no identifying information is requested.   The survey does not collect any identifying information, it is completely anonymous, has permission from the University ethics committee and we work within strict ethical guidelines to protect the privacy and anonymity all people taking part in our research.

Please go to the survey at the following link; https://leicester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/customersbeyondthegaze

The survey is open  initially until  31st August 2016 (BTG team will then take stock  reviewing how many people have taken part). We’d really value you input! Thanks for considering this and hopefully for taking part.

If you would like more information about the survey or the project please feel free to contact: Professor Teela Sanders on tlms1@leicester.ac.uk

The members of the Beyond the Gaze Team based at the University of Leeds, Professor Teela Sanders and Rosie Campbell will move to the Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester on the 1st July 2016! The team members at Strathclyde University Professor Jane Scoular, Stewart Cunningham and Dr Jane Pitcher remain based at Strathclyde. The methodology and work plan of the ‘Beyond the Gaze’ project will not be affected and will continue as normal and the project is now a collaboration between University of Leicester and University of Strathclyde.

To all who have contributed to the research to date we want you to know that the ethical practice standards and obligations we as a research team work to remain the same,  as do the data storage/ protection standards, with University of  Leicester taking on responsibility  for those.

A big thank you to the University of Leeds, School of Sociology and Sociology, for being such a supportive home during the first months of the project and to the Department of Criminology, University of Leicester for welcoming the project so warmly!

The International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE) has now been in existence  for over ten years.  When first established  it  held the watershed  ‘Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration’ 15 – 17 October 2005 in Brussels where the ‘The Declaration on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe’  was endorsed. On the 10 year anniversary of the declaration  ICRSE  published a report on 10 years of  sex workers’ rights activism and advocacy in Europe and Central Asia.  This report identifies the main trends affecting sex workers in the region, particularly the increased criminalisation of sex work, targeting either sex workers, clients or third parties. Also it looks at the continued conflation of sex work, migration and trafficking; and the criminalisation of “vulnerabilities” and poverty. To access the report go to;

http://www.sexworkeurope.org/news/general-news/december-17-launch-10-years-report-sex-workers-rights-europe-and-central-asia

Over the decade ICRSE has achieved a lot, working hard to advocate for the rights of sex workers in Europe. It has produced lots of useful resources for example on 1st May 2016 ICRSE  published a community report on  ‘Exploitation: Unfair labour arrangements and precarious working conditions in the sex industry’  to dowload this report go to;  http://www.sexworkeurope.org/news/general-news/may-day-icrse-launches-community-report-exploitation-sex-industry

To access other resources go to the ICRSE website; http://www.sexworkeurope.org/resources

To learn about how you can become a member of  the network follow this link;  http://www.sexworkeurope.org/join/icrse-membership-agreement

A big thank you to all who have helped us and contributed to BTG by taking part in a research interview!

We’ve have had such a fabulous response from people in the industry that we have reached our target for the first phase of interviews with sex workers. We have had people from all over the UK, all genders, people working  in escorting,  BDSM work, phone sex chat & camming help us out. We may be doing some more interviews  later in the year to look in more depth at particular issues, we will post and tweet about this if we do.

From September 2016  we will be carrying out an online survey of internet based sex workers and really want this to be the largest survey of the sector to date. Look out for calls to take part!

Our call out for interviews has gone really well and many people have been in touch to take part in interviews. We’ve been carrying  those interviews out over the last couple of months and we want to say A BIG THANK YOU  to all the people who have taken part in an interview & to those forums and platforms who have helped let people in the sector know about the interviews.  For those who took part we hope it was OK for you, we really valued all contributions and already are building up a wealth of data about people’s experiences in this diverse sector.

At the moment we’re especially keen to interview;

• Male webcammers & escorts based in the UK
• Internet based sex workers of all genders from Northern Ireland, Wales & Scotland
• Migrant sex workers working in the UK in internet base sex work e.g escorting, webcamming, BDSM

If you would like to take part in the interview or get further information about what is involved please email, text, call or whats app Stewart Cunningham at stewart.cunningham@strath.ac.uk  mobile: 07834148334  or email Teela Sanders T.L.M.Sanders@leeds.ac.uk.   They will arrange a time that suits you to be interviewed.  The interview will focus on the use of the internet in your work and will cover wider working practices & safety, we really want to hear your experiences & views.  Interviews can be over Skype, phone or face to face, whatever suits you! Interviews will take an hour and there is a £20 thank you Amazon voucher. 

The researchers carrying out this research & the interviews have many years experience of working with people in the sex industry learn more about them at  http://beyond-the-gaze.com/the-team/ 

Confidentiality: We know how important privacy and confidentiality is for people in the sex industry. Taking part in an interview will be confidential & anonymous, no personal details that could identify you will be recorded.   We work to strict ethical guidelines  laid down by Leeds University Ethics Committee and if we didn’t follow these we would get into trouble.

Contribute to Important Research!   We hope you can help us! Beyond the Gaze will be the largest, most important study, of this sector of the industry to date in the UK, so a good opportunity to have your say.  As this is an important study it will  be used  to  inform policy, so it’s important the views & experiences of  a group of sex workers whose needs/working styles and conditions, which have tended to be ignored, will be collected in this research. The research will  produce in-depth information about independent sex work and escorting  which have so far been covered only by smaller-scale studies.

A key part of the Beyond the Gaze research fieldwork is carrying out interviews with sex workers, these are now underway. The BTG Team at Leeds & Strathclyde Universities are carrying out interviews with internet based sex workers from across the UK. We are looking for people, of all genders,  all nationalities, based in the UK who work as escorts or webcammers to take part in a research interview.  If you would like to take part in the interview or get further information about what is involved please contact  one of our researchers – Stewart Cunningham at stewart.cunningham@strath.ac.uk  mobile: 07834148334 or Teela Sanders at T.L.M.Sanders@leeds.ac.uk.  We will arrange a time that suits you to be interviewed by one of the team.  The interview will focus on the use of the internet in your work and will cover wider working practices & safety, we really want to hear your experiences & views.  Interviews can be over Skype, phone or face to face, whatever suits you! Interviews will take an hour and there is a £20 thank you Amazon voucher. 

The researchers carrying out this research & the interviews have many years experience of working with people in the sex industry learn more about them at  http://beyond-the-gaze.com/the-team/ 

Confidentiality: We know how important privacy and confidentiality is for people in the sex industry. Taking part in an interview will be confidential & anonymous, no personal details that could identify you will be recorded.   We work to strict ethical guidelines  laid down by Leeds University Ethics Committee and if we didn’t follow these we would get into trouble.

Contribute to Important Research!   We hope you can help us! Beyond the Gaze will be the largest, most important study, of this sector of the industry to date in the UK, so a good opportunity to have your say.  As this is an important study it will  be used  to  inform policy, so it’s important the views & experiences of  a group of sex workers whose needs/working styles and conditions, which have tended to be ignored, will be collected in this research. The research will  produce in-depth information about independent sex work and escorting  which have so far been covered only by smaller-scale studies.

Beyond the Gaze supports 17th December, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.   This day was created to call attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers and to remember those who have been murdered. It was originally created by The Sex Workers Outreach Project in the US  as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the “Green River Killer” in Seattle Washington. It has grown to be a global event, where sex workers, sex work support projects and their supporters come together in towns and cities around the world to remember victims of violence and reinforce the message that crimes against sex workers will not be tolerated and perpetrators will be brought to justice.

Go to  http://www.december17.org/ if you want to read more about the day.

In it’s work to challenge stigma & Prevent Violence Against Sex Workers our partner NUM are leading a thunder clap sign up here http://campaign.justgiving.com/charity/uknoswp/december17thnationaluglymugs

Peer expert by experience researchers & advisers in the BTG team share a number of statements of support for the day and sex workers globally;

‘You have the human right to work free from fear’

‘Beyond the Gaze’  (Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds)
is pleased to announce that we are recruiting  3 sessional Peer Researchers for our participatory action research project about internet based sex work
We are recruiting for 3 posts each Grade 6 Peer Researchers (£15 per hour, 60 hours over a two year period). Available from November 2015 fixed term to August 2017.

Duties will include advising on research design, recruitment methods and access; interviewing internet based sex workers; advising on survey design and delivery; writing short reports and where appropriate presenting research findings to academic and practitioner based audiences. For one of the posts we require a Romanian speaker.

We are inviting application forms and short cover note to be sent to Dr Teela Sanders by 16^th  November 2015 (t.l.m.sanders@leeds.ac.uk). To download further details about the posts, the person specification & application form Click on  (Person spec / Duties and Application form).  Interviews are expected to be held on 25 November 2015

Applications will be treated as strictly confidential and seen by only immediate members of the team.