A Saskatchewan police chief says online ads are likely being used to mask the participation of underage people in the sex trade and believes his city should regulate its adult services to prevent exploitation.
"We've had a real proliferation of personal ads on the Internet and that's what's causing us the most concern," Saskatoon Police Chief Clive Weighill told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday morning.
"The police don't have the authority to check up on people that put ads on the Internet and we're concerned about young women and young men under the age of 18 being involved in the sex trade."
Currently, both prostitution and escort agencies are legal, though on-the-street solicitation is not.
But Weighill said personal ads can be used to promote sexual services and they are not illegal to use for this purpose.
"I think first of all there's a popular misconception that prostitution is illegal and it's not," Weighill said.
"Of course, communicating in a public place for sex is against the law or living off the avails of prostitution is against the law. So we have a few Criminal Code sections that we can use for street prostitution, but it's not illegal to put a personal ad on the Internet."
That's why Weighill wants to see Saskatoon require all of the people providing adult services within the city to get a licence. That would give police the grounds to investigate cases where young people might be involved.
"That's what we're saying, for escort services, people that work in massage parlours and people that put personal ads on the Internet, we would ask that they have a business licence, which would then give the authority to police to check up and see what's going on there," Weighill said.
"It would allow us then to go into the massage parlour and check the employees there to make sure that they are of age and the people that they're servicing are of age, the same with escorts and primarily with the people on the Internet ads."
Weighill said that anyone applying for a business licence would have to provide the city with their real age and identity and this would help prevent the involvement of minors in the sex trade. It could also help prevent cases of human trafficking.
