LONDON, February 21, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British government is offering cash to young people to take “support” positions in the “sex industry,” including strip clubs and pornography. Labour MP Fiona Mactaggart raised the matter in Parliament when she discovered that there are no records of how many of the £2,275 subsidies have been handed out.
A guidance document issued by the Department of Work and Pensions offers 18-24 year-olds “payment of wage incentives for jobs in the adult entertainment industry.”
Jobs as “lap/pole/table/dancer,” “male/female escort,” “stripper,” and “porn actor/actress” and “dominatrix” were excluded from the list. But the government is offering cash for “selling (retailing), manufacturing and distributing of adult entertainment products,” or “sex toys.”
Mactaggart raised the question in the House of Commons on February 11, asking the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions “if he will review the decision to offer job subsidies for the employment of teenagers as auxiliary workers in lap and pole dancing clubs, strip clubs and in saunas and massage parlours; and if he will make a statement.”
Mactaggart’s written question also asked the Minister “if he will make it his policy not to offer job subsidies for employing teenagers as auxiliary workers in adult entertainment establishments; and if he will make a statement.”
“I do not think parents would welcome this government-sponsored recruitment into the sex industry. … These are entry-level jobs into a world of gross exploitation and violence,” she later told the Huffington Post UK.
According to the government’s guidance document, “Jobs which are acceptable include: those involved in the sale, manufacture, distribution and display of sex related products.” Other acceptable jobs include “auxiliary workers in lap/pole dancing clubs” and strip clubs like bar and door staff, receptionists and cleaners.
For the porn film and photography industry, acceptable jobs include “glamour model photographers, web-cam operators, TV camera operators, sound technicians, producers/directors for adult channels on digital TV,” or for “pornographic films.”
A note is attached to the document that says, “If any doubts arise about the suitability of a job please contact your performance manager for advice.”
A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions told the Huffington Post UK the document was genuine, saying, “This Government took action to ensure jobs in the adult industry which might exploit jobseekers were not advertised through Jobcentre Plus.
“We also ensured that to be eligible for our schemes jobs must not exploit vulnerable jobseekers.”
“It is intolerable that there is no check on what kinds of roles they may be employed in, and wrong that the department has no idea of where those jobs lead,” Mactaggart told Huffington Post UK. “It is unacceptable that the department has no idea who gets handouts for employing youngsters.”
“From talking to women who have left prostitution I know that some started work in the bar or reception of one of these establishments. It is unacceptable that the department has no idea who gets handouts for employing youngsters.”
The general acceptance of pornography, and the growing acceptance of prostitution, its closely related industry, has led to direct promotion by governments, even in countries where prostitution remains technically illegal. In 2004, Canada’s Parliament was gripped by a scandal when it was revealed that the government was directly involved in the international sex trafficking trade by issuing foreign work visas for women to work in the “sex industry” as strippers.
But in those countries that have legalized prostitution and set up licensed brothels, the situation is even worse. In 2005, news agencies around the world were briefly flooded with the story of a German woman who had been threatened with the suspension of her welfare benefits if she refused to take a prostitution “job” in a licensed brothel.
Later, during the 2006 World Cup soccer tournament, the German government came under criticism for hiring tens of thousands of women to “work” in the city’s brothels to “entertain” tourists who were expected for the games. German authorities facilitated the construction of “mega-brothels” and “sex huts” to accommodate the thousands of visitors expected. Cities hosting the matches were allowed to issue special permits allowing street prostitution.