As a first year university student from a disadvantaged background, I know all too well the constant struggle students can face to make ends meet. Before starting my studies at Durham, I worked three jobs to keep food in my mouth and clothes on my back while in full-time education. Living in group homes and emergency accommodation, I saw those around me searching desperately for any way to earn a living, even if it meant endangering their health and their lives.
For universities and student unions to encourage young people to go down this route is morally indefensible. Young adults are particularly vulnerable to this kind of advice when they are at university.
For an increasing number of students, sex work seems like the only way they can earn enough to subsidise their survival. In the age of social media, it is easier than ever for an year-old with a laptop or a phone to open an OnlyFans account or create a profile on PornHub β something they may regret for the rest of their life. A survey of university students found that 3 per cent β roughly , young people across the country β had taken part in some form of sex work, while a further 9 per cent of students admitted they would turn to sex work in a financial emergency.
While I know better than most the reality of struggling to make ends meet, sex work is not the get-rich-quick solution that some would have you believe. But do vulnerable young students truly understand the dangerous reality of this industry and the long-term impact it will have on their mental and physical health? Exploitation has become synonymous with sex work: your body is a commodity and the consumers that seek sexual gratification from you have little interest in your safety or wellbeing.
Indeed, according to a systematic review of research, globally, sex workers have a 45 to 75 per cent chance of experiencing sexual violence on the job. Over 50 per cent of sex workers suffer from at least one psychiatric disorder, in comparison to just over 30 per cent of the general population. Simply put, for universities and student unions to encourage young people to go down this route is morally indefensible. The adult sex industry is not a place where any young person belongs, much less vulnerable to year-olds.
