Changing internet markets for sex work

The internet changed how sex workers and clients find each other and how the former does business. Allison Schrager, Christopher Groskopf, and Scott Cunningham, reporting for Quartz, delve into actual numbers using scraped data from The Erotic Review:

Sex work is as old as civilization, but in the past 20 years the market for illegal sex services has undergone a radical transformation thanks to the internet, upending how it is sold and priced. There are now more women selling sex, more overall encounters, and—unlike in many other industries disrupted by the web—higher wages for workers.

Also safer (although still with its inherent risks).

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Sexual insecurities found in Google search results

Sexual insecurities in search

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz continues with his Google search data-related op-eds for the New York Times. This time he looks at the insecurities in sex, based on the search volume of various phrases.

Interesting. But preface the results with a big fat question of sample population before you make too many conclusions.

For example, a straightforward conclusion from the above graphic is that boyfriends avoid sex way more than girlfriends. That seems off. Could it be that boyfriends avoiding sex confuses the girlfriends more than the other way around, thus making it more likely for girlfriends to search?

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