ABSTRACT

New technologies have been facilitating new sex industry forms in ways that foster increased visibility and potentially increased surveillance of sex industry participants. Key themes in existing research are a focus on technology and: male and transgender sex workers in Western Europe and North America, online sex workers’ needs, labor conditions, client fora, and regulation. Research in this area features a significant amount of work with male and transgender sex workers, although such work remains almost exclusively confined to Western Europe and North America. This literature emphasizes the possibilities for mutuality and friendship that online for a extend to men who have sex with men. Literature on technology’s role in the sex industry is predominantly concentrated in the Global North, which is quite puzzling given the frequency with which technologies such as mobile phones are used by sex workers in the Global South.