Is advertising Soliciting

[CristyCurves 169032]

So I've read the laws concerning protistution over and over but still fail to get gist of the soliciting end. Are we or are we not soliciting when we place our ads inviting gentlemen to come and enjoy "this and that" ?Also is it a bad idea do you think to have on a web page services provided and rates?

Thanks in advance to those who kindly reply:icon_biggrin:

[drlove 37204]

I believe that "print" ads are still 100% legal in Canada, which is why you can find escort advertisements in local newspapers, CL etc.. I'm not completely clear as to the legislation that exists in the States, yet it is definitely more conservative. This is why government was able to shut down erotic ads being posted on CL in the US.

 

P.S. I see nothing wrong with posting rates; Upscale agencies do it all the time.

[canuckhooker 19203]

It all depends on what the ads say. Escorts advertise that they are charging for their time and companionship because that is legal. They don't directly offer sexual services, as that is soliciting for the purposes of prostitution.

 

So yes, an ad can be soliciting if it mentions sexual services. On a board like this I don't think their is much of an issue, even though an argument could be made that it is soliciting. But I don't think you will ever see anybody advertising BBBJ, FS, CIM in the Sun. ;)

[roamingguy 300292]

To me, soliciting is when the SP directly contacts a gentleman asking him if he would like to have an encounter.

Advertising on the other hand, the SP is letting potential clients know of that she is a SP and her rates etc. She isn't soliciting because her ad would only be placed in the section dealing with escorts (if BP/CL) or on sites such as CERB. And gentlemen are on those sites in the first place looking for companionship. They wouldn't be there unless they wanted to meet a professional companion to begin with. Gentlemen seeking companionship would see a lady's ad amongst all ladies ads and contact them to decide who to see.

I guess the difference is the ad lets a gentleman know of a lady so he can contact her where as soliciting is a lady targetting a specific gentleman for an encounter.

An awkwardly worded rambling LOL

RG

[Capital Hunter 18263]

Advertising maybe regarded as solicitation. That said I am no lawyer but I believe that the current laws on solicitation says that solicitation in a public place is illegal (and the emphasis is on both public and place like streets, parking lots, hotel lobbies, cars on public roads, .....) I don't think it extends to cell (as long as not called from a public place), internet, email or phone.

[SamanthaEvans 166767]

Advertising is NOT soliciting!

 

Soliciting involves disturbing someone, interrupting their time, taking their attention to offer them an opportunity for an encounter. It is illegal for me to approach someone else in a public place and invite them to pay me for sex. Soliciting on the streets ostensibly prevents the normal flow of traffic when sex workers approach cars at stop signs and traffic lights or when they accost people walking on the sidewalk. Soliciting in other places, such as a hotel bar or lobby, is when the sex worker approaches a patron of the establishment to offer sexual services for money.

 

Soliciting in print is an entirely different matter. This was settled in the 1980s when police laid a series of charges against a Vancouver newspaper that accepted ads from escorts. The court ruled that advertising was not soliciting because no one forced anyone to read the ads. Reading is voluntary in the way that having to deal with someone who comes up to you on the street is not. Anyone who reads escort ads knows or should know what they're reading and they make their choices accordingly.

 

The internet is publicly accessible but is not a public place. No one is forced to go to my website, read the content or make an active decision about whether they want to meet me. I'm easy to find if someone is looking for me or a woman like me who makes available the things that I offer.

 

In the US, some states and cities have tried to re-define or regulate what happens on the Internet in relation to prostitution but, so far, have failed. It is impossible to prevent users from accessing content outside of a city's or state's boundaries. While an ISP can decide not to carry content from other places, they must also face the dilemma of finding or keeping users who are content to have the access restricted in addition to having their actions called into question in relation to free speech rights.

 

Not everything that's available on the Internet is legal. It is illegal in most jurisdictions to look at pornography involving children, for example. It is legal to look at porn involving adults.

 

The courts have so far ruled that cell phone conversations are private. One cannot ordinarily overhear both sides of a call. In many jurisdictions, it is illegal to use electronic devices to listen to cell conversations just as only the police can tap a land-based telephone line and usually have to get a court order allowing them to invade someone's privacy when they do it.

 

If I meet someone at a hotel, at his invitation or mine, we will not discuss what is going to happen before we enter the private room because such a conversation is illegal. On that principle, it would be extremely foolish for me to make a call on or answer my cell phone if I'm in a public place and then engage in a detailed conversation about what I might offer.

 

Many escorts use polite or indirect language when it comes to describing explicitly what we offer. Many of us may say that we are only offering companionship, not sex, and some of us may imagine that this covers us in the event that someone imagines we are soliciting. Many of us also require visitors to our websites to agree that they may be reading or viewing sexually explicit content before they access it. This is polite, but not necessary. It helps prevent people from clicking through the site by accident or when they're in a place, such as at work or in Starbucks, where viewing that content may be a bad idea.

 

Personally, I'm not worried about soliciting. Making statements about offering my time at a certain rate is simply a way of telling prospective clients what I guarantee to provide, period. I will not guarantee to engage in intimate contact or sexual acts with someone I don't know. I may not feel comfortable with the individual for many reasons. I may not feel up to engaging in certain activities every time I see someone. I may be willing to do something with a trusted client that I will not do with a stranger. All I guarantee is to spend the amount of time promised.

 

Of course, one difference between me and many women a prospective client may date is that the likelihood that I will engage in intimate activity with him in a private place is significantly higher. If he and I have had the opportunity to become fairly well-acquainted, it's virtually certain to happen.

[cyclo 30131]

Further to Samantha's post, the solicitation laws really are addressing "public nuisance". It's important to remember that the client can be charged with solicitation in addition to the service provider. Women can find themselves being solicited by men while walking down the street in an area used for street prostitution. This can be embarrassing, uncomfortable or threatening depending upon the circumstances. This is one of the public behaviours that the solicitation laws are designed to address.

[fortunateone 156618]

Yes there is a reason why LE have female officers pose as SWs. If the public solicitation only went one way, then all they would do is pose as clients and approach the sps. That actually rarely happens, I think, although they can arrest sps for public solicitation, they do seem to focus more on the client end.

 

 

You can't even discuss solicitation, as someone points out well here, without considering the public part of the solicitation. You can't short cut it, and try to imagine does it or doesn't apply in one case or the other, once you remember you have to say it as a phrase "public solicitation". and once you do that you can realize that posting an ad doesn't apply, answering an enquiry someone has based on that ad doesn't apply, and so on.

 

 

Also, do you have a reasonable expectation that your conversation is taking place in private, with only the two of you hearing and speaking? Then even that conversation cannot be considered public solicitation.