Session
Digital Futures Lab
1. Anushka Jain, Research Associate, Digital Futures Lab, India, Civil Society 2. Bishakha Datta, Programme Lead, Point of View, India, Civil Society 3. Urvashi Aneja, Founder & Director, Digital Futures Lab, India, Civil Society
1. Anushka Jain, Research Associate, Digital Futures Lab, India, Civil Society 2. Bishakha Datta, Programme Lead, Point of View, India, Civil Society 3. Urvashi Aneja, Founder & Director, Digital Futures Lab, India, Civil Society
Organization's Website
Speakers
1. Anushka Jain, Research Associate, Digital Futures Lab, India, Civil Society
2. Bishakha Datta, Programme Lead, Point of View, India, Civil Society
3. Urvashi Aneja, Founder & Director, Digital Futures Lab, India, Civil Society
Onsite Moderator
Anushka Jain
Rapporteur
Bishakha Datta
SDGs
5. Gender Equality
5.1
5.2
5.b
5.c
Targets: Due to the stigma associated with sex work, sex workers, the majority of whom are women, face high levels of discrimination. This sad reality can also be seen in their online existence, where they face excessive harassment, targeting for economic harm, threats of physical harm, in addition to high levels of technology facilitated gender based violence by customers and strangers alike. Further, access to the internet is also curtailed by male authority figures, who may restrict them from using the internet for purposes other than sex work. Even though sex work is not criminalised in multiple countries in the Majority World, sex workers are denied institutional recourse and justice, again due to the stigma associated with sex work. Our lightning talk will showcase the structural realities that constrain sex workers from meaningfully and holistically benefiting from digital technologies. We will also aim to provide certain solution pathways towards eradicating these issues.
5.1
5.2
5.b
5.c
Targets: Due to the stigma associated with sex work, sex workers, the majority of whom are women, face high levels of discrimination. This sad reality can also be seen in their online existence, where they face excessive harassment, targeting for economic harm, threats of physical harm, in addition to high levels of technology facilitated gender based violence by customers and strangers alike. Further, access to the internet is also curtailed by male authority figures, who may restrict them from using the internet for purposes other than sex work. Even though sex work is not criminalised in multiple countries in the Majority World, sex workers are denied institutional recourse and justice, again due to the stigma associated with sex work. Our lightning talk will showcase the structural realities that constrain sex workers from meaningfully and holistically benefiting from digital technologies. We will also aim to provide certain solution pathways towards eradicating these issues.
Format
Lightning Talk/Presentation followed by short Q&A
Duration (minutes)
20
Description
Sex workers inhabit diverse marginalised identities and make up a sizable workforce, while also representing a rich living archive of our ever-changing relationship with digital technologies, especially in how it allows for exploration of diverse and safer avenues of work in the face of unique social, political, legal, and safety constraints – but these technologies are not without their challenges. Through sessions at Renew 2024 (a South Asia Sex Workers’ Summit) and RightsCon 2025, Digital Futures Lab and Point of View have collated critical regional knowledge and understanding of the complex ways in which digital sex work is evolving, changing the nature of intimacy, and impacting the lives of sex workers today. These sessions have also helped us document and build evidence on online harms sex workers face, like the non-consensual circulation of intimate images, harassment, threats, doxxing, and fraud.
Digital Futures Lab hosted a workshop titled, “Staying Safe: Rights and Security for Sex Workers Online”, at the Renew Summit. The workshop explored how sex workers utilise digital tools and platforms for their work and provided guidance on how they may protect themselves better during these digital interactions. The workshop was attended by participants who identified as sex workers as well as allies from organisations and collectives. During the first half of the workshop, we conducted participatory problem scoping in which we asked participants identifying as sex workers to share information and insights based on specific prompts. These prompts included inquiring about whether they used the Internet for sex work, which platforms they use, whether the Internet has changed and/or improved their working conditions, and what issues they have faced on the Internet. In the second half of the workshop, we talked to the participants about the importance of digital rights and the existing legal frameworks related to online sex work in the participating countries. Lastly, we provided them with specific guidance on online safety, including how to protect themselves from phishing/scams and on safer sexting. Read the session summary here: https://digitalfutureslab.notion.site/DFL-at-Renew-South-Asia-Sex-Worke…
Point of View organised a session at Renew titled “New Rooms, New Dynamics: Sex Work in an Online World”, which brought together sex workers and sexual rights activists in the region to unpack sex workers leverage technology (mobile phones) and online spaces (social
media) and redefining their identities as service providers, content creators and entrepreneurs. Through a moderated discussion, participants shared diverse perspectives on these changing dynamics with technology, and its implications on their lives and well-being as well as on how digital literacy and resilience interventions with sex workers can be effectively conceived and implemented. Critical regional insights surfaced including: digital technologies are integral to sex work today, tech usage by sex workers surpasses professional use, image based abuse and financial harms are common experiences of online sex work, community-based strategies are sometimes effective in countering these kinds of online harms given the lack of clear legislation and cooperative law enforcement response.
At RightsCon 2025, the two organisations co-organised a session centering the principles of access, privacy, and consent within sex work from a queer-feminist sex-positive lens. The moderated dialogue brought together diverse voices from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. The aim was to provide a platform for these voices at a digital rights convening such as RightsCon, where such voices may not have had access historically.
At our lightning talk at IGF, we aim to collate and share what we have learned from these three sessions. We also aim to provide recommendations to various stakeholders, such as national and local authorities and technology platforms, on ensuring equitable and safe access for sex workers online.
The design of our lightning talk session will prioritise interaction and engagement between online and offline participants. There is ample experience within the organising team to ensure equal engagement and accessible session design for maximum hybrid participation. We will have two facilitators for the session, one of whom will moderate and manage traffic in the online space, while another will moderate on-site. Both session facilitators will devote equal time to online and offline participants for questions, also monitoring the online chatroom at all times for remarks and requests.
The design of our lightning talk session will prioritise interaction and engagement between online and offline participants. There is ample experience within the organising team to ensure equal engagement and accessible session design for maximum hybrid participation. We will have two facilitators for the session, one of whom will moderate and manage traffic in the online space, while another will moderate on-site. Both session facilitators will devote equal time to online and offline participants for questions, also monitoring the online chatroom at all times for remarks and requests.