Chilling warning that girls are being bought ‘like pizzas’ on sex-for-sale web sites
A harrowing report by the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) called on ministers to act after unearthing sickening exploitation of thousands of women
(Image: Getty Images)
Thousands of women are suffering sickening violence and exploitation in plain sight after being “sold like pizzas” for sex online.
A harrowing report warned sex-for-sale sites, dubbed ‘pimping websites’, are ready-made tools for abuse. Many women are advertised without their consent, while criminals profit from their misery, an investigation by the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) found.
Ministers have been urged to consider banning these platforms, which currently operate legally. One survivor told the commissioner: “I thought if I had tattoos, then if a buyer killed me, they’d at least be able to identify the body.” Another said: “It’s not acceptable that men can go out and buy women like pizzas… it affects society as a whole.”
The report found also children can contact sellers without providing any age checks, and access explicit images. Commissioner Eleanor Lyons said: “When organised crime can market victims openly and children can access these platforms without proper checks, the system is clearly failing the vulnerable and shielding criminals profiteering.
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“These websites are ready-made tools for abuse and the toughest action must be taken against them.”
The document states customers are able to buy sex anonymously, while organised criminals are known to exploit several women at a time. The commissioner’s office analysed nearly 63,000 adverts on 12 websites – finding that nearly six in 10 – 59% – showed at least three indicators of trafficking or exploitation.
These include multiple adverts linked to the same phone number. Fewer than one in 10 showed no indicators. In one month alone, the report says, the 12 websites attracted almost 42million visits.
Survivors said safety mechanisms on adult services websites were ineffective. One said she had received rape and death threats from a buyer after she refused to meet.
Calling for the sites to be banned, one stated: “They gave traffickers a place to advertise you like a product without anyone really checking if it is safe or if I even consented.”
The report uncovered chilling examples of exploitation, with abusers pretending to be advertised women in messages. Another survivor, who was exploited alongside a number of other women, said: “None of us had access to the emails from buyers. They came directly through him, he answered as if he was us and then he would send me a message saying, oh, this person, you know, this is where you’re going to meet them. And this is what you have agreed to do.”
Last year safeguarding minister Jess Phillips issued a warning to pimping websites. She said: “These sites – we know what they are – we’re coming for you.” She said legislation going through Parliament will allow courts to suspend websites behind sexual exploitation.”
Last year more than 50 MPs called for these sites to be banned. The Government has also faced calls to make it illegal to pay for sex.
Survivor Mia de Faoite previously told The Mirror: “The UK has a serious trafficking situation. The online pimping websites are a modern day slave market, that’s where women and girls are being sold, and men are willing to buy them.
“They make millions and millions of pounds, and all of that comes from ordinary Joe-types who are buying women on a daily basis. In 2025 we really shouldn’t be accepting that.
“They can go online and say ‘I’d like a Black one, I’d like an Asian one, I’ll have a teenager’. It’s a supermarket of the vulnerable for these men.”
Bronagh Andrew, operations manager of TARA in Glasgow, which supports trafficking survivors, said: “Online ads for the sale of sex are used by criminals and traffickers to advertise vulnerable women and profit from this world of coercion, exploitation and violence. Women supported by TARA over the last 20 years and advertised on such websites rarely profit and present to our services as homeless, destitute and traumatised.”
The Commissioner has called for mandatory age-verification, stronger enforcement of the Online Sagey Act, better monitoring of platforms, more accountability for those who profit, and better support for victims.
She also demanded a full Government review into whether the sites should continue operating in their current form. A Government spokesman said: “Sexual exploitation is a scourge, whether it takes place online or offline.
“The Online Safety Act makes it a criminal offence to share or threaten to share intimate images without consent, and requires platforms to proactively detect and remove this abuse.
“The Prime Minister announced last week that tech companies will be legally required to remove intimate images shared without consent within 48 hours of being flagged. We also recently made the creation of non‑consensual sexual images a criminal offence – and we will ban the tools that enable these images to be generated.”
