Strengthening safeguards against online exploitation
A simple question with complex consequences
Are adult services websites already illegal under UK law?
That was the question the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) asked Freshfields to examine as part of its work investigating the role these platforms can play in sexual exploitation.
The project grew out of earlier Freshfields pro bono work involving sexual exploitation and online platforms. When members of the team became aware of the IASC’s research into the experiences of survivors using adult services websites (ASWs), they made contact. That conversation developed into a wider collaboration, with the Commissioner asking Freshfields to help map the existing legal and regulatory landscape.
The question mattered because ASWs can provide the infrastructure through which exploitation takes place. Understanding where responsibility sits – and what existing law already requires of platform operators – was an important starting point for considering how those risks could be addressed.
Mapping the law across the UK
Freshfields examined whether existing criminal offences could apply to ASWs and the extent to which operators could face liability for content or activity facilitated through their platforms.
The work covered legislation relating to sexual exploitation, prostitution and modern slavery, alongside the Online Safety Act 2023 and rules governing the liability of online intermediaries. Because the Commissioner has a UK-wide remit, the team also considered at a high level the different legislative frameworks in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The research brought together expertise that Freshfields regularly applies when advising businesses on online safety and platform regulation, but from a very different perspective: considering how those laws operate when the potential harm is experienced by individuals using comparatively small, high-risk online services.
The initial conclusion was clear. Freshfields did not identify anything suggesting that ASWs are inherently illegal, nor any criminal offence designed specifically to apply to them simply because they advertise the services of individuals online.
But that was not the end of the analysis.
Looking beyond whether a website is legal
The research highlighted a more complicated question: whether particular ways in which these platforms operate could engage existing criminal or regulatory obligations.
Further work examined publicly available information about features including age and identity verification, consent and control of images, moderation and reporting systems, payment arrangements and communications between users.
Practices varied considerably. Some platforms used identity verification or Know Your Customer checks, while others relied more heavily on self-declaration. Buyer identity checks were rare on many services and communications frequently moved to channels such as WhatsApp or SMS, reducing platforms’ visibility of what happened next.
The findings helped identify (i) that few ASWs applied safeguards to detect or prevent exploitation, (ii) where vulnerabilities remained, and (iii) where existing regulation might have greater scope to protect people at risk of exploitation.
Freshfields invested significant time and expertise in helping us navigate the complex legal landscape, ensuring that our findings and recommendations had a robust legal and evidential foundation, and enabling us to identify where existing protections could be strengthened and where gaps remained.
The impact of that work has gone well beyond the publication of our report. Freshfields’ analysis has already supported tangible change, including through our engagement with Ofcom, and we continue to draw on it in our work with government, regulators and parliamentarians as we seek to close loopholes, strengthen accountability and ensure that the law keeps pace with the ways in which exploitation is facilitated online
Kathryn Parkinson, Office of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner
Turning research into regulatory engagement
The work gave the IASC a legal foundation for further engagement with policymakers and regulators.
The Commissioner used the findings and resulting recommendations in discussions with government and Ofcom. Freshfields also participated in a meeting with Ofcom Chief Executive Melanie Dawes, where the team raised concerns about language in Ofcom’s guidance on illegal content judgments that could be read as suggesting there was only limited action adult services websites could take to identify potential trafficking.
Ofcom subsequently amended that guidance.
The work is continuing. The findings have helped put the risks associated with these platforms more firmly on the regulatory agenda, while giving the IASC evidence it can use as it considers potential changes to regulation, enforcement and legislation.
For the Freshfields team, the project also demonstrates how specialist legal expertise can have an impact beyond conventional client work: applying knowledge of fast-developing areas, such as online safety, to help address exploitation and violence against women and girls.
