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Since the beginning of 2025, the number of ads for sex services has increased dramatically on social networks and messengers. According to Izvestia's calculations, more than 100,000 of them were posted from January to early June. This is four times higher than in the first five months of last year. Izvestia's sources explained the surge in such offers by saying that webcam models and girls hosting streams are turning to prostitution - due to the oversaturation of the online market, they are losing their audience. How the sex services industry has changed and what threatens for their provision in Russia — in the material of Izvestia.

Why is the number of offers growing?

In the first five months of 2025, the number of offers of sex services increased almost fourfold compared to the same period last year, Izvestia calculated after analyzing information on social networks and messengers.

Каблуки
Photo: Global Look Press

The transition of webcam models and streamers from broadcasts to face-to-face meetings with clients is explained by the high competition on the Internet. The online market is crowded, so many girls are losing their audience and earnings, a source in this field explained to Izvestia.

"A huge number of girls have accounts on sites through which they post their erotic photos and broadcast, there is intense competition here," he stated. — This is one of the ways of widespread additional earnings, which is not fully criminalized. But in prostitution, the market is not so saturated.

Currently, Russia ranks second in the world in terms of the number of registered webcam model accounts: Thousands of Russian women are continuously filming in underground studios across the country, Izvestia previously reported.

Now, girls who initially charged low prices for their content on the Internet are switching to providing intimate services: faced with low earnings, they could not cope with increased competition and closed their accounts, another source who worked with webcam models confirmed.

By the fall of 2025, the number of ads offering sex services may grow even more, sources say. On September 1, the law on the prohibition of advertising on Instagram (owned by Meta Corporation, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) comes into force. Fines of up to 500 thousand rubles are provided for violations.

Штраф
Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

This particular platform has become one of the most popular for promoting adult content. Due to candid images, they attract a large number of subscribers, and their number affects monetization.

Roskomnadzor told Izvestia that since the beginning of 2022, the agency has blocked or deleted prohibited information from more than 34,000 URLs containing offers of intimate services. So, in 2022 — 13.4 thousand, in 2023 — 9.5 thousand, in 2024 — 9.2 thousand, since the beginning of 2025 — 1.9 thousand.

How sex services are advertised

Most of the ads in Telegram are published by girls who work independently — without the patronage of pimps, explained Izvestia's interlocutor in this area. Departure is most often carried out in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The average cost is 3-6 thousand rubles per hour.

Телеграм
Photo: IZVESTIA/Pavel Volkov

Sometimes pimps post job offers in such groups — applicants must fill out a questionnaire and attach their photo to them.

"Are you young, attractive, and free? Do you dream of making good money?" they invite.

25-year-old Irina (name changed) confirmed to Izvestia that she switched from working in a webcam to prostitution in April 2025, hoping to increase her income.

— Online views were falling, and money was sorely lacking. I have no education and I did not plan to look for another job, because I needed a quick income. As a result, on the worst days of work, I earn half as much as on a webcam. Besides, not all clients behave adequately. I've been humiliated more than once," she added.

Депрессия
Photo: IZVESTIA/Anna Selina

Prostitution is always a traumatic experience, said psychologist Alena Brodskaya. A person experiences emotional and physical violence, which leads to depression, increased anxiety levels, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"When a webcam model turns into prostitution, she doesn't take these risks into account," she said. — Many online employees undergo professional transformation: the transition from broadcasts and photos to sex services can be perceived as a natural continuation of their work. They also have the illusion that they can control face-to-face meetings, for example, choose clients, and avoid encountering unacceptable things. In practice, the opposite often happens.

What is the threat for providing intimate services

Prostitution in Russia is not a criminal offense — it is an administrative article (art. 6.12 of the Administrative Code), which provides for a fine of up to 2.5 thousand rubles.

Working in an escort agency, which involves accompanying a client to events and trips without providing intimate services, also does not fall under the criminal article. The activities of such agencies are one of the legal types of entrepreneurial activity. Nevertheless, if such a company secretly provides sex services and its owners receive income from them, then they face an article for pimping (241 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The maximum term of imprisonment is up to five years. The punishment may be increased if it is proved that minors were involved in the provision of sex services.

наручники
Photo: IZVESTIA/Eduard Kornienko

The distribution of content on the Internet is much more difficult to prove: many resources on which broadcasts are conducted prescribe in the rules exactly how girls should behave in order to remain in the legal field.

— The sites impose a commission on all donations that registered users receive. Erotic content is in demand among viewers, and accordingly, it is not profitable to lose income from it. The girls themselves regularly change locations for filming, moving from one rented apartment to another to make it more difficult to figure them out, says lawyer Natalia Malysheva.

In extreme cases, at the request of citizens, the police can conduct a preventive conversation with people broadcasting such content. The site, in turn, may block the user. But nothing prevents a girl from simply switching to another resource, adds lawyer Alexei Malenkov.

The organizers of such a business are not subject to articles for distributing pornography and pimping, since online broadcasts are often not recorded or distributed. The most important components of a criminal act are missing, which means there is no corpus delicti. For the same reason, streamers whose content can be called semi-erotic are avoiding responsibility, adds lawyer Olga Gemodeeva.

Thus, there are currently gaps in Russian legislation that are exploited by sex workers and their patrons.

Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»

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