# Understanding the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act

This bill asks the federal government to study what happened to people engaged in sex work after major websites serving that community were shut down. Specifically, it looks at the consequences that followed the 2018 passage of SESTA/FOSTA, a law designed to fight sex trafficking by making websites liable for user-generated content related to trafficking. The bill wants to understand whether closing these platforms—including the well-known site Backpage—actually made things safer or if it created unexpected problems for people doing consensual sex work.

The Department of Health and Human Services would conduct the main study, talking to nonprofits and community organizations that work directly with sex workers. They'd investigate whether losing access to these online platforms made people less safe in concrete ways: Did they have a harder time screening clients? Did violence increase? Did more people end up homeless? Did they turn to street-based work, which tends to be more dangerous? The study would also look at whether people lost access to health information, banking services, and community support networks that these websites provided. Importantly, the bill specifically asks researchers to examine how these impacts differ for vulnerable groups like LGBTQ+ individuals, transgender women of color, and people experiencing homelessness—populations that often relied heavily on these platforms.

At the same time, the Attorney General would prepare a separate report examining whether shutting down these websites actually helped or hurt efforts to investigate and prosecute human trafficking. This part asks whether law enforcement lost valuable tools for finding traffickers, or whether the closures made it harder for trafficking victims to get help. The bill essentially recognizes that while the original law aimed to protect people from exploitation, it may have had unintended consequences that nobody has properly studied yet. Both reports would be made public within a year, giving policymakers actual data about what happened on the ground rather than just assumptions.

SAFE SEX Workers Study Act

Khanna, Ro

SESTA/FOSTA Examination of Secondary Effects for Sex Workers Study Act or the SAFE SEX Workers Study Act This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to study the impacts of the reduction in access to certain websites and other interactive computer services resulting from the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 on individuals engaged in adult, consensual sex work. Specifically, HHS must study the impacts of the reduction on the health and safety of individuals engaged in transactional sex while DOJ must study the impacts of the reduction on human trafficking investigations and prosecutions.