Prostitution in Mallorca shifts online – researchers warn

More invisibility, more risk: The scene is changing

In Palma you no longer see as many visible brothels or women on the street as before. Those walking in the evening along Passeig Mallorca or Plaza España now notice delivery vans and closed storefronts – services that were once openly discussed are increasingly conducted via apps, private ads and encrypted chats.

What the studies have gathered

Recent studies by local research teams, presented at a conference in the town hall, describe the same trend: the research analyzed several dozen platforms and hundreds of profiles. Short and brutal result: the industry is moving into the digital space. From the visible, regulated milieu, a barely tangible network of apartments, private meeting points and online offerings is emerging.

The consequences for those affected are massive. Many affected, especially young migrant women without permanent residence status, report insomnia, anxiety and difficulties finding safe exit routes. Some interviewees described situations where appointments were arranged on boats or secluded properties – a place where help is hardly accessible.

Customers, digital booking and new risks

Demand, according to the researchers, comes predominantly from the domestic market: young men with middle incomes constitute the largest customer group; tourists are a smaller, but not negligible, portion. Notably: offers can now be arranged across borders – by message, time, place and price. This increases the predictability for perpetrators and makes controls harder.

Additionally, the visibility of pornographic practices has increased, increasingly marketed as normal. For minors this is particularly dangerous: pornography acts as an entry point, experts say.

What is needed now: Better training for police and social services, secure exit options and international cooperation against digitally organized human trafficking. It is not enough to monitor individual streets when the trade takes place behind encrypted screens.

In the end, the picture remains of a problem that we hardly see in its usual form anymore – and for that reason we must take it more seriously and act quickly.