ACROSS Africa, a quiet revolution is unfolding.
Sex work — once confined to city streets and red-light districts — has migrated to smartphones, encrypted chats and subscription platforms.
It is a shift driven by cheap mobile data, mobile money and the lure of quick earnings.
For some, it represents economic autonomy.
For others, particularly underage girls and vulnerable young women, it is a trap of exploitation and abuse.
This digital migration is not marginal.
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In cities like Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg, the trade is already big business.
South African and Kenyan content creators report daily incomes that far exceed formal-sector wages.
Nigerian urban markets alone account for hundreds of millions of dollars circulating through transactional sex and related services.
Encrypted apps and payment platforms connect sellers with diaspora clients and cross-border demand, reshaping intimacy into a monetised hustle.
On the surface, this looks like opportunity.
Digital platforms can give women control over schedules, earnings and reach.
When paired with inclusive digital finance tools, it could even feed into wider women’s economic empowerment, as reports by the UN Economic Commission for Africa suggest.
But empowerment is conditional.
Without safeguards, digital sex work becomes a high-speed highway into exploitation.
The hidden harms
For young women — especially minors — the dangers are stark.
Grooming through social media is common, and explicit material can be recorded, shared and sold without consent.
Sextortion and cyber-harassment thrive in environments where the victim has little recourse.
Criminalisation of sex work, common across much of Africa, drives the trade further underground, reducing access to health care and legal protection.
Evidence from recent health studies warns that women who enter sex work at younger ages face higher rates of depression, violence and long-term harm.
In online spaces, those risks are amplified by anonymity, unregulated payments and the ease with which predators can hide behind technology.
The countries most at risk are those with large youth populations, high urban demand, and strong digital finance systems — notably Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
In South Africa, the contradiction is especially glaring: a thriving digital sex market exists alongside legal criminalisation, leaving workers unprotected and vulnerable.
What governments must do
African policymakers cannot afford to treat this issue with silence, stigma or denial.
A pragmatic, rights-based approach is urgent.
Protect children: Governments should require platforms and payment providers to introduce strong age-verification systems, rapid removal of sexual content involving minors and mandatory reporting to child protection agencies.
Cybercrime units must be trained and resourced to tackle grooming and sextortion aggressively.
Close the legal gap: Where sex work is criminalised, adults are pushed deeper into unsafe spaces.
Targeted reforms — or decriminalisation of consensual adult sex work — would give workers access to health care, legal protection and labour rights, while freeing law enforcement to focus on the real scourge: child exploitation and trafficking.
Regulate the money: Mobile money firms, fintechs and crypto-exchanges must be brought into the fight.
Regulators should compel them to monitor suspicious transaction patterns that signal trafficking or organised abuse.
At the same time, safeguards must preserve privacy and legitimate livelihoods.
Build resilience: Economic alternatives are the strongest shield against coercion.
Investments in digital literacy, vocational training, and youth employment are essential.
Social protection measures — from cash transfers to microcredit — can give vulnerable young women real choices beyond precarious online labour.
Governments must set up rapid-response teams linking police cyber-units, telecoms, non-governmental organisations and child welfare bodies.
Hotlines, shelters and trauma-informed counselling need to be properly funded.
Partnerships with global and local platforms are vital — but voluntary policies are not enough.
Accountability must be built into law.
Africa’s digital future is being written today.
If we allow the sex economy to expand unchecked, children will pay the highest price.
But with decisive policy, governments can strike a balance: protecting children and vulnerable women while recognising the rights and autonomy of adults who choose digital sex work.
The choice is not between moral panic and laissez-faire neglect.
The choice is between a future where exploitation flourishes in the shadows and one where dignity, safety and empowerment are real.
Policymakers still have a narrow window to act.
That window is closing fast.