Prostitution is legal in Singapore. It may be surprising to some visitors, but there are brothels which are regulated by the Singapore government, where both local and foreign women can legally offer sexual services to paying customers. However, these sex workers must undergo regular medical check-ups and carry health cards in order to work in the sex industry. This relatively pragmatic approach to prostitution arose because Singapore decided that legalised sex work with government supervision was safer and more desirable than an unregulated industry forced to operate underground.
However, this approach to sex work only applies to commercial sex between a male and a female; all forms of same-sex and transgender sex remain illegal in Singapore under section A of the Penal Code. Sexual services may also be offered for sale in massage parlours and karaoke lounges, but you should be aware that these are likely to be illegal businesses, unlike the licensed brothels. Other illegal sexual activities include living on the earnings of a prostitute, running an unlicensed brothel, and soliciting for sex in public.
New ways of offering sex for money illegally appear all the time in Singapore, despite the efforts of the law, which tries to protect minors and discourage criminal enterprise. This outlawed prostitution carried on online or via social media.
However, as is often the case, some sex workers circumvent this law by hosting their websites outside of Singapore. Living on the earnings of a prostitute is known as pimping, and is illegal in Singapore. Section of the Penal Code also provides punishment for pimps, if they sell minors for prostitution defined as anyone under the age of 21 years. There have been several high-profile cases in recent years involving prostitution.
It was discovered that one escort was only 17 years of age, she was advertised as being 18 years old , though the pimp had discovered her real age soon after she began working for him. In , there was the case of former owner of a social escort agency who lived off earnings from prostitutes, made obscene films, and had sex with underage prostitutes and minors some as young as The law states that anyone who persistently loiters or solicits in a public road or place, for the purposes of prostitution, is guilty of an offence.
