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Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
National
RFI

France's prostitution law helps victims, but clients vanish behind closed doors

Protesters hold a banner reading "Human beings are not commodities" during a demonstration organised on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the prostitution law in France, in front of Pantheon in Paris, 12 April 2026. © Ian Langsdon/AFP

In the ten years since France passed a law decriminalising prostitution, but making it illegal to pay for sex, investigators have shifted their approach to sex workers to consider them as victims and not criminals. But it has become difficult to identify clients, who increasingly operate online, behind closed doors and not in public.

A decade after France passed a law criminalising the purchase of sexual services, authorities insist they are taking a tough approach to prostitution networks.

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