Last week, Durham University in the United Kingdom held training sessions for students involved in the adult sex industry. A spokesperson for the university stated that the goal was not to encourage sex work, but to “provide support to … students.”

Driving this demand is a larger movement normalizing “sex work” for young people. Previous research has shown that about 7% of university students work in the sex industry. The term “sex work” can refer to a variety of acts, including prostitution, stripping, selling nude photos and videos, and sugar dating (which involves exchanging time and sex for gifts or money for tuition and rent).