Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing whether or not prostitution is legal or illegal in Thailand. I have done other videos on this but something recently came up in the news, I will get to that in a moment. Every now and then I kind of reiterate this: yes prostitution is illegal in Thailand. Thailand has a different way of defining it, I'll get into that in a moment but also at the same time common sense should kind of prevail too on these topics, I will get to that. So I thought of making this video after reading a recent article in the Thai Examiner, that's thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Biggest Sex for Sale website shut down by police unit in early morning raid targeting foreigners. Quoting directly: "A cursory review shows that it clearly advertised prostitution services with detailed reviews given by customers from mid-July to the end of July, most of them appearing to be English speaking foreigners, raving about and paying compliments to the sex workers working on the online facility together with photographs of attractive young women in provocative clothing and poses." So I urge those who are watching this video, as usual Thai Examiner does a really meticulous job of going through, reporting on what's going on there. A foreigner and a Thai apparently were arrested in this matter. There was a website up was promoting what ostensibly was escort activities but apparently Thai Police felt that there was enough probable cause to presume that prostitution was being purveyed through this website, so they went ahead and made arrests. Again, I urge those watching this video, go check out the article and get in depth information on that. 

The thrust of this video though is sort of legal analysis. Again I am an American Attorney, I am not a Thai lawyer, I am not a Thai Attorney. I am the Managing Director of the firm but we do provide these videos for sort of informational purposes only. I discussed with the Thai lawyers in our office, the analysis of this I am going to do right here and they have said, "yeah this is basically the situation in Thailand." So I took this from krisdika.go.th, so this is the Government of Thailand's own website where they published the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act B.E. 2539, (that's 1996). So this is the Act that is currently in force here in Thailand. Under section 4 in this Act, "Prostitution" means the acceptance of sexual intercourse or any other act or the commission of any other act in order to gratify the sexual desire of another person in a promiscuous manner, in return for money or any other benefit irrespective of whether the person who accepts the act and the person who commits the act are of the same sex or not." Again it's on the Thai Government's website, it's in English. Now remember, the dispositive language for purposes of Law in Thailand is Thai, so the Thai language prevails but this is pretty informative stuff when you consider it is on the Thai Government's own website and it's an English translation of the Act so it gives you, in my opinion, as much detail as can be given for informational and educational purposes providing it in the English language, so again. But it is this "promiscuous manner" part of the definition of prostitution that in my mind is where the rubber hits the road at least from a comparative law analysis standpoint between for example Western countries, jurisdictions in the United States and how they define prostitution, versus Thailand. This "promiscuous manner" what I would call an almost open and notorious sort of framework when analyzing this, it really in my mind comes into play because Thailand is in my mind very much a "Live and let Live" sort of society. And it takes the position that "hey no we don't want prostitution, we don't want to encourage that kind of behaviour". But as I have said in many other videos, I view it as sort of the Doctrine of Conservative Tolerance in Thailand wherein Thailand is a conservative place but it can tolerate people's different proclivities, whatever; "Live and let Live" basically. And when I read this section of the Act, I think that this is a very mature way to handle a rather nettlesome topic which is yes prostitution is illegal but Thai authorities are not overly concerned with what consenting adults do behind closed doors. So what you do behind closed doors is your business as long as how you got there did not meet the elements of prostitution which promiscuity is one of those elements. Again I look at it like "open and notorious", that's kind of the way to look at the definition, or that is the framework I use when looking at that definition. So again it is this promiscuity element and that is where I think when you look at this article, the folks that were running this website got into some real trouble and I think they are going to have some real legal problems here because it is sort of open and notorious; it's not discreet at all; it's on the internet; it's out there for all to see and they go through all that in the article. I myself as part of the research I checked out the underlying website, yeah it is pretty darn open and notorious in my opinion and again that is not the exact phraseology used in the actual Act itself as quoted a moment ago, again "promiscuous manner" but being on the internet seems pretty promiscuous to me so again I think a reasonable person can infer that when reading the Act. 

So the thing to take away from this video and to understand is Yes prostitution is illegal in Thailand but No in Thailand they are not going out of their way to regulate or in any way really scrutinize the goings-on of what happens between consenting adults behind closed doors; that is not the main thrust of law enforcement's endeavours here in Thailand. That being said, don't push it basically. I mean don't go making internet websites dedicated to this illicit activity. Again, what consenting adults do is one thing behind closed doors but again this sort of open and notorious side of things, that's where you can see some real problems and that is where I think the analysis at least in my mind that's where the analysis flows when I look at this article or when I was reading this article and that's why I decided to go ahead and make this video.