BBC Uses Skype Links In Murder Hunt

Nico M writes "The highly publicized UK murder hunt for the serial killer(s) of five young sex workers in Suffolk is using Skype to ask the public for information. BBC News is embedding freephone Skype links to both the police incident room and Crimestoppers UK. Is this the first time Skype has been used in this way?"

Comments

Re:Sex workers?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Sex worker, is that the PC term for prostitute?

I am amazed that so few slashdotters (reading the first 10 posts or so) are unfamiliar with that term. (Do you all live under rocks or something?)

Its basically a superset of prostitute - including people in the industry who don't actually fuck for money, ie strip dancers, porn stars, topless waiters, dominatrixes (sp?) etc.

Nothing PC about it.

Re:This is probably a really bad idea

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

This is probably not a good idea, because there is no anonymity with Skype

1) They have a normal number in addition to the skype links.
2) You can anonymously use skype from an internet cafe (most have it installed, with mic + headphones these days)
3) Its for convenience sake, so someone who doesn't think it's worth calling (for the little thing they remember seeing walking past) will just click on the link when reading a story.

Re:Sex workers?

[lastninja]

including people in the industry who don't actually fuck for money, ie strip dancers, porn stars, topless waiters, dominatrixes (sp?) etc.
What kind of boring non-fucking porn do you watch?

Re:Sex workers?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

prostitution is illegal in most parts of the country

Seriously? Illegal? (not just regulated?)

Why is it illegal to sell a (much in demand) service in the land of the free?

First time for what?

[SQL Error]

Is this the first time Skype has been used in this way?

For making phone calls? Probably not.

Re:Sex workers?

[TapeCutter]

Yep, I will second that. Here in Oz we have something called the sex workers union. Personally I think the "deadhookers" tag is extremely bad taste, it is disrespectful toward both the dead and their greiving relatives.

Re:Sex workers?

[1u3hr]

I hate to say it, but better illegal than legal *and* legally recognized by the State as a "normal" profession like in Germany. There was the recent case of an unemployed lady there who was refused continuing unemployment benefits

Note there are no names or dates in that stpory. It's an urban legend. Never happened. http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp

...a story was sensationalized for political purposes and passed from one news source to the next, and somewhere in the rewriting and translating process what was originally discussed as a mere hypothetical possibility has now been reported as a factual occurrence.

Slashdot's most offensive moments

[gjuk]

So, someone posts a non-story about Skype being used by the police and bbc to report infomration on murdered women. Slashdot users don't discuss the fakeness of the story, or the skype marketing angle, or the future of telecoms. They feel it appropriate to make declarations and guenuinely offensive 'humour' about murdered women.
Seriously, these women may be prostitutes, but the key facts are: 5 people were murdered in a market town in the space of a couple of weeks. These people were people; daughters, mothers, sisters. They were all, I believe, hooked on drugs. And one day they may have got off drugs and enjoyed a normal life. Not now. The fascination some /.ers have shown for the 'sex angle' makes me worry about who I'm associating with here, and says far more about the writers than the victims.

Re:Why yes...

[TheRaven64]

And, of course, not all prostitutes are "sex workers". For example the average CEO... It's always struck me as a strange comment on our society that those who are willing to sell their bodies are regarded as lower than those who are willing to sell their souls.