MSPs called on the Scottish government today to ban online pimping after an inquiry found that commercial websites are facilitating sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.

A cross-party group launched the inquiry into sexual exploitation advertising websites in response to mounting reports that online prostitution adverts are fuelling such exploitation and organised crime.

After finding 570 prostitution adverts on just one website in a single day, the group concluded that Scotland’s laws against sexual exploitation have failed to keep pace with technological change.

The group is calling for a new offence of “enabling or profiting from the prostitution of another person” to be created and for support services to be strengthened, warning that “online pimping is taking place on an industrial scale in Scotland.”

Inquiry co-convener Rhoda Grant described the commercial sexual exploitation of women as a “barrier to true equality.”

The Labour MSP said: “Websites that promote this exploitation and profit from it need to be held to account for their abuse.”