FOR generations, vice girls have plied their trade in Glasgow's red light areas.

• Mobile phones, internet let women work from home

• City's traditional red light areas are no longer used FOR generations, vice girls have plied their trade in Glasgow's red light areas.

The public hated prostitutes working near their homes and the kerb crawlers but for police and health workers, there were advantages to knowing where the women were operating.

However the world's oldest profession has changed with the times with the arrival of the internet and mobile phones. City council experts say there have been substantial changes in prostitution with a dramatic fall in the number of women working the red light areas. Instead a six-month survey found women now work right across the city.

As a result, the city's social work chiefs want to change the way services to prostitutes are delivered.

They say mobile phones and the web mean women no longer walk the streets and much of the trade now operates behind closed doors, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Since 1995, more than 2000 women have registered with centre Base 75, which was set up to offer help and advice to "working" girls.

But in recent years there has been a dramatic fall in the number of prostitutes accessing their services.

What worries social work bosses is that Base 75 is an important point of contact for vulnerable women not engaging with services elsewhere.

Recently a group of these women, who visited the centre up to 90 times during a six-month period, were asked to fill in a questionnaire. It showed 98% had quit prostitution in the past but had become involved again after coming out of prison, leaving rehab, because of debt, homelessness, to buy drugs or because of the influence of friends.

When asked about any other help they would like they said addiction services, alcohol counselling, benefit and debt advice, safe accommodation, housing, mental health support, support to access college and education, employment, support with their children and opportunities for genuine friendships.

An audit of 49 prostitutes found 81% were addicts, 70% had mental health issues - some extreme and chronic - and just over half had been homeless.

Almost one in five were experiencing domestic abuse and more than half wanted to give up prostitution.

At present Glasgow Community and Safety Services, an arm's length organisation of the city council, is responsible for providing services to women who are victims of violence. Last week councillors agreed to transfer some Base 75 staff, who are now employed by social work, to Glasgow Community and Safety Services.

Some of the jobs at Base 75 will go as a result, but new posts will be created in community addiction teams.

Despite the changes, the drop-in centre will continue to operate.

Councillor Archie Graham, executive spokesman for social care, said: "Glasgow regards prostitution as a form of violence against women and our focus is upon providing support for women who are involved in prostitution.

"The need to change this service reflects the changes in prostitution in Glasgow in recent years. Mobile phones and the internet have had a massive impact on the way sex is bought. More prostitution now takes place indoors.

"The traditional red light area in the city centre has shrunk and prostitution has spread across the city. This shows up in the number of women who drop into Base 75. On any evening only a handful of woman use its services.

"Glasgow Community and Safety Services already provides the council's support for trafficked women and indoor prostitution so it makes sense to bring everything together.

"There will be a much greater emphasis on outreach work, engaging with women on the street and in their communities.

"Experienced staff will also be embedded within our addiction services to help identify women at risk at the earliest stage possible.

"The aim is to get the women the services they need such as support on addictions or mental health, which is also a big problem.

"Women in prostitution are highly vulnerable - we have to respond to the new realities of prostitution if we are to give them the support they need."

Neil McKeganey, Professor of drug misuse research at Glasgow University, agrees there has been a substantial drop in the number of prostitutes working the red light areas but not that they are using mobiles or the internet to work from home.

Mr McKeganey said: "Many of the drug addicted women simply would not have the wherewithal to orchestrate the clandestine economy of their prostitution through indoor premises.

"Their lives are in too big disarray to easily shift from a street scene to an indoor scene.

"I suspect what has happened is that people are working in a much more disparate array of areas which are not normal red light zones - areas where women are much more vulnerable than they were when they were in more concentrated areas like the city centre and Glasgow Green."