从商业性评论平台得出的性接触网络的跨国结构
Cross-country structure of a sexual contact network derived from a commercial-sex review platform
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中文总结 AI 辅助
研究借助商业性评论平台构建的网络分析性接触网络跨国结构，发现少数高连接性跨国评论客户塑造网络连通性，呈现小世界特性，还揭示数字痕迹数据研究STI传播相关跨国接触结构的价值与局限。
中文摘要 AI 辅助
性接触网络对于理解性传播感染（STIs）的传播至关重要，但由于技术、伦理和隐私限制，其大规模结构难以观察。本文分析了一个由1999年至2024年在《色情评论》（TER）上发布的评论构建的包含1,436,738条客户 - 性工作者链接的大型二分商业性接触网络。该网络涵盖97个国家和地区的性工作者。研究其跨国结构，关注客户、性工作者、地点和时间段的连接方式。网络形成了包含大多数客户和性工作者的巨大连通组件，具有小世界特性。多数评论与美国有关，但少数客户在多国评论性工作者形成空间桥梁，长期用户创造时间桥梁。涉及跨性别女性性工作者的接触在结构上集中。这些发现表明少数具有跨国评论活动的高连接性客户如何塑造商业性接触网络的大规模连通性，展示了数字痕迹数据在研究与STI传播相关的跨国接触结构方面的价值和局限性。
英文摘要
Sexual contact networks are fundamental to understanding the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), yet their large-scale structure remains difficult to observe because of technical, ethical, and privacy constraints. Here, we analyze a large bipartite commercial-sex contact network comprising 1,436,738 client-sex worker links, constructed from reviews posted between 1999 and 2024 on The Erotic Review (TER), a review platform covering sex workers listed across 97 countries and territories. We examine the network's cross-country structure, focusing on how clients, sex workers, locations, and time periods are connected. The network formed a giant connected component containing most clients and sex workers and exhibited small-world-like properties, including short average path lengths, high bipartite clustering, and disassortative degree correlations. Although most reviews were associated with the United States, a small fraction of clients reviewed sex workers in multiple countries or territories, creating spatial bridges between otherwise distant regions. Long-term users created temporal bridges, making the aggregated network more compact than networks built from shorter time windows. Contacts involving transgender female sex workers were structurally concentrated: clients who reviewed both cisgender and transgender female sex workers represented a small minority but accounted for a large share of transgender-related reviews and showed higher cross-country activity. These findings show how a small number of highly connected clients with cross-country review activity can shape the large-scale connectivity of commercial-sex contact networks. More broadly, our results demonstrate the value and limitations of digital trace data for studying cross-country contact structures relevant to STI transmission.
