I'd love to hear your answer to the first one, but its probably been asked here before. What I really find interesting, however, is why the left is quite divided on this issue.

Personally, I think that sex work really touches on several important political subjects and intersectionalities. You got the liberal vs radical feminism point of view where the former tends to be more ok with a free open industry whereas the latter thinks that the concept of sex work itself is a symbol of the problematic patriarchy. You also get the disagreement on how sacred your body actually is sexually. I imagine most of us here are all against virginity is holy and all that crap, but how many of us can argue with a straight face that a woman using her genitals and body for work is not more significant than one who's ruining her back in a warehouse or construction work? If the answer is yes, we then give a little ground to conservatives that sex can be quite sacred after all. If no, then why tiptoe around it and not treat it like other hard labor with labor protection laws? I also find it interesting that people of different political stripes take different opinions on whether a certain "undesired" things or action could be helped by criminalizing it or not. Alcohol is something we all agree on. Many liberals tout that criminalization is not a good way to address the drug epidemic. The right believes that criminalizing guns won't help with gun violence. Prostitution doesn't seem to receive quite the same agreement as drugs on the left, however, at least in the US, and it might have something to do with some of the factors I mentioned earlier.

Personally, I'm from one of those Asian countries where sex work is practically speaking, legal, and while there are shady places where you can get underage girls, big soap lands and bath massage establishments are quite something to be hold, and according to many I've heard from, those people are thoroughly professional, don't mind what they are doing, and definitely not under aged. I don't know, I think there's a way to do it well, but I'm not a statistician or expert with the numbers on sex trafficking in my hand.