Technology may finally be changing the face of the sex industry in Germany after Berlin start-up entrepreneurs developed a dating app for clients and prostitutes.

Launched on 1 April, Peppr.it allows male and female ‘Pepprs’ to upload their profiles for free, allowing clients to find a date nearby for a €5 or €10 booking fee. Clients can also filter their search per body type and special services.

Peppr.it co-founder Pia Poppenreiter said she was walking down the red light street Oranienburger in Berlin one winter night when she thought up the idea: ‘I saw the poor girls on the streets, and I thought, why isn’t there an app? It’s not efficient to wait outside.’

Poppenreiter said that their company screens the prostitutes by phone or talks to escort agencies before they put the profiles online to make sure the Pepprs are not being forced. However, she said that they cannot always guarantee this.

‘We try to ask them — you kind of find out in a conversation whether they’re doing it on a voluntary basis — we ask them what they did before, whether they’ve always worked voluntarily and so on.

‘We’re trying to revolutionise the image of sex work in general. We’re trying to get it away from its shabby image.’

As Peppr.it continues to engage more prostitutes and clients, the German government meanwhile mulls over intensifying prostitution laws.