This mornings strib included a statement that the average provider starts working at age 12.  Any ladies care to offer what age they started?  The majority of indies, massage, and street over the past 20 years seems to be about mid 20's, is an average starting age below about 20 even realistic?

The media over exaggerates human trafficking and child exploitation.

That sounds to me like she would not be an independent provider, but an owned little girl! Someone is forcing her to be a prostitute. That is a completely DIFFERENT senario than what we as escorts do, hun! That would be called sex trafficing, NOT escorting and companionship. The poor little girl would NOT be a "provider". She's probably somebody's "slave"....
I cring to even be REMOTELY put in the same category as this situation you're describing!!
Ugh....

Did I spell CRINGE wrong?? I think it's spelled CRINGE.....CRINGE.....Im cringing at this post! Am I spelling it right??

I Agree. The 12 year old is sold as someones slave. Its disgusting. And to group any of the fine ladies who are independent providers here into the same group is also disgusting to even suggest it!!

-- Modified on 11/18/2011 4:09:45 PM

But as usual the media makes no effort to properly do their research and present the whole story.  They would have to write essentially two stories with the other one being what it's like for those who voluntarily do this and those who see them.

.... a lot of sw's or others like kids trafficked start as young as 12 but i think these days most indy's may start when they are pushing 20.... I did anyways.

The writer of the opinion story in the Strib gives no citation for her seemingly off-the-cuff remark. (It's possible, even likely, that she meant that the small subset of child prostitutes start young.)

And the OP should have noticed this was an opinion, not an article.

C'mon, at least try to understand the stats, which are for CHILD PROSTITUTION.

So, nope.

The providers here are not little pimp-controlled street urchins. I'm trying to find a constructive reason for your comments, you know, like maybe you mean well, but am just not seeing one.

You're welcome to go to the U.S. Dept of Justice CEOS for more info.

+1 that

Oh yes and we're all uneducated and were sexually abused as children too.

Its already been proven their numbers are false.

Yes, you are now spelling it right.

"Our culture still tolerates too much power-based violence -- for example, prostitution."

As for the age question, the author does say average age for 'children' to be forced into prostitution.  But without a source I find that number to be highly suspect.  For that average to be true, a large number of girls would have to be forced into prostitution before the age of 12.  Call it wishful thinking, but I just can't believe there are that many derelict parents out there.

-- Modified on 11/19/2011 12:33:29 AM

They are flawed because they do zero research before publishing much like other anti prostitution articles.
Its like doing a scientific study on only 5 people and not having a control or experimental group then saying 4 out of five people ... eliminating any anomalies to achieve the desired results. Sure everyones opinion is valid but to generalize SMH. I started well past 18 years of age.

Similar misleading information is thrown out by Law Enforcement every time there is a major prostitution bust. LE uses falsehoods such as these to educate the public about the dangers of prostitution and why Barney must 'nip it in the bud'. Journalists ( ha! ) drool over these sensational tidbits and pass them along in their news stories without researching and verifying whether or not the information is true. If I were an editor and a writer submitted such unbelievable information in their story without researching it, I would quickly lose faith in their credibility.

So this information is drawn from a very narrow subgroup of those arrested for prostitution, viz., minors arrested for prostitution. Even within that subgroup, the conclusion that the average starting age of a minor arrested for prostitution is 12 years old is dubious.

If I stood outside a Ford dealership and interviewed 1,000 people who had just bought a new or used vehicle about what brand of auto they own, I'd conclude that nearly all the vehicles sold in the U.S. are Fords.

Sex trafficking, especially involving minors,  is disgusting, abhorrent and must be stopped. Let us deal with the issue with clear, informed minds.

Here's some in info that will help debunk this myth:

Good info Drumsticks, thanks.

Certainly there are people out there who pursue children who show no signs of sexual maturity but I've never seen any serious data to support the conclusion that there are enough of them to make the average age 12.  I call BS on that number.

I've never seen a provider that I'd estimate was under 18. I understand that sometimes its not obvious, but usually its pretty clear.

I read a similar topic in City Pages a few weeks ago that said the feds did a study on this and found the hype was way off. An extremely small percentage was under 18.

If providers start at an average age of 12, they must have a very closed system of putting clients together with providers such that LE doesn't find them immediately. Word of an extraordinarily youthful provider is going to get out, for those that like that. AND I'd guess that each of us would have been approached in some manner along these lines... how else would you build up a client base?

Seems like such a crock to me. If this was Hollywood back in the 80's I might buy into it a little, but still not "an average age of 12". That means some are 10? or even younger?

There are NO good stats, but the Village Voice (they disclose that they own Backpage) has done some work.

Here's their "The Truth Behind Sex Trafficing" investigation series main page:

http://www.villagevoice.com/sex-trafficking/

..................

Also, see how one bad piece of info can spread:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-06-29/news/real-men-get-their-facts-straight-sex-trafficking-ashton-kutcher-demi-moore/

Ive met children as young as 7 who were sold by their guardian or parent and women as old as 62 looking for a new thrill. I do not believe average starting age is 12, the majority of girls/women i know who were trafficked 15 is the norm and on the other side most independent escorts start at about 21.