We have recently had several busts involving underaged, runaway and kidnapped girls.
I don't think anybody needs to comment on the state of these affairs, though you certainly are free to do so.
The question I wanted to pose - not so much for responses, but to keep people thinking - is this:
If there was no way to report about an underaged, runaway or kidnapped girl without outting yourself to family, LE and work, what do you do?
Your whole point is predicated on "if".
Your scenario, that you merely want us to ponder, is asinine. There is no situation where a person can report such important situations and not protect themselves...if they have half a brain.
Opinions are varied and have no value.
My opinion is that you have WAY too much time on your hands to come up with such ridiculous moral scenarios that have no value due to their unrealistic origins.
And I am sure there is NO single answer as everyone has their own moral standards:
* Some might argue if the girl was underage and willing, that it would be less of an ethical issue as young girls 15+ are generally sexually active anyway.
* Some would rationalize that a runaway that was willing may have left an even worse situation at home.
* I don't think anyone could rationalize away a girl being kidnapped an being forced into prostitution.
I would hope that a hobbyist who found himself in any of these situations would do the right thing and report it. I am sure LE would be more interested in removing the minor from the situation than punishing the hobbyist and would protect his identity. Not doing so would dissuade someone from doing the right thing. Plus he could always phone in an anonymous tip.
Likewise, if a provider learned about a situation involving a minor, I would hope they would do likewise.
It's called a hierarchy of values -- a matter that Nietzsche felt was quite important.
As a mom and a human being I think that anyone taking advantage of children should be drawn and quartered.Even an anonymous call to the police can save a child from being abused we recently had a case in Phoenix where to high school girls were pimping out a younger girl.
There were 3 men who refused to have sex with her gave her a little money and left but how many stayed before someone finally reported it?
There are anonymous tiplines in every city. It's so easy to report almost anything. Give as much info as possible. If they feel it's even a remote possibilities that minors are being abducted and forced into prostitution, they will do surveillance and send in undercovers and handle it. Go to a public phone and do it, or just go to Walmart, buy a cheap prepaid with 20 minutes on it and do it. It's so easy. There's no reason in the world not to do something about an abusive situation. Even if it did get traced back to you, it would go to your credit that you did the right thing and saved a child from a horrible situation. Who would want the forced sexual abuse of a child and kidnapping on their own conscience? Even if you had to take some sort of problem for it, it would be worth it in the long run for the damaged life you save
Though I would phrase it differently.
Rational human life is the supreme value against which all other values are judged.
In a hierarchy of values, right action depends upon this elevation.
Meaning the lives at stake would take precedence over what would, comparatively, simply be an inconvenience for me.
Obviously, I would first seek anonymous means of reporting.
But failing that, I would turn to the alternatives.
Furthermore, just as everyone involved in the hobby essentially takes the law into his/her own hands and judges him/herself to stand outside of it; I am not averse to taking immediate actions to right an injustice.
I know they are getting harder to find these days, but I would locate a pay phone and report the situation to the authorities. I would not use any means that could be traced back to me, not even my hobby phone.
I have hobbied pretty regularly for over thiry-five years and seen well over 200 women in that time.
I started in the days of classified ads in the "trade" papers, as well as called escort and massage agencies from the Yellow Pages, not to mentioned numerous AMPs and MPs and now TER and the internet.
Not once in all this time have I been exposed to, let alone offered or seen, an underage gal, let alone an underage gal who was apparently kidnapped. I've seen some providers that I would term a bit nutty, but for the most part they have all been very friendly, appear happy and sometimes very erudite as well.
So where are all these enslaved, underage runaway gals that the media is continuously hammering the public's psyche with? I wouldn't be surprised if the general public thought that 90% of the prostitutes in the country fell into that catagory.
(Note: The street scene is one place where I have not hobbied, so perhaps that it where the enslaved gals are; but is the street really a good place to hide an underage gal? I tend to doubt it.)
I'm yet to encounter one, and I don't recall anyone on this or other boards mentioning such a run in.
(I will agree that in other countries, especially in Asia, the situation may be very different.)
Hell's bells, I'm against sexual enslavement as much as anyone but is this problem really even as big a problem as the media posits?
My feeling is that it is drummed up in order to attack the legitimate escorts and hobbyists.
My dear Mrfisher. Let me start by saying that for the most part I very much respect & appreciate your comments & perspectives. That being said I ask no matter how often this type of thing occurs, would you agree it is an issue that should be intervened with? As a mother of five daughters I tend to take the issue very seriously. A young lady, formerly my neighbor was being trafficked at age 15 by a pimp. Eventually he was arrested for trafficking minors "thank god" She as an adult is still escorting. While she lived next door her traffic volume was a minimum of six gents a day. What got me was even at 19 she still didn't appear to be a day over 15. Even her voice was that of a teenager. Not one time did anyone even bother to question her age. I personally found this very alarming. I would hope that if a gent suspects a provider is not of age, they would at least ask for age verification, or if that is not an option, walk away when there is suspicion the provider may be underage. And definitely! If you know the provider is a minor, And/or kidnapped, ect. please report it!
And I condone anyone who exposes and helps to end such.
My only point was that I do not think is is as prevelent, in the USA at least, as the media makes it out to be.
You are personally familiar with a case, so I will grant that it happens.
My comments come from the fact that I've never been confonted with even the remoted choice either through direct contact when I've enquired about an escort or email.
That fact made me somewhat suspicious about the issue and I wanted to see what others thought.
Thank you hof for your input.
There are lots of reasons coerced women would not be as common on here. The people who do the forcing don't want the open publicity and sure don't want a place where a coerced woman can have a voice. They prefer word of mouth, only the pimp/"manager" deals with clients and/or drive by annonymity.
Does it happen? Of course. How prevalent? I don't know. But the less light shown on it probably the higher %. Streets: absolutely there is "significant" numbers, whatever that is. Fly-by-night MPs? Yes.
Sure LE wants to paint the picture that every escort is a dope dealing gun running psycopathic killer who was beaten and fored into it. That's the only way they can have the support of many folks to cleans the earth of this plague. They would like us to think it's 100%. Those who coerce would like us to think it's 0%. Truth is somewhere in between.
BTW: You don't have to look as far as Asia, just look across our southern boarder
My wife started working in the sex industry at the age of 16 after she ran away from a very bad situation with her parents. It does happen in this country. It is sad but true. We must do what we can to report it if we see it no matter the personal costs. I would not think twice, even if I ended up incriminating myself doing so.
Low as the pimps and pedophiles if you don't report it immediatly...
I am certain you may get a stern lecture from the officer. if your turn and walk out and then report your information. If you are so low as to participate in the act then you deserve to go to jail...
"If" is not reality. All it takes is a simple anonymous phone call.
Any heat I would get from the civie world would be mitigated by the thought that I helped save a child from a horrible situation.
If any "holier than thou" person made a snide remark about my alleged activities, I would turn it around on them. I would ask, "How do you know that your God didn't cause me to make that call or visit that place? Maybe this was his doing because he knew I would not walk away despite the potential for embarrassment." That would shut 'em up.