Gina Ponzi
February 10, 2009
12:30 am
Child Sex trafficking is a popular subject of discussion for international conversation, but what happens when we start talking about this occurring on US soil? To some surprise, New York City is no stranger to child prostitution. Girls Education and Mentoring Services, an advocacy group for child prostitution, works with about 200 girls (former prostitutes), on an annual basis. Girls, typically around the age of 13, are lured into the “business” by pimps often 20 years their seniors. Once involved, most girls feel powerless to leave—and often, they are. As one young lady explained, her pimp, “told me that the next time I leave, he’ll put me in a suitcase.” Another girl, once an A student, described her first experience having sex with her pimp, 20 years her senior: “I thought that was the best thing that ever happened to me—the best, best.” Later, the man told this young girl that he would love her a lot more if she earned more money, and after she had sex for money the first time, she said, “my whole body just felt dead.”
While the United States is familiar with the issue of global child prostitution, my perception is that the same practice in the U.S. tends to remain largely under the radar. It is harrowing to think that many young girls are so easily preyed upon, and that their voices remain unheard. We have laws protecting children from things like abuse and child labor, and within our country these enforcement are fairly strict. What is to be done for these girls, who are the “unclean” of today’s society?
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/a-look-at-the-harrowing-lives-of-child-prostitutes/?scp=5&sq=child%20prostitution&st=cse
3 comments:
I was living in New York for six weeks and I have never thought about this issue there.
This indeed a serious and arlarming problem that is supposed to be taken care of by the government.
Usually we connect "child prostitution" more with developing respectively poor countries-this however takes place in ne of the biggest cities in the United States! I think people should become aware that there are not only outside of the country problems.
I never even imagined that something like this was going on in a city so close to my hometown. It is crazy to think that you see stuff like this on TV or in movies, but you never really think it could happen in real life. Women are constantly lured into this horrifying business: women who at one point were going somewhere with their lives. It is such a crazy thing to hear because you never would think of a 13 year old girl getting into prostitution; you think of a 13 year old girl going to school and getting an education.
I think it is horrifying that something so awful is occuring so close to home. We typically think of child prostitution as an issue for low-income, poverty-stricken countries, while it also occurs in the United States. I think that the government needs to crack down on this issue.
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