Rotorua teen prostitution ring: Five men admit hiring 13-year-old for sex services

NZ Herald has reported that “Five men caught up in a Rotorua teen prostitution ring bust have admitted they contracted a 13-year-old for sexual services.”

Providing 13 year olds with methamphetamine and sending them out as ‘sex workers’ is not ‘prostitution’: it is exploitation, and it is trafficking. We need to call it out for what it is – Sexual Exploitation of Children (SEC).

Language matters. What we call things changes our perception of them, and certain terms can imply consent that doesn’t exist, reinforce shame and guilt, or re-victimise people.

It’s important to remember that children can never consent to their own abuse.

Any child or underage young person who becomes part of what is called the sex trade, is being sexually exploited. They have been manipulated, forced, coerced into this situation illegally. The consent incorrectly implied by using words like ‘sex worker’ and prostitute’ overlooks the trauma, risk and harm to the child, and absolves abusers.