Rethink Resources

Often in workshops and discussions I’ve shared with teens about the sex trade, youth will try to explain that they know girls 11, 12, 13 years old who are having sex a lot with guys are much older who give the girls stuff too. But the girls don’t consider what they are doing to be the sex trade. And we talk about when does it count, when does it start being the sex trade?

It’s a complicated discussion and one that I still reflect on as a youth worker. It’s one of the many reasons I have a hard time with questions like “age of entry” as if one day you’re not involved in the sex trade and the next day you are. It just doesn’t seem to work like that for a lot of youth I know.

Youth workers also struggle with it because often they will know youth who are not clearly involved in the sex trade but instead know youth who are having sex with a lot of different guys who buy the girls clothes and other stuff. But it’s not like the youth are a part of some escort service, they don’t meet the guys on the street as some strategy to make money. I mean they might meet them on the street but more like how you might meet anyone on the street and get talking.

And outreach or practical assistance is different if you’re trying to reach youth who don’t name or identify what they are doing as the same thing that you call it. In the few narratives that are popularized about teens involved in the sex trade, no one talks about youth who wouldn’t call their experiences prostitution. And yet, this is precisely what a lot of youth workers see.

In those moments with youth in a group or one-to-one who ask “does that count?” I tend to ask more questions like do you think it counts? What does being involved in the sex trade look like from your eyes as youth? When do we decide officially that we are something different than before? It’s a complicated conversation. I suggest not covering it up in simple answers.