You can help protect children against the lure of prostitution.
PARENTS ! TEACHERS ! TEENS !
Do you know how girls are recruited to
become prostitutes?
Here's how girls are recruited into prostitution (commercial sexual exploitation of children)
Pimps are also professional “recruiters”. They watch the streets, transportation terminals, shopping malls, bars and other places, as well, of course, as chat rooms on the net, watching for girls they can easily recruit to become prostitutes lining THEIR pockets. They might be watching your daughter.
The pimp begin a relationship with a girl with the express intent from the very beginning of commercially exploiting the girl—not just sexually exploiting her, although that will happen too, and that is bad enough, but commercially exploiting her—forcing her into prostitution for his financial benefit.
The pimps are: experts at spotting which children are most vulnerable, most susceptible to their recruiting techniques.
· Especially vulnerable are:
Children who are alone or in two’s
Children who are on the street
Children who have dropped out of school or are not in school
Children who have run away or are running away
Children with a history of earlier sexual abuse of any kind
Children with a history of family problems
Girls (although boys can be exploited, too)
Children from very poor families
There is almost always a definite pattern to the prostitute recruiting process:
- Recruiting a Prostitute--The Seduction & Attachment Phase:
The pimp seeks to be the girl’s friend and eventually boyfriend. He gives her presents, takes her out to eat, maybe lets her have her hair or her nails done, tells her he loves her. He tells her that he will take good care of her and never let anything bad happen to her again. He wants to get married to and have a child with her "someday". He has sex with her and tells her how great she is at it. In fact, she’s so good she should be paid for it. The victim enjoys the attention which she believes to be sincere. She is unaware that all this is literally being put on a “bill” that she will be expected to pay later. In fact, the bill may become so great that she will never escape the clutches of her seductor.
During this time the recruiter gains information about her family and about what is really important to her. This information will later be used to keep her in his grip by threatening the things and people closest to her.
During this time, the recruiter seeks to have the girl attach herself emotionally to him so that she will be emotionally unable to turn against him later on. This is easy with girls who have poor family relationships, poor or non-existent father relationships, and who feel deserted and violated already, who have no valid trust relationships with the adults in their lives, because they are so desperate for affirmation and love.
- Sometimes in this phase, false promises are made. They may be made to the girl herself, or to her parents. Promises usually include free travel abroad, a well-paying job in the city, or the opportunity for free education. Sometimes parents give girls over to those who promise such glorious things, thinking they have done their daughters a favor and solved the problem of family poverty, too. The promisors are really chld traffickers who are seeking only to exploit their children. The girls rarely make anything, for they are soon turned over to pimps or brothels, where they are forced to perform sex over and over just in order to survive. Their families have unknowingly sold them into a form of modern-day slavery.
Recruiting a Prostitute--The Isolation Phase:
The “boyfriend” begins to discourage or forbid contact with family or old friends so that he gains total control of the victim’s thinking (psychological brainwashing). If she has not done so already, he urges her to drop out of school. She is under his constant watch and has no personal freedom. The victim becomes totally dependent on him.
Recruiting a Prostitute--The Coercion Phase:
The pimp forces the victim into prostitution out of shame (Don’t you love me as much as the others do?), of course giving over most or all of the profits to him. Since she is now cut off from her former life, she often feels she must do this because she has nowhere else to turn. If she hesitates, her family or other people she most loves are threatened, using the information gained in the seduction and attachment phase. She may also be informed that she "owes" the pimp for the meals and gifts, perhaps for transportation, housing, and clothes. She has to work to pay off her "bill." Meanwhile, she incurs other expenses, which makes it virtually impossible for her ever to get free.
Recruiting a Prostitute--The Final Phase: Violence:
The victim begins to be beaten severely if she refuses or tries to escape. Early in their prostitution careers, victims are often beaten around the ankles with a coat hanger just to show “what will happen to you if you don’t do just as I say.” For many girls who are recruited very young, this begins when their first period comes. The girl may report that she cannot work because she has got her period. She is then beaten severely, thrown some sponges and told to stuff those up her vagina and get back to work. For many, this is the moment of awakening when they realized that they have been sucked into a terrible trap. They have become a slave and the pimp is their master. No love, no compliments now, only beatings, torture, degrading talk, and sex with whoever comes along with few bucks for the master.
HOW CAN YOU HELP PROTECT THE CHILDREN IN YOUR LIFE FROM BEING SUCKED INTO PROSTITUTION?
- Keep your children in school as long as possible.
- Talk to them in an age-appropriate manner about the methods recruiters use. If they are ever in danger, it will help them to recognize it sooner.
- Seek God’s help to work out family issues. Broken and breaking families greatly increase the children’s vulnerability.
- Let your children know that if they are ever in trouble or danger, they can always call no matter what time it is, no matter where they are, no matter how old they are, no matter what they have done. Recruiters look for children they think will never call home. Don't let your children fall in that category.
- Try to keep open lines of communication with your children so that they can talk to you if they are in danger or trouble.
- Most prostitutes, and ALL child prostitutes, are victims who need help. Avoid talking about them in a judgmental way. If you say something like, “People who do that are lower than dirt,” then if someday your child finds herself in a compromised situation, do you think she will feel free to come to you?
- Always be willing to take them back. Help is available for the problems. They need to know that prostitution is not the only option for them.
- If your child is missing, report it to the authorities as soon as possible, along with all possible information about the child. There is a better chance of recovering the child if you act early.
- Don’t send your daughter out selling on the streets. The streets are being watched by pimps and many other wicked men.
- Encourage your children to move in groups rather than in isolation.
- Always know where your children are and when you can expect them home.
- Avoid high-risk areas unless a trustworthy adult is present.
- Children should not be sexualized too early. If you child has been sexually abused, make sure it has stopped and that the child is protected now. Then seek counseling for the child.
- Pray daily for and with your childern, asking God's protection over them.
Remember that even for prostitutes and even for pimps, salvation is available through Jesus Christ. He clearly says , “the one who comes to Me I will not cast out for any reason” (John 6:37).
Want to help those already in prostitution? ECM has two initiatives effectively reaching young girls in prostitution. Designate your gift "Child Prostitutes." Be part of the solution! THANK YOU.
Learn more about ECM's ministries to child prostitutes
