Child prostitution has received little attention, in New Zealand or elsewhere, until the past decade, and there is still a paucity of research. Significant barriers to systematic research and understanding of the issues are the invisibility of under-age prostitutes, problems defining what constitutes under-age prostitution, and the lack of services for the children affected.
Workers in services for youth at risk are aware of significant and increasing numbers of young people selling sex, commonly for survival, and research with adult sex workers indicates that significant proportions commence sex work as children.
Internationally there appear to be few services assisting under-age prostitutes or working specifically to reduce this form of child abuse, and in New Zealand only one service in South Auckland has been funded specifically to work with this target group. This paper reviews the available literature on the issues and recent efforts to address the problem. Because of the relative lack of public discussion until recently on the issue of child prostitution, in New Zealand and elsewhere, there has been a paucity of systematic research or literature on this topic.
However, these books are based on news reports and anecdotal experience rather than research. The information included in this review has been derived from a range of sources, including the personal experiences of the authors as researchers, personal communications with children engaged in sex work and with people working with them, and data from books and other written sources, as well as from documented research. In New Zealand, under-age sex under 12 years of age is viewed as statutory rape under the Crimes Act , sections and When a child is aged between 12 and 16 it is a defence if the child consented, if the perpetrator is younger, or if the child consented and the perpetrator is under age 21 and believed that the child was over When the sexual interaction with a child involves money and goods it is illegal under Section of this Act.
Section a of the Crimes Amendment Act sets legal constraints on people in relation to sexual conduct with children when outside New Zealand, and the organising and promotion of sex "tours" is explicitly banned in Section c of the Crimes Amendment Act The "worst forms" of child labour addressed by the Convention include all forms of slavery, prostitution and pornography, and the use of children for illicit activities and work likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
