To Feel Free and Responsible, Minors in France Fall Into the Prostitution Net in Public Shelters for Children

An investigation by the French Mediapart revealed shocking details about the prostitution of minors in France and shed light on the great suffering experienced by the victims, especially in public shelters for children.

The newspaper said that such associations are supposed to be places of protection, but they turned out to be the best targets of minors’ sexual exploitation networks.

Mathias Cornu, director of Le Relais association in Lyon, said he was alerted after incidents of retaliation revealing the existence of prostitution networks targeting minors inside the shelter supervised by his association.

He also talked about reprisals facing some of the victims who tried to report or reveal information about the network runners.

Scary Numbers

One night, in September 2019, two hooded women attacked with a hammer the front door of Le Relais association in the center of Lyon. They wanted to attack a teenager who had filed a complaint and revealed their boss’ name, according to the director.

This was the starting point for Mediapart’s team to launch an investigation into the sexual exploitation of minors in French children shelters and how they are dragged into prostitution networks.

The result was 5 victims of prostitution out of the 18 young people that were interviewed in Le Relais.

The association director said girls under the age of 13 were running and getting into large cars with tinted windows. The violence and the settling of accounts quickly spilled over into the heart of the shelter, and some minors became the bosses themselves.

According to the Ministry of the Interior statistics, the number of procedures taken for the prostitution of minors by the police increased by 68% between 2016 and 2020.

In 90% of court cases, the victims were of French nationality. They would be between 7,000 and 10,000, according to Mediapart.

Girls represent 90 to 95% of minor prostitutes, according to studies. On average, these young people are 14 years old when they enter prostitution.

Social Media to Fuel Prostitution

An anti-prostitution group research has found that social media and dating apps, such as Tinder, are playing a significant role in the rise of prostitution and sexual exploitation among young teenagers, especially girls.

The Paris-based Fondation Scelles published a report entitled, Sexual exploitation: New challenges, news answers, that analyzed digital trends in 35 different countries.

According to the report, prostitution runners are using modern technology and social apps, including Tinder, Instagram and Snapchat, to find young girls lured by easy and quick money. Sexual meetings with “clients” are set up at houses found on Airbnb and desperate minors living in shelters, away from their families, are of course easy prices for sex work.

Regarding the prominent role of smartphones and communication platforms, social worker Benedicte Lavaud-Legendre emphasized that digital development has become an important means for prostitution networks to attract and recruit new “elements.”

A large percentage of the victims were dropped through social media platforms, where underage prostitution networks are active and publish ads encouraging minors to join them to “feel free and independent.” Girls represent about 95% of the prostitution of minors.

After studying around 30 judicial proceedings, Benedicte found that minors, after falling into the prostitution network, are kept inside a room in a hotel or a house, then provided with food, contraceptives, alcohol, and drugs until their “customers” arrive.

Activists specialized in this horrible social phenomenon emphasized that the victims are subjected to great violence and stressed that they are working hard to provide them with special shelters that keep them away from sex work.

 

‘Feeling Independent’

Prostitution gives minors the impression of regaining “the control” they lost at home the moment they get paid as “independent individuals.” Afraid of losing this “power,” minor victims become addicted to what they do, and without help, it is challenging to step back.

Despite local and international laws emphasizing the need to protect children and preserve their rights, France has recently witnessed an increased activity of sex work networks that illegally and inhumanly exploit children who can easily be lured.

French human rights organizations are worried about the figures revealed by officials about the forced exploitation of children and minors in prostitution, calling on the authorities and security agencies to stop this gross violation of children’s rights and this dangerous form of human trafficking; they also called for holding those involved accountable.

In light of the frightening spread of the phenomenon of forced employment of minors in “prostitution,” the French government presented, on November 15, a joint inter-ministerial plan to combat this scourge and allocated a financial budget of about 14 million euros.

The plan is based, according to Adrien Taquet, Minister of State for Child and Families Affairs, on several pillars, the most important of which is raising awareness, strengthening legal measures against employers and exploiters, and supporting minors who have been sexually exploited, and who, according to the law issued in 2002, are considered mere victims.

Meanwhile, human rights associations and organizations stress the need to take more legal measures to address this phenomenon.