When we were 14 and decided that we just had to have every style of Doc  Martens sandals and at least two pairs of boots to go with those Lucky jeans, we got our first job. We worked the counter at Chinese Delight in the food court of the Independence Center. It was fun, we made new friends, and every week we blew our entire paycheck at The Buckle. We worked hard for the money, but apparently not as hard as Polish teens who are turning to prostitution so they can buy clothes, concert tickets and expensive vacations.

A new report from the Poland Children's Ombudsman's Office shows that girls enter the sex business at fifteen or sixteen, while boys enter as young as fourteen or fifteen.

Twenty percent do it on their own free will. They choose to sell their bodies in order to earn money for brand clothes, fashionable gadgets or concert tickets. Material goods help them gain respect of their peers. “Young people feel they need to attend trendy clubs, wear brand clothes and have enough money for expensive alcohol and cigarettes in order to be accepted,” said Jacek Kurzępa, the co-author of the report.

Another reason why teenagers decide to enter sex business is the desire to earn money easily and quickly. It is a particularly tempting option for those who collect money for holidays, pets or tickets to all kinds of music and sports events, because it saves time. There is also a group of teenagers who prostitute themselves just for a thrill, to taste a forbidden fruit, says the report.  

Prostitution is not perceived as bad or even shameful by many teenagers, the report shows. Young people, instead of calling prostitution by its name, use the term “sponsoring”, which softens its true meaning. For some, teenagers those who have a sponsor can even be role models. 

It is becoming easier for teenagers to enter the sex trade nowadays than it was several years ago. Young people do not need to sell their bodies on the street. All they need is a computer with internet access, where they can find sex ads and place their own offers. Some of the teenagers are encouraged to prostitute themselves by their friends who already are in the business. “Twenty- or thirty-years-olds become prostitutes because they have to pay for studies or need money for their children. Teenagers sell their bodies in order to have fun,” said a sex agency owner.  

Young people who choose prostitution as their source of income, a bonus to their pocket money, do not realize the real cost of it. In Poland there are not enough institutions or organizations which could help teenagers permanently free themselves from sex work, when they decide to, says the report. Even police are rather helpless when it comes to investigating consensual teenage sex cases since neither a client, nor a teen prostitute want their business to be revealed. 

Scanner Roundtable: Sugar Daddies (and Mamas)... Would You?

Will the Spitzer Scandal Change the Way We Think About Prostitution?

Wall Street Madam Goes Down. Alone.