The average age of entry into prostitution is 12 years old

[Lydia Leftcoast]

62. I used to work with street kids, and here's what I learned about child prostitutes

Many of them are runaways from sexually or otherwise abusive homes. In other words, their homes are so bad that life on the streets is preferable. A large percentage are GLBT kids whose parents rejected them.

The boy prostitutes are not necessarily gay, and some of the lesbian girls are prostitutes for men. In the ethos of the streets," You do what you have to do to survive."

The pimps and johns, even the non-pedophiles, prefer the younger kids because the johns believe that the younger prostitutes are less likely to have STDs (not true--a few weeks and they're almost all infected with something). Because of this preference for younger prostitutes, there were cases in which a 12- or 13-year-old was paying most of the rent on a rundown apartment shared with some older kids.

Youth who are not otherwise prostitutes will sometimes prostitute themselves during bad weather in the hope of finding a john who will pay for a hotel room, and from then on, the "easy" money keeps them in the life, especially if they have little schooling and no job skills. It is very rare for a young person to be on the streets for more than a month without having done at least some prostitution.

Their life expectancy is low. One-third die before the age of 25.