The Department of Moselle is committed to combating the prostitution of minors. A year ago, on December 19, 2023, an agreement was signed between the Department, the Interregional Directorate for Judicial Protection of Youth and the Metz Court of Appeal to fight against prostitution of minors. Last week, a first assessment was drawn up.
Sound No. 1 – 34 minors in prostitution recorded in Moselle in 2024: the Department wants to react
Marie-Louise KUNTZ – vice-president, delegate for Child Protection, Family and Specialized Prevention within the Department of Moselle.
We cannot imagine that there is prostitution of minors in Moselle, how many cases have been recorded?
There were 34 situations involving minors last year, including 2 boys. These are minors who are between 13 and 17 years old. As soon as they are identified, as soon as there is a children's judge, they are entrusted to us for child welfare. These are not children who were on social assistance, they are entrusted to us in relation to this prostitution. This is what I like to remind people of because we often take shortcuts. These are young people who have often experienced domestic violence, who may have been sexually assaulted. The majority have a relationship problem with one of the parents who is no longer there or no longer present at home. Of course, in relation to this, they have drug addictions, this is what often makes them enter prostitution and these are young people who develop psychiatric pathologies since this entry into prostitution too, but who are completely in denial and who, for many, do not ask for help to get out of it.
I would like to say that if you see young people around you who could be in prostitution, you should especially report it. If you don't report it, it's something that can also be prosecuted by law.
What type of prostitution is this? We can imagine that these children are not delivered to the street… Is it a somewhat hidden network?
There are different types of prostitution but the street phenomenon is not very present. Ultimately, pimps act with modern means, such as drug trafficking, they approach with falsified license plates, they solicit on social networks such as TikTok, Telegram and these people rent accommodation on Airbnb platforms and which therefore distribute prepaid telephone cards.
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So you have created a quarterly monitoring committee, what is the goal? what was put in place? what came out of this year?
This is a signing that took place on December 19, 2023 between the Court of Appeal of Metz, the interregional direction of the PJJ, the Department of Moselle and it is for a commitment of each party in the fight against prostitution minors. There was therefore the establishment of a monitoring committee to see where their prostitution was at and to put in place all possible and imaginable things and therefore the establishment of a commission on the prostitution of minors.
Have you managed to get children out of prostitution?
Getting young people out of prostitution is complicated. We need follow-up, commitment, we also need young people to be ok, they are no longer in denial and it can take at least 2 years to get these young people out of prostitution.
What are your goals for 2025?
Above all, we aim to provide support. The intervention of professionals within police stations and gendarmerie brigades with these adolescents who are heard in this prostitution network, to offer adolescents in prostitution a privileged contact who is reachable 24 hours a day. Also enable specific structures that we would like to put in place to provide care. And to achieve these objectives, we need the support of all institutions: Justice, law enforcement, the Department and healthcare and health stakeholders to be able to obtain good results.
