Awareness campaigns, training of professionals, personalized care pathways, financing of “marauding” on social networks … The government presented Monday its plan to fight against the prostitution of minors. Supported by the Secretary of State for Child Protection, Adrien Taquet, this plan weighs 14 million euros and will be deployed in 2021 and 2022. It lists 13 actions which aim to “provide the means to” apprehend a little-known phenomenon in order to understand, prevent and combat it ”. The plan stems from a
report submitted to the ministry in July 2021, which takes stock of the prostitution of minors in France.
Asked by 20 minutes, Armelle Le Bigot-Macaux, president of the association Agir contre la prostitution des enfants (ACPE), welcomes “a very good advance compared to the” no man’s land “that was the subject of the prostitution of minors” until here.
For many years, you have called on the government to take up the subject of teenage prostitution. Are you satisfied with the plan that has been presented?
The commission that worked upstream on this plan, and in which the association was very involved, did a very good job. Today, Adrien Tacquet has kept the promises he made two years ago. It is a first step.
However, it is a very limited plan compared to the inventory transmitted last July to the ministry, which really invited us to open our eyes to the subject. The figures of 7,000 to 10,000 minors concerned are well below the reality of the facts today. And this continues to increase, especially with social networks. The gear is discreet: at the beginning, there are only a few “nudes” [photos nues] to show off, we joke with the girlfriends. Then everything goes at high speed V.
For you, where is the stake in prevention?
When the kids have changed – they are mostly girls – it is very difficult to help them. Prevention is therefore essential, and one of the key points is education. Existing laws should be enforced, because today young people get information as best they can, and in particular on porn sites. However, a law of 2001 which obliges three interventions of sexuality education per year in the classes.
But this is a sensitive point: teachers are not trained, and weary of requests for intervention of all kinds. We must let the associations intervene. Prevention can also be useful for young people who might guess as pimps because they are generally not much older than their victims.
What will happen now? The plan “launched in 2021, will be fully deployed in 2022”, indicates the government …
We are expecting a lot from this plan, which is the first step in a long road that remains to be covered. There are many things that, if put in place, will help young people. The financing of actions is still a negative point. 14 million, we’re not going to go very far with that.
With the associations, we will be involved in the execution of this plan. We will be there to verify that everything is in place, and that the money is being spent correctly. Now that the train has started, it must not stop. We hope that underage prostitution will be addressed by all presidential candidates. In any case, we will do everything for.