In the subject of Victorian prostitution, children are often overlooked.   However, the fact remains that all street children survived by means of theft or prostitution, brothels existed containing children exclusively, and of nearly 2,600 prostitutes arrested in Paris 1,500 were minors (Rush, p.63).

        Children were often viewed as commodities, a source of income for their poor families.  We hear of child labor and sweatshops but rarely the sad truth of children being pimped out by their own parents - it was in fact a very profitable and widespread practice.  Gentlemen would pay massive fees for little girls."(The) standard pricing system brought about twenty pounds for a healthy working-class girl between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, a hundred pounds for a middle-class girl of the same age; and as much as four hundred pounds for a child from the upper class under age twelve.." (Rush, p.64) Virgins were especially prized and garnered an even higher price.  "Deflowering" was a common sexual fantasy and the obvious pain was a turn-on.  There was also the fact that an unspoiled child would have less diseases to spread and Victorians till held to the ignorant belief that STDs could be cured through sex with a child.

        The term "child" held it's own problem as there was a constant struggle over deciding when a child was mature enough to seduce or consent.  The official age of consent stood at 12 until it was raised to 13 in 1875.  Then in 1885, a series of publications made it impossible for the public to continue to hide their eyes.  William Stead, the famous editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, privately investigated the extent of child prostitution and then published his findings under the title "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon".  Even though these articles exposed only the tip of the iceberg regarding the underground world of kidnapping, child trade and sexual torture, a social uproar followed.  Massive demonstrations were formed with demands for justice and an increase in age of consent.   They received their wish when, on August 14, 1885, the Criminal Law Amendment Act passed, effectively raising the age of consent to 16.   However, It was still hard to protect the children as they were often thought confused or unable to grasp the concepts of sexual seduction and the oath of truth given in courtrooms.

        For a closer look at some of the trials brought to court soon after Stead's publication try

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7023/Consent.html/.  This is a wonderful page by Jennifer Payne, in which she follows the laws concerning the age of consent and those brought to trial for violating them.

        For an extensive list of essays and sites devoted to the work of William Stead, try The W. T. Stead Resource Site at http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/.