Children's Society: Prostitution proposals welcome

The Children's Society has welcomed the government's proposals outlined in today's prostitution strategy.

"A clear focus on tackling and preventing the abuse of teenagers caught up in prostitution is important not only for protecting children today, but also for reducing the scale of the problem in years to come," said policy director Kathy Evans.

The government is adopting a much tougher stance on prostitution – kerb crawlers will be targeted and there will be more emphasis on support services for prostitutes, half of whom are under the age of 25.

Ms Evans added: "Plans to update the guidance on child prostitution will, we hope, offer the opportunity to close a loophole allowing children to be prosecuted if they repeatedly return to prostitution despite being cautioned by police.

"Although the number of prosecutions has been reduced significantly, we believe that any child punished for being sexually abused is one child too many."