BABY Season 3: "Child [Teen] Prostitution in Rome's Wealthiest District"

Chiara and Ludovica

We wrote previously about seasons 1 and 2 of Netflix's Baby, which is based on the 2014 true story of teen prostitutes in Parioli, Rome:

THE TRUE STORY form Cosmopolitan's Emily Tannenbaum: Back in 2014, it was discovered [...] that two high school girls in the wealthy district of Parioli, Rome were selling their bodies [like (some) Japanese schoolgirls] for sex in order to buy luxury products like designer clothes and electronics [...] [A] dozen more girls were involved in the underage prostitution ring, but it "centers on a 14-year-old [Agnese] and a 16-year-old [Angela] who told investigating prosecutor Cristina Macchiusi that they got into the game by searching 'easy money' on Google."

Season 3 of Baby is the conclusion of the series and depicts the (seeming) end of the Roman teen prostitution ring. For this post, I decided to relate some relevant quotes from Ludovica Storti and Chiara Altieri - the two high school students by day and teen prostitutes by evening. 

Interestingly, Chiara admitted that she knew what she was doing, and like 14-year-old [Agnese] and a 16-year-old [Angela], the real-life teen prostitutes, Chiara stated that no one forced her into teen prostitution and that she was not a victim. However, unlike the real-life teen prostitutes, Ludovica lied and said that she was "seduced and manipulated" by a Roman pimp. Unsurprisingly, in the series, the authorities disbelieved Chiara and believed Ludovica. 

S03E01: Ludovica admitted that her mother knew that she as a teen prostitute. And Chiara shared that being a teen prostitute made her feel "stronger" and "good".

Ludovica Storti [teen prostitute]: "Why are you acting like this? You knew what I was doing."

Simonetta [Ludovica's mother]: "I never imagined that you'd go this far."

Chiara Altieri [teen prostitute]: "Having a secret made me feel stronger [...] I know it's wrong. That it's horrible. But it makes me feel good."

S03E02: When a middle-aged john asked Chiara why she "does what she does", she simply replied, "Tomorrow after school."

middle-aged john: "I just want to know why a girl like you does what she does."

Chiara: "Tomorrow after school."

S03E03: When Elsa, Chiara's mother, implied that Chiara didn't realize what she was doing, Chiara replied that she as a "whore" - a [teen] "prostitute". And Chiara informed a confused john's wife, "But I'm not a victim." 

Chiara: "What do you want from me? To give up like you and be a good little girl?"

Elsa [Chiara's mother]: "You've no idea what you're doing."

Chiara: "Yes I do [...] I'm a whore - a [teen] prostitute!"

elderly john's wife: "Has he ever made you do anything against your will?"

Chiara: "No. Whenever I saw him it was because I wanted to see him [...] I was free to choose [...] I'm sorry about your husband. But I'm not a victim."

S03E04: When an attorney told Chiara that she was "exploited" and taken "full advantage " of,  Chiara responded by stating that she wanted to take "responsibility" for her actions.

attorney: "[...] those men, Chiara, were adults [...] They exploited a young girl. They took full advantage of you in your moment of weakness [...]"

Chiara: "I wanted to take responsibility."

S03E05: Unsurprisingly, a police officer assumed that Chiara and Ludovica were forced into teen prostitution and thereby offered to let them escape. 

Police officer to : "[...] I won't tell anyone I found you."

S03E06: In the last episode, Ludovica lied and said that she was "seduced and manipulated" by a Roman pimp, but Chiara admitted that she had sex with middle-aged men on her "own free will."

lawyer: "So to be clear. You decided to go back to Mr. Fiorenzi [a pimp] based on the advice you got from your mother and best friend [Chiara]"

Ludovica: "No. That's not how it happened. I was seduced and manipulated by Claudio Fiorenzi."

psychologist: "Do you ever feel regret?"

Chiara: "No [...] He knew he had no power over me [...] These things didn't happen by chance. I did them on my own free will."

Lastly, just like in seasons 1 and 2, season 3 of Baby took full advantage of the allure of nymphets by showing Chiara and Ludovica in alluring situations. In addition to Chiara being with a number of middle-aged johns, in episode 3 Chiara (randomly) masturbated (in a chair), and in episode 5, Chiara and Ludovica went for a swim in the sea - in their bras and panties.

Netflix's BABY (2019): Schoolgirl Teen Prostitutes in Rome

We were doing some research on the second season of Big Mouth (2019) when Netflix suggested the second season of Baby (2019). We were charmed by the thumbnail, intrigued by the plot summary, and entertained by the trailer. And absorbed by Emily Tannenbaum's Cosmopolitan article "The True Story Behind Netflix's 'Baby' Is Even More Disturbing Than the Show".

Here's Netflix's plot summary: At an exclusive private high school, student athlete Chiara forges an unlikely bond with rebellious classmate Ludovica [...].

But it wasn't until we read Tannenbaum's article that we realized that the "unlikely bond" between Chiara and Ludovica is teen prostitution and that the teen drama is based on a true story - the 'Baby Squillo' (i.e., baby prostitute) scandal.

Tannenbaum shared:

[...] Baby is a grime-stained window into the lives of various students who attend an exclusive Roman high school. Mostly, the series focuses on Chiara (Benedetta Porcaroli) and Ludovica (Alice Pagani), who turn to high-end prostitution to make money.

THE TRUE STORY: Back in 2014, it was discovered [...] that two high school girls in the wealthy district of Parioli, Rome were selling their bodies [like (some) Japanese schoolgirls] for sex in order to buy luxury products like designer clothes and electronics [...] [A] dozen more girls were involved in the underage prostitution ring, but it "centers on a 14-year-old [Agnese] and a 16-year-old [Angela] who told investigating prosecutor Cristina Macchiusi that they got into the game by searching 'easy money' on Google."

A number of men, including a descendant of Mussolini, were arrested for not being able to resist the allure of Italian nymphet prostitutes, but (unsurprisingly) none of the teen prostitutes were arrested.

And just like Demi Moore's mother, Agnese's mother encouraged men to exchange sex for money with her teen daughter.

In addition, Tannenbaum wrote that: "[...] Baby has been the subject of massive pushback from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation for "glamorizing" the true story of the 'Baby Squillo' scandal [...]" In response to the pushback, Netflix Vice President of International Originals Kelly Luegenbiehl said, “The first thing that we are always looking for is authenticity, and this show has that."

In addition to schoolgirl prostitution, two other motifs stood out from Baby: raunchy Rome based prep school students and materialism. For example, the directors made it a point to show Roman teens in thongs.

And there were some notable quotes about teen prostitution from the series. For instance, Chiara shared with Ludovica that she liked how a john treated her like an adult, "He treated me like a grown up."

One of the Roman pimps said in reference to Chiara and Ludovica, "We're helping them do something they freely chose to do. Did I force them to come here tonight? [...] Of course not."

When a john asked Ludovica, "Sorry, but how old are you?"

Ludovica replied, "Do you want me to be a little girl or a big girl?"

john, "Thanks, but I don't go with minors. Sorry."

Ludovica replied, "What's the problem? It's consensual." Thereby, dispelling the principle held my many that a teen can't consent to underage prostitution.

A non-teen prostitute asked Chiara a rhetorical question about why Chiara volunteered to be a teen prostitute and she answered that Chiara did it because Chiara liked being a teen prostitute, Chiara liked feeling in control, she liked that she could do whatever she pleased, and she liked feeling powerful.

And Chiara shared with a classmate, "It might sound crazy, but sometimes I feel more comfortable with them [i.e., older johns] than with guys our age."

Lastly, per Netflix Italia's Twitter page, season 3 of Baby is scheduled to begin streaming in September.

Stacey Dooley's BBC YOUNG SEX FOR SALE IN JAPAN (2017): Sexy Japanese Schoolgirls

Stacey Dooley opened Young Sex for Sale in Japan (2017) by sharing that, although it was illegal to distribute and produce child pornography in Japan, it wasn't illegal to own child pornography until 2014. 

Dooley's BBC documentary shows that Japanese nymphets are used in outdoor and indoor advertisements for everything from music to used underwear.

There’s a bustling street named JK Alley (i.e., Schoolgirl Alley) where, Monday through Sunday, teenage girls in school uniforms solicit men to hold hands, go for walks, take naps on their young laps, and/or patronize a JK cafe.

Dooley related that there are 300 JK cafes in Japan where approximately 5,000 nymphets, as young as 15, cater to men.

In the cafe Dooley visited, £35 will get a man 40 minutes with the schoolgirl of his choice and free booze. Some men pay extra to have a threesome where, among other subjects, they talk about sex. The most popular nymphet in the featured cafe is so because she’s “good at talking dirty”.

Interestingly yet unsurprisingly, a patron shared, “A girl wearing a school uniform seems beautiful.”

A 17-year-old Japanese prostitute shared with Dooley that she has sex with between 15 to 17 men per week and that, “Girls in my line of work either have issues at home or are lonely. Or course, some do it to pay their school fees. I probably do it as a form of self-harm. A desire to commit suicide. Like I have suicidal thoughts.”

Dooley stated, “Well, I don’t have an issue with women who are over 18 and have given their consent - selling themselves, entertaining men - doing whatever they want to do because it’s their body.”

But 17, 18 and 28-year-old prostitutes have the same issues. The problem is not the age of the prostitute - in this case, unforced prostitution is the problem, which is the choice to use one’s sexuality for financial gain instead of seeking an alternative route to earning money. 

A Japanese lady who heads an NGO said, “Girls know youth have value [...] Girls know that being a JK girl will get them attention. But these men are adults and [are] more cunning than the girls.” 

Unless they're a pickup artist or a pimp, most men are not more cunning, but they have the money that the girls want; thus, the girls may push their boundaries to get more and more money. Thus it’s unsurprising that the NGO head added, “They know that ‘JK’ is a brand, they know now is their moment. Some don’t want to throw away their school uniforms, because they want to look like high school girls.” 

Dooley described the nymphets as impressionable, but clearly the men are impressionable as well. 

Lastly, while nympholespsy may be more open in Japan via advertising, JK cafes, chako ero (i.e., erotically clothed nymphets), and Lolicon manga (i.e., sexual depictions of pubescent girls), Dooley shared that in the UK between 2015 and 2016, there were more that 5,000 arrests for possession of child pornography.

Japanese Schoolgirl Drool For Money

Hyogo cops nab man for paying school girl to drool into his mouth https://t.co/FKIX8pEFQ4 via @tokyoreporter

— Tokyo Reporter (@tokyoreporter) October 4, 2016

Roland Shichijo reported for the Tokyo Reporter that "Hyogo cops nab [33-year-old] man for paying [third-grade middle] school girl to drool into his mouth" (OCTOBER 5, 2016). 

HYOGO (TR) – Hyogo Prefectural Police arrested a man in Kobe for allegedly paying a girl in third-grade middle school 2,000 yen to drool into his mouth, an act specifically banned by prefectural law, news site J-Cast reported on Tuesday (October 4).

The suspect, a 33-year-old bus driver, was arrested on Monday by officers from the Shikama Police Station on suspicion of inviting the young girl he met through a smartphone app to come to his bus company’s break area and drool into his mouth before paying her 2,000 yen on February 23, the Hyogo Prefectural Police told J-Cast.

The suspect has admitted to the charges, telling police he was “interested in saliva.”

The girl confessed to a police officer after they questioned her alarming online exchanges while they were monitoring the web for child prostitution 

Japanese Schoolgirl Prostitutes in "Counseling" Center

Osaka cops: Couple ran school girl brothel that posed as counseling center https://t.co/Zeefb5zeT2 pic.twitter.com/6eaEm62dkE

— Tokyo Reporter (@tokyoreporter) September 8, 2016

LOVE & POP (1998): Enjo Kosai | Japanese Schoolgirl Prostitutes for Hire

Here's IMDb's description of Love & Pop (1998) [Japanese: ラブ&ポップ]: 

A high school girl engages in compensated dating in order to buy an expensive ring before the day ends.

Love & Pop was adapted from Ryū Murakami' s novel Topaz II, which unsurprisingly is about enjo kosai [援助交際] (i.e., the practice of Japanese high school students accepting payment to go on dates with men.)

The first "date" took place after two teens were paid 10,000 yen to have lunch with a middle-aged businessman. Subsequently, the nymphets were approached by a man who offered them 7,000 yen to have lunch in his apartment. In an effort to raise money to buy a ring, the girls accepted 50,000 yen to go to karaoke. After singing and eating with the schoolgirls the man fetishly collected the girl's saliva covered muscats. 

And the next to last ephebophile forced one of the nymphets to give him a hand-job while they were on a "date" in a video rental store.

Of course some of these dates lead to more than just lunch, karaoke and even handjobs. Like the schoolgirl shared in the above GIF, "I've gone all the way on some occasions."

We wrote a short post about Stop The Bitch Campaign (2001), which is another enjo kosai film, but we've written, somewhat, extensively about Japanese schoolgirl prostitutes and JK cafes where men pay about $30 per hour to "chat for half an hour" with nymphets.

HER FATHER, MY LOVER (2015) & His Father, My Lover

Here's IMDb's storyline for Her Father, My Lover (2015) [友だちのパパが好き]:

An eccentric young woman falls in love with her sensible friend's flaky father and pursues him with no regard for the consequences, dragging others unwittingly into an inescapable emotional vortex.

And here's the film synopsis from Festival Scope:

“You're a sicko”. University student Taeko is appalled by her kooky friend Maya's attraction to her father, Kyosuke. His affair with [young] workmate Hazuki resulted in her pregnancy. His subsequent divorce from cancer survivor Midori, only encourages Maya further. Meanwhile, her jilted lover Tadokoro, who also happens to be her former high school teacher, begins to stalk her. Maya's obsession with Kyosuke sets off a chain reaction of imploding relationships, and all Taeko can do is watch...

In summary, Maya, à la Angela in American Beauty (1999), desperately wants to have an affair with Kyosuke, Taeko's much older father - especially after Maya learns that Kyosuke is being divorced, because he impregnated his much younger workmate. In addition, Maya, a Japanese university student, is being stalked by Tadokoro - her deserted lover and former high school teacher. 

"[...] you fucked my dad?"\YouTube

I wouldn't be surprised if Kenji Yamauchi's screenplay was based on a real-life situation, because, like Carissa Culiner shared on Live From E!, "[...] People have hot dads." And consequently, like Maya, some teens and young women have sexual affairs with their friend's and\or boyfriend's dads.

For example, in the YouTube video, "[...] You Fucked My Dad?", a boy asked his blond ex-girlfriend, "I'm I just supposed to overlook the fact you fucked my dad?" And Olivia Elgart posted on the Daily Mail: "Now THAT'S a love triangle! 19-year-old girl confesses to sleeping with her ex-boyfriend's 56-year-old FATHER in a sordid online post"

It's a fact that DILFs and the Daddy Thing is a thing for (some) teens. 

VICE News: SCHOOLGIRLS FOR SALE IN JAPAN

We've written on this blog and in the book about virtual, non-virtual and fictional Japanese compensated dating (i.e., high school prostitutes [Japanese: enjo kosai 援助交際])

And most recently Vice posted, Schoolgirls for Sale, a (short) documentary on joshi-kosei osanpo [Japanese: ＪＫお散歩]  - Japanese students who are paid to go on walking dates.

The Akihabara neighborhood in Central Tokyo is considered ground zero for joshi kōsei\JK [Japanese: 女子高生]  - high school girl culture. The neighborhood is littered with nymphets in Japanese school girl uniforms soliciting men for messages, walks around the neighborhood or to enter a JK cafe (i.e., "A store where you can chat with high school girls.") to "chat for half an hour" for approximately $30 - all of which may lead to teen prostitution. 

In addition, there are music venues where high school girl groups like Akishibu Project perform to "pack houses" of men who pay to meet, take and buy pictures, and touch their favorite nymphets after the performance. 

Yumeno Nito, a JK outreach worker, opined:

"Unfortunately, the underlying problem is that the girls are blamed for selling themselves. Most of these girls have experienced isolation at home or school before they reach that point. The Japanese government tries to solve these issues by cracking down on the girls. This problem won't be solved unless the adults who buy and sell disappear." 

And in a voice over, a Japanese nymphet opined: 

"Unfortunately the girls are blamed for selling themselves. This problem won't be solved unless the adults who buy and sell disappear."

However, we would opine that it's a two-way street and that the nympholepts and nymphets are both guilty of the same vice. For example, per Nito, [some of] the Japanese teens get into enjo kosai to escape isolation at home or school. And just like the Roman teen prostitutes, it's not uncommon for Japanese nymphets to get into enjo kosai to earn extra money for luxury goods. #twowaystreet

Vice's Schoolgirls for Sale (2015)

(Virtual) Japanese Teen Prostitutes in Hiroshima

I received another tweet from The Tokyo Reporter about a recent teen prostitution bust in Hiroshima. 

Here's a summary: 

HIROSHIMA (TR) – Hiroshima Prefectural Police last week announced a crackdown on teenage girls who use use dating sites to solicit prostitution, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (Jan. 9).

Between December 2 and 28, law enforcement carried out patrols of a number of deai-kei “encounter” matchmaking sites in search of “inappropriate” messages from young females.

Over that period, officers took 26 girls, aged between 14 and 19, into protective custody 

Since 2012, sex club employees pretending to be customers have used such sites to recruit girls for employment in the form of prostitution referred to as enjo kosai (or compensated dating). The high rate of occurrence of the incidents has raised concerns with prefectural police. 

Of the 26 girls cited by prefectural police, the majority were in search of spending money.

Latest Headlines from the Japanese School Girl Prostitute Scene

Here are some of the latest headlines from the Japanese high school prostitute (i.e., Enjo-kōsai/援助交際) scene:

Teens confine girl to car in Tokyo, force her into prostitution

Tokyo (TR) - Officers from the Tachikawa Police Station took the two girls, aged 15 and 16, into custody on coercion charges for forcing the victim, 16, to provide sexual services to 35-year-old office worker...

Kawaguchi man busted for purchase of used underwear from school girl in Akihabara

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Thursday announced the arrest a 30-year-old male company employee on obscenity charges after he allegedly purchased the used underwear of a 17-year-old girl in Chiyoda Ward...

Police target teens offering sex online, handle 89 cases...

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Police in Tokyo and eight other Japanese prefectures dealt with 89 teenagers between April and September for offering sex or selling underwear over the Internet, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

With an average age of 16 and the youngest a 13-year-old junior high school girl, 53 offered to sell underwear, 33 offered sex and three offered both.

THE TOKYO REPORTER: Japanese Nymphet Masseuses & Teen Hookers

The following headlines can be found on The Tokyo Reporter's website

• Architect arrested for picking up 14-year-old hooker in Tokyo
• Teenage masseuses at Tokyo JK massage joints come under scrutiny
• Yakuza affiliate, 10 others busted for pimping 17-year-old girl in Fukuoka
• Smartphone apps like LINE a potential hotbed of high school girl hooking

We've written about Enjo-kōsai, so the above headlines didn't surprise us. However, this headline did surprise us "Teenage masseuses at Tokyo JK [joshi kosei (high-school girl)] massage joints come under scrutiny." 

After a 4,000 yen for 30 minutes entry fee is paid, the high school girls were paid:

• 2,000 yen for hugs or the use of their thighs as pillows
• 2,000 yen to show their underwear
• 5,000 yen to massage their breasts, and  
• 10,000 yen to masturbate through their panties

During a police crackdown of 17 massage parlors, 76 of the 115 employees detained were teenage masseuses. But a writer covering the sex trade in Japan who was interviewed for the article stated, “A girl could pull in 40,000 to 50,000 yen [...] So [despite the crackdown] they’ll strive to establish independent work. Certainly, there are plenty of customers interested in their services.”

STOP THE BITCH CAMPAIGN (2001): "We Are Only High School Girls [Teen Prostitutes]"

Stop the Bitch Campaign (2001) is about middle-aged Kuni, who has a love/hate relationship with Japanese nymphet prostitutes. Kuni has an intense attraction to schoolgirl prostitutes (i.e., enjo kosai), but he fears that their behavior is harming Japanese society; therefore, he sets out to stop their immoral behavior by, ironically, having violent and humiliating sex with them without paying.

We found the logic used by the Japanese high school prostitutes to justify their part-time jobs intriguing: 

"Having sex for money or not, it is our own business."

"Yes, you are right."

"We are not professional prostitutes."

"We are only high school girls."

Their logic has feminist overtones. Correctly, Kuni didn't agree with their faulty logic, but he went about rectifying the situation incorrectly. 

Young Sex for Sale in Japan (2017)

[Update] The Stop the Bitch Campaign schoolgirls sitting in the cafe before "work" reminded of Stacy Dooley's BBC documentary Young Sex for Sale in Japan (2017) where Japanese schoolgirls work in JK cafes (i.e., Schoolgirl cafes) in JK alley where, Monday through Sunday, teenage girls in school uniforms solicit men to hold hands, go for walks, take naps on their young laps, and/or etc.

Enjo Kosai (援助交際): Japanese High School Prostitutes

In an earlier post about the documentary Girl Model (2012) and in The Allure of Nymphets, I wrote about how, like the French and the Spanish, yet unlike North Americans and the British,  the Japanese are open about their attraction to nymphets or what it is referred to in Japan as Lolicon (ロリコン) (i.e. Lolita complex). However, in the post and in the book, I only touched the tip of the iceberg on the Japanese's allure of nymphets.

A 1997 New York Times article titled "Schoolgirls as Sex Toys" related:

In Tokyo there are now several hundred ''image clubs,'' where Japanese men pay $150 an hour to act out their fantasies with make-believe schoolgirls in make-believe classrooms, locker rooms or commuter trains. A customer may, for example, act the part of a teacher who walks into a classroom and tears the clothes off a schoolgirl. Or he may choose to fondle a schoolgirl on a crowded commuter train.

But Japanese men are not restricted to "make-believe schoolgirls". Like in Spain, the age-of-consent in Japan is 13; consequently, there are a number of Japanese prostitutes who are high school students by day, which is a practice that is referred to as enjo kosai (援助交際) in Japan.

. 

For example, a 1996 Wall Street Journal article titled "Japan's New Growth Industry: Schoolgirl Prostitution" related:

Aya, now 15, says she started letting men touch her breasts two years ago for $100. Last October, she says she turned her first trick, with a man who approached her and a girlfriend on a Tokyo street and paid them about $500 apiece to have sex with him. She began commuting regularly from her suburban home to ply her body, lured by the cash that she spent on restaurants, miniskirts and trips to Tokyo Disneyland [...] Japanese teenagers have expensive tastes—$500 Prada purses and $350 Louis Vuitton wallets are hot teen items.

In a Newsweek article titled "Japan's Dirty Secret: Schoolgirls Selling Sex" the deputy director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police juvenile division said, “It has to do with a longing for material things. It’s not that they come from poor families who need to support themselves. They just want to have more and more.”

Aya is part of what Japanese police are starting to call an epidemic: prostitution by schoolgirls. Police say they picked up 5,481 girls under 18 in Japan for prostitution and related activities last year, 38% more than two years earlier.

Shinji Miyadai, a sociologist at Tokyo Metropolitan University, estimates that 8% of schoolgirls nationwide—and one-third of girls at some schools that aren't geared toward the college-bound—are involved in the sex industry. 

Teen prostitution is particularly rife in Tokyo, where it is legal for adults to have sex with children over 12 and where prostitution isn't punishable unless arranged by a pimp. Tokyo police grumble that when they spot an older man and a young girl emerging from ubiquitous "love hotels," which rent rooms by the hour, all they can do is take names and ages and notify the girl's parents.

Don't be a feminist and blame the Japanese high school prostitute epidemic on "dirty old men". It's a two-way street. The high school prostitutes can be very aggressive in their pursuit of middle-aged johns. For example, the Wall Street Journal article further related :

Melon Club.. features a tiny one-way mirror looking in on a main room where girls wait...it looks like a slumber party: Six girls lounge on sofas, playing video games, putting on lipstick and reading comics...Splayed on the floor are the girls' Prada and Fendi bags.

Girls drift into the club and wait to be chosen by customers who pay $100, $50 of which goes to the girl, then go on a one-hour "date." Many girls say they give out their portable phone numbers and begin freelancing.One, who gives her name as Miki, says she can earn $150 to $200 a day at the club, whereas she would earn only $7 an hour dishing out ice cream.

Keiko S., 16, began calling a telephone club in elementary school. Now, she earns $800 to $1,000 a month from Melon and her freelancing. She has gone out with about 50 men who range in age from 20 to 60.

Now some girls bypass the clubs entirely, posting their cellular-phone and beeper numbers along Tokyo streets. Juvenile-police director Mr. Nishida, 58, says he has been solicited by schoolgirls while walking Tokyo's streets in plain clothes. Shopping arcades have begun posting signs ordering, "Do not write your phone or beeper number."

According to the article, it turns out that the high school prostitutes don't consider what they do to be prostitution:

The girls call their customers "Papasan" and don't speak of prostitution—to them it is just enjo kosai, or financially supported dating. Akiyoshi Ishibashi, a police psychologist in Tokyo, says half of the 400 teenage prostitutes he and other Tokyo psychologists have counseled extensively—most from middle-class families with two parents—don't feel prostitution is wrong.

Lolicon (ロリコン) and enjo kosai (援助交際) aren't kept secret in Japan. They're portrayed on mainstream television shows, movies, and anime. 

                                       

BBC Sex in Japan clip on Enjo Kosai 

For example, here's the plot summary for the Japanese movie series Stop the Bitch Campaign:

In Tokyo, prostitution in the name of "Enjo Kosai" is in fashion among some high school girls. A mysterious man, Kuni, laments such girls, but cannot deny a strong desire for them. He punishes the girls by having sex with them without paying. He calls this operation "Stop the Bitch Campaign" for public justice.

JT Brown shared this information in an article he wrote on Hackwriter about enjo kosai:

Internet match-making services exist in many countries. But they don’t quite shape up like this one [Japan]. Read the following quotations and facts found in a English language report on virtual dating sites, compiled and written this year by Japan’s National Police Agency.

Some typical messages posted in solicitation of sex: 

Males
"Will pay 50,000 yen maximum for Enjo Kosai."
"Awaiting messages from high school girls short in pocket money."

Females 

"Send me a mail if you can meet me Sunday for 30,000 yen."
"Buy my virginity. I’m an innocent 15 year old."

"I want to try real sex! I’m bored with playing with myself. Somebody with lots of money please make me feel good."

Some facts found in the report:

"93.8% cases of which the solicitation method is known, were initiated by female child."

"97 percent of cases with child prostitutes now involve cell phone dating services."
"83.1% of high school students, 23.1% of junior high own cellular phones"

It's clear what the current laws are in Japan concerning enjo kosai. There has been some legislation introduced concerning The Child Prostitution and Pornography Act and the Child Welfare Law, but I've read conflicting reports from a number of different sources. But JT Brown wrote that, "...enforcement of the laws on the books by Japan’s finest has always been a joke anyway."

I related in The Allure of Nymphets about pre-teen prostitutes in the United States prior to the change in the age-of-consent laws. And the subsequent rise in the number of teen prostitutes after the age-of-consent was raised. Here's an excerpt :

To give an example of how raunchy things got, Odem [author of Delinquent Daughters] related that during World War I, when the problem of female sexual delinquency assumed national proportions...a five-mile radius moral zone was implemented around military training camps. In those moral zones, alcohol and prostitution were prohibited. Surprisingly, the military discovered that it was not professional prostitutes who were loitering around military bases - it was teenage girls. Over the course of the war, approximately 30,000 young girls were apprehended for illicit activity, prostitution and suspicion of spreading venereal diseases.

You may not see many teen prostitutes openly on the streets in the United States anymore; however, you'll find a plethora of virtual teen prostitutes on the Internet where they'll do just about anything under the sun for virtual "tokens" or for attention.