Sure...?

I didn't intend to imply otherwise.

Only in America you would think that a 16 or 17 year old would never choose to have sex for benefits unless forced into it.

I'm not american.

And I didn't say "never", I said in the vast majority.

And the child we're talking about here is 15, not 16 or 17.

Your comment was wrong on every point.

I've apologised for the 'US' comment in the other thread. It was out of place. However, I don't think you're being entirely fair either.

FWIW, you said 'Notably, in the UK some police forces were saying that children could chose to become prostitutes, and these children were promiscuous.', implying that what they said was incorrect, and children could never choose to become prostitutes.

If you only meant the 'vast majority' of children doesn't want to become prostitutes, then I don't know what the point of the quote was.

Similarly, nothing about your parent post mentions an age range more specific than 'children', which by default I take to mean anyone legally underage and thus not allowed to make decisions.

15, 16, 17, what's the difference? Somewhere between 12 and 18 both boys and girls become interested in sex; some of them will want to use it to gain higher status.

The person you're replying to is from the UK.

Why the anti-American sentiment?

Eh, apologies. Mostly a cheap shot. It does seem to me people in USA are more prudish about sex and overprotective of children, to the point of denying the underage any agency. But it's a more nuanced discussion, and it's easier to write a snark.

When we find a child who is paid to provide sex we almost always find someone who has been subject to coercive abuse.

It is very rare that we find children who freely make that choice.

Protecting children from that harm --and it is very severe harm-- is important.

Wouldn't this mostly be because of what your search process is biased to find? I won't pretend to know how this is investigated, AFAIK no agency is remotely interested in 'finding' the teenage girls who trade their bodies for either money or gifts in school or shopping galeries; it seems natural that most detected cases would be rape and/or abuse, as it's certainly more noticeable.

Yep, I generally agree with you; we are raising weak/sheltered individuals, and not just in America.

Shielding people from reality doesn't change it, just makes it's ultimate realization more painful.

I've just been seeing a bit too much 'America is evil/bad' lately, consider me triggered :).