Christchurch to probe under-age prostitution problem

The Christchurch City Council is organising its own investigation of apparently escalating under-age prostitution in the city.

Agencies including Child Youth and Family (CYF), the police, New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective, Salvation Army, 198 Youth Health Centre, Drug Arm and Youth and Cultural Development will form a liaison group charged with the inquiry.

It follows inquiries that found up to 20 teenagers and children were working as prostitutes on city streets.

Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore said yesterday that the council had to find out what was actually happening.

He had talked to different agencies about prostitution and it was unclear how many children might be involved.

Mr Moore said he had been assured no-one as young as 12 was working on the streets.

"But one child working in our city as a prostitute is one too many. We have a facilitating role to play," Mr Moore said.

"There is no simple solution to this problem."

A report to the council yesterday said that recent public submissions to its Prostitution Reform Act sub-committee had identified a raft of "perceived problems" caused by street prostitution.

These included allegations that:

* People under 18 were involved in street prostitution;

* Sexual acts were being performed in public places;

* Dangerous and offensive rubbish was being dumped in private properties;

* Threats were being made to the safety of local residents and passersby.

Councillor Carole Evans said she was "ashamed" by the media coverage of prostitution.

Councillor Carole Anderton said what mattered was stopping the market for young prostitutes.

"We have to ask who is using them. We cannot allow these young kids to be used like that.

"The sooner the city wakes up and smells the roses about who is using these young kids the better," Ms Anderton said.

She volunteered to go down to Cathedral Square and paint the faces of men using the under-age prostitutes.

Councillors recommended that the liaison group should meet in March and identify what, if any, issues needed to be addressed.

The council also agreed to ask for public submissions on its draft bylaw restricting brothels to the central city.

Under the proposed bylaw brothels would be limited to a large zone within the bounds of the central city.

Regulatory and consents committee chairwoman Sue Wells said there could be changes to the proposed bylaw once public submissions were received.

Up to eight massage parlours could be forced to close if the draft bylaw remains unchanged because they are outside the proposed zone.

A report from law firm Simpson and Grierson said brothels that were forced to close by a bylaw could take legal action against the council.

But it believed a bylaw could withstand a legal challenge from brothels provided the council had strong reasons for deciding on a particular area.

- NZPA