“« It’s the omerta: a real taboo! » G-ADDICTION, a youth organization in the Alpes-Maritimes, calls out to public opinion: « Yes, student prostitution is a reality on the Côte d’Azur! It is of terrible violence: a fast and destructive vicious circle. Students often do not realize that it is prostitution. Yet, the phenomenon is very real.
Massages, escorting, photos, then paid sexual relations: young people, who face money problems, often earn more than a supermarket or fast food cashier, more than from babysitting.
This practice, initially occasional, very quickly becomes a pseudo-solution to finance their studies and a life on the ever more expensive Côte d’Azur.
Precariousness, exam periods, bad encounters, festive evenings: profiteers know how to seize the opportune moment and exploit the weaknesses and emotional vulnerabilities of those seeking independence.
The boom of applications and social networks facilitates paid encounters: street prostitution is declining but online prostitution is exploding. It will leave serious psychological scars years after the interactions between two college classes.
Denying this reality means abandoning young women and young men in development, who are just entering adulthood. It means abandoning those who are prostituting themselves or are on the brink of doing so.
« To prevent students from taking the leap and enrolling in this downward spiral, G-ADDICTION is working with its partners to deploy an information and awareness initiative within the student community. We must urgently talk about it and help these young people out of shame, » says Quentin Matton, the president of the association.”
