Dismantled network: prostitution of minors extends to Switzerland

Three months ago, a police descent from a barber from the station district created stupor in Geneva, learned our editorial staff. Five people were arrested for encouraging and organized the prostitution of minors. The case highlights a phenomenon that grows in Geneva and elsewhere in Switzerland.

The operation in early May follows a long police investigation. In that barber shopseveral minors (less than a dozen) would have been brought to prostitute themselves regularly. One of them is under the age of 15. Young girls would have notably met customers in a backpacker, under the leadership of several defendants, which organized exchanges and transactions.

The public prosecutor confirms having opened “a criminal instruction relating in particular to the following offenses: sexual act with minors against remuneration, encouragement to prostitution, abuse of distress or dependence and remand of narcotic products to minor”.

Five men were arrested and put into detention for three months. “The procedure being in progress, no other comments will be made,” says the prosecution. As a reminder, article 196 of the penal code prohibits sexual acts with minors against remuneration, liable to a private sentence of 3 years or a fine.

Minor prostitutes sometimes aged 12 years old

It seems here to be a prostitution network, organized. But minors also practice sex priche independently in Geneva, via Snapchat or Instagram.

Internet allows them to create profiles, book rooms and manage appointments with their customers. With prices often very low for sometimes extreme and “absolutely disproportionate” practices for their age, tells us a speaker in the social field.

The miners’ protection service (SPMI) confirms being confronted with children’s prostitution. This can affect minors from the start of adolescence, at only 12 years old for some of them. Victims live in homes, others with their parents, often in conditions – economic or relational – difficult.

“All cases exist, but the concern focuses mainly on the most vulnerable children, especially when parents cannot protect them,” replied the SPMI. The objective for these young people is to earn money quickly, but also, sometimes, to emancipate himself from parental authority.

An educator specializing in the management of children and adolescents confirms: “Often, they are young people, even boys, having a very bad esteem of themselves. There is a lot of suffering in the link to others. Their relationship with the body is disconnected from reality, they do not perceive certain acts as violent. ”

This is also the observation of the ASPASIE support association. “Young girls sometimes standardize practices that are abuses and violence, committed against sometimes modest sums,” says his director, Penelope Giacardy. Customers take advantage of their vulnerability to impose things on them. There are a lot of abuse in these situations: young people think that intermediaries do them service, but they sometimes take a lot from gains or hold them by practicing blackmail. ”

Criminal networks at the heart of this prostitution

Some minors, victims of exploitation, end at the mercy of criminal networks, without necessarily realizing it. Some are found to run away, in France on the Paris or Marseille side, returning to Switzerland with luxury objects. Several interlocutors relate the case of a teenager practicing paid sex in Geneva, having been trained to Marseille, then sequestrated. Or another having had to provide sexual services to several men instead of one, when it was not what was agreed at the base.

Any body noting the prostitution of minors must denounce the case. Technically, we are not talking about “prostitution” among minors, but “sexual activity against remuneration”, indicates the SPMI.

“Prostitution is a legal activity involving adults, demanding conditions and which supposes the concept of informed consent. The minor cannot legally consent to a sexual activity against remuneration, he is therefore always considered a victim. ” It is therefore sexual abuse.

Any case is relayed to parents and the police. The SPMI transmits to the investigators all the elements and encourages families when they can file a complaint. The service contributes to the identification of the victims and collaborates with the various brigades to establish links. The teenager is directed to the family planning, to the HUG, to be informed of the risks and the means of protecting himself.

But it happens that the situation escapes the system. “Some will prostitute each other anyway,” says a social worker. To manage this type of case, you have to adapt to the young person, who does not have the same reality as us. And do everything to limit the dangers for him. Sometimes the platforms of the Onlyfans type, where there is no physical contact, represent a lesser risk for these minors. ”

Sometimes immediate measures to protect minors

Often, we try to change the teenager of a reception. Therapeutic monitoring is implemented, educational measures are reinforced. Sometimes it is immediate, when the child runs a danger, such as violence, additions, pressures. He can be placed in a home, if he still lived in his family.

It is a question of avoiding any stigma by creating a bond of trust, to restore self -esteem and rehabilitate a healthy conception of relationships with adults. “Finally, professionals must imperatively dissociate the remunerated activity from any concept of ordinary emotional or sexual life: this is risk behavior, unbalanced, even exploitation situations,” says the SPMI.

Prostitution of minors: an increasing phenomenon

However, the phenomenon is gaining momentum and worried professionals, especially those of the Cantonal Office for Childhood and Youth (OCEJ).

The ASPASIE association also notes that the prostitution of minors is a phenomenon increasing in Geneva, as in other major cities, especially in France. “He has been gaining importance for a few years,” notes Pénélope Giacardy. The difficulty is that you have to discuss it with the minors, that they feel comfortable to be able to talk about what they are going through. Network professionals must be formed to be able to ask the right questions, that young people can talk about it. ”

Some social workers believe that this phenomenon should be the subject of specific support. Today, we mainly focus on prevention with young people, throughout the school curriculum in Geneva. “Thanks to the student’s health journey and the emotional and sexual health education program, which goes from 4P to secondary school II,” said the Department of Public Instruction (DIP). It starts with self -respect, abuse prevention, until consent. ”

A phenomenon up not only in Geneva

The prostitution of minors causes a lot of ink to flow, in France in particular. It is estimated that 20,000 victims, an increased figure since the COVVI-19 pandemic, of approximately 34% since 2021. Some 98% of children victims are girls. Between 7000 and 10,000 adolescent girls would be forced to prostitute themselves, according to the French media. An increase of 40% over the same period.

The phenomenon does not spare Switzerland. In the canton of Vaud, in 2024, A pimps received 4 years in prison for having exploited French minors. He had made them work within the framework of a criminal prostitution network on the Lake Geneva arc. One of them had become pregnant. In 2023, “Le Matin Dimanche” revealed that minors hosted in Vaudois households, after fleeing, prostitute themselves In France, near Paris, some being under the age of 15.

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