SEXWORKERS ACT 2022

Prohibition on the act of prostitution for anyone below the age of 21

Prohibitions on use in prostitution of persons under 21 years

20. No person may assist person under 21 years in providing
commercial sexual services
No person may cause, assist, facilitate, or encourage a person under 21 years of age to
provide commercial sexual services to any person.

21. No person may receive earnings from commercial sexual services

provided by person under 21 years

No person may receive a payment or other reward that he or she knows, or ought
reasonably to know, is derived, directly or indirectly, from commercial sexual services
provided by a person under 21 years of age.

22. No person may contract for commercial sexual services from, or be

client of, person under 21 years

(1) No person may enter into a contract or other arrangement under which a person under
21 years of age is to provide commercial sexual services to or for that person or another
person.

(2)No person may receive commercial sexual services from a person under 21 years of
age.

23. Offence to breach prohibitions on use in prostitution of persons

under 18 years

(1)Every person who contravenes section 20, section 21, or section 22 commits an

offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 7 – 10 years.

(2)No person contravenes section 20 merely by providing legal advice, counselling,

health advice, or any medical services to a person under 21 years of age.

(3)No person under 21 years of age may be charged as a party to an offence committed on
or with that person against this section.
Section 23(1): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).
In Favour –

(a) A change in the law would result in more younger children becoming inappropriately engaged in
sexual activity.

(b) The existing law gives young people, especially girls, who do not want to engage in sexual activity
a powerful reason for refusing to consent.

(c) Young people might not be physically, cognitively or emotionally mature enough to engage in full
sexual activity.

(d) Neuroscientific evidence suggests that the adolescent brain undergoes significant changes
throughout the teens and beyond. This is taken to mean that those in their teens are not
physiologically competent to make important decisions relating to risk-taking. It is surely unwise to
rely on such indirect evidence when much more directly relevant studies suggest that it is the
inexperience of the young rather than biological limitations that lead to their greater vulnerability in
risky situations. For example, McCartt et al, studying traffic accidents among young people, found
that ‘of the studies that attempted to quantify the relative importance of age and experience
factors, most found a more powerful effect from length of licensure’. 1

Against –

(a) Lowering the age of sexual consent would result in the decriminalisation of just under one-third
of the adolescent population. Most such law-breakers are not currently prosecuted, but it cannot be
right that their freely given sexual consent is deemed illegal.

(b) The numbers of young people whose sexual activity results in sexually transmitted infections is
substantial. The number of pregnancies in 15–17-year-olds, although it is reducing, remains
substantial. Further, the sexual experience of many young people, particularly girls, is distressing,
and a substantial number of girls regret their first full sexual experience. Lowering the age of sexual
consent would make it distinctly easier for appropriate sex education to be provided to children and
young people to enable them to make wiser decisions. It would also make it easier to provide sexual
health services to people of this age without the fear of conniving in illegal activity.

1
Effects of Age and Experience on Young Driver Crashes: Review of Recent Literature: Traffic Injury Prevention:
Vol 10, No 3 (tandfonline.com)