So Sweden makes it a crime to buy sex from a woman. As a matter of conscience, when has it ever been okay for such a transaction, anytime, anyplace? Australian families are appalled at the continuing rapid moral decline of their surrounding communities. Men are called to provide protection, security, warmth, love, respect and kindness to the womenfolk of this nation. Not abuse and/or degradation. What must mothers, wives and daughters think when their men sink into the appalling self centredness of uncontrollable sexual lust, which acts like acid on self esteem. Let's turn a leaf and give our women and our families the men and the dads we're meant to be! Thanks Lyle for raising the issue.

Soon as I read the article, I had him pegged for a religious crank.
girls 18 years old need to be told about the dangers...what planet
is this guy on? Sure its not a nice thought, its not a nice trade.
Its perfectly healthy and normal for an 18 year old girl to have an interest and knowledge in sex. Same as an 18 year old guy.
whether they are from the wrong side of the tracks or a churchgoer, they have these things called hormones.
Sure you can fill them full of weird ideas and beliefs, but they still have independant thoughts.
If there are girls out there with no knowledge about the dangers,
thats a mental health issue.
drugs are the scourge that cause most of the problem, with money coming a close second. Hecs debt? come on...
sure it can happen, but a chat with a few hookers will generally indicate a different demographic.
Africa has an absolutely massive problem with AIDS, nice work catholic church, JC would be so proud I'm sure.
Condom use may not completely 100% prevent disease, just as a motorbike helmet dosent 100% prevent head injury.
Its a sordid business, but damage control is important.
Similarly, legalising brothels does not result in a safe working environment. It MOST PROBABLY would result in a SAFER working environment. Its a small step.

Thanks Lyle for the honesty and challenge of this article. It is easy to see that many have lined up to attack your faith and therefore try to dismiss outright your excellent arguments and reasoning.

Here is the thing though. Everyone has a bias, or a series of presuppositions through which they view all things. I am a Christian, but also a Personal Development teacher, also a school counsellor, also a husband and also a father.

If I look at the issue of prostitution through any of these lenses, I will still come to the same conclusion, prostitution only destroys people.

I recently took a number of year levels through a unit on STI's (I still refer to them as STD's). My students were amazed at how little they knew about how dangerous having sex could be. The girls in particular were concerned about how a disease, even bacterial not viral, could greatly damage their chances at conception later down the track.

We need more articles like this one to help our precious young people understand how dangerous it is to engage in risky behaviour, and empower them to make careful decisions.

Freeman

It is not a matter of legalising, nor prohibiting prostitution, but how we handle it. Throughout history many attempts to quell the sexual desires of humans have been tried, the situation today shows us how successful they have been.

Education is the best approach, being well informed gives you the ability to make informed decisions. Sexual education should begin young, as awareness grows. It should be placed within society as being normal and not some evil debauched act. If all the implications are taught as youth grows and matures, their understanding will make them stronger. It is when they are told that it is taboo and wrong, that it becomes a problem.

We send out children into the world with very little knowledge of the process, reactions and outcomes of sex, except the basics. How can they be expected to cope without the right knowledge. We always teach our children the minor things of life, like money, materialism and religion, but never fully about the most influential energy we have, sex. Just enough so that they are aware, but not prepared.

The old approaches haven't worked, time to look at other ways, or it will just continue the same and cause more and more damage for everyone involved in the industry and outside it.

All forms of sexual work are not bad or wrong, what about handicapped people, don't all people have the right to fulfill their sexual expression in whatever way they can responsibly. As long as it is not harmful to them or others, who has the right to deny someone giving pleasurable help to a disabled person. Or aren't their rights, feelings and desires as important.

Maybe its time to stop looking at this from our own biased viewpoints and look at it from all aspects. It has to be controlled, because of the negative aspects associated with it.

High risk high reward. I wish I could sell myself to the opposite sex for $100+ an hour, it would sure beat the office gig.

I think the impoverished view of sex workers only holds partial weight. I'm sure there are many young girls with little in the way of education and skills making a significant wage out of the business, tax free often. Some are only getting their gear off and bringing home a few grand a week. They probably feel like tramps but as before high reward comes from high sacrifice.

Yes we have the other end, drug addicted no-hopers for whom prostitution only adds momentum to their downward spirals, though does the legal side of the industry have much bearing on such people? They've always been around and the legitimate places would/should do their best to screen them out.

I say let adults do what they want with their bodies, but if it involves earning money then make sure they do what everyone else is made to do, COUGH UP THE TAX!

To alchemist you must be joking or have your tongue firmly in your cheek! You say we equip our children with the minor things like materialism and religion. Religion minor? And you consider it outdated and not working. It seems to me you have not been equipped at all if you consider religion minor. But you have given highest place to sexual urges - and how dare we deny them! You insult people with physical handicaps by inferring they cannot enjoy sexual relationships. So your solution is send them to a prostitute where they are involved in a dehumanising and demeaning empty act.
Perhaps your "searching for methods of making gold" need to retrace one of the 'minor' things you have left behind.
I am a minister of religion by the way.