According to a report, a growing number of young Kiwis are jumping into jobs on the fringes of sex work such as “sugar daddy” relationships and online webcam shows in a bid to pay their bills.
Some of them are students seeking ways to pay for rising rents and tertiary fees.
New Zealand Prostitutes Collective co-founder Dame Catherine Healy is concerned young people are delving into the “soft edge” of sex work, with little in the way of support or awareness.
“Camming” – whereby a person will put on a sex show for an audience via a web camera – was not new, but Healy thought it was growing in popularity in circles of young people.
There was a perception that digital sex work was more socially acceptable than prostitution and an easy way to earn money, but Healy said she had heard a few cautionary tales.
One women in her 20s had been heavily involved in camming, she said, until her identity was spread across the internet with pictures of her at work.
“She was devastated by the fact that she lost control of her image – she had no awareness that could happen. It started well, and ended not so well.”
Camming could also be appealing to students because of expensive tertiary fees and rent, Healy said.
Student debt is currently $15.9 billion in New Zealand, and figures collated by NZME last month showed more university students were struggling to pay the bills – despite recent increases to student allowances.
Continued at Otago Daily Times
