Tuesday, December 16, 2003

STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

Strip Club Law Change

The Government has proposed amendments to the Crimes Act that would penalize Strip Club owners who exploit under age workers.

For

Enough is enough. Liberalising the laws on prostitution is law-making purely in the adult domain where certain toleration of sexual expression is well established in law. That someone should quote those laws to apply economic force over a child in Strip Clubs is a violation of the child's human rights to be cared for as a child. There ought to be no reason for a child to prostitute itself and that the law should move to protect children is a Politically Correct policy motive at work.

Everyone has an undeniable right to be a child and require guidance of one's elders as it is a right to be a parent and have a say in what one's children experience. Cases of violation of children's rights are not a matter of what is fair for one or other parent - or any other party. Children may be protected from cults, and they should by the same logic be protected from an industry that best remain an Adult-only domain. And people that attend are not enticed into child pornography. The onus is also on the owner not to criminalise his patrons.

It is good to test the law to make it work. But it is not good to provide employment to the underaged in the sex industry, however you look at it.

Against

Laws should create a frame work that humans operate within. Laws can not define every individual. We all develop ourselves according to our own direction in life and who are we to say that something is right for someone else?

If the law makes it hard or impossible for the girl to find work when she clearly wants to leave home at the tender age of 15 do we want to criminalise her and any schmuck that offers her a break?

It is quite obvious that regulations and the sex industry go hand in hand. But existing laws are clear on what the boundaries are, and if 15 year old girls want to dance in a nightclub as a career, and a club owner perceives a demand for it, then a strip club provides a venue that is licenced and at least safe and predictable enough. Existing law defines the boundaries clearly enough.

What do you think?

Article STUFF : NATIONAL NEWS - STORY : New Zealand's leading news and information website

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