Chef,
Please don't abandon other topics and leave us with less collective thought, I enjoy hearing all sides so I can make more informed decisions on controversial subjects. Sadly ZM and GG allowed their conversation to degenerate into flames. It is not necessary to participate in that aspect of a conversation however and sometimes a post relevant to the subject matter can refocus those involved. Perhaps with a little help from Mod's who need to be informed if things are getting out of hand.
Reg,
Allow me to say its great to have you back! I appreciate the point you are making and I couldn't agree more. I always carry that thought with me whenever I meet an SP. She is not just a piece of meat, she is first and foremost a human being with universal, inalienable rights, and should be accorded as much respect as any other person. I don't attach a negative image to the profession. In my experience people have as much dignity as they give themselves and I believe Sp's should walk as tall as anyone.
Allowing negative imaging and stereotypical myths to creep into our own consciousness is what does the most harm to people who work in the Adult entertainment business. What religious zealots and hypocritical politicians try to force feed us as societal "norms" is really nothing more than hate speech contrived by those looking for ways to galvanize support for their own dark causes by dividing us on non-issues rather than uniting us with things that could lift us all up.
Kind of like gay marriage and its correlation to religion, that being if there was no religion, no one would bat an eyelash at the thought of it. But when you hold up the bible and say "Look, here in this old book it says homosexuality is a sin" and then use that to justify making people suffer is just about as mindnumbingly stupid as conceivable. That so many people are so easily manipulated into thinking such thoughts is a sad testament to the human condition. I wish I had an answer that everyone could accept as to this age issue but people are going to believe whatever they want to believe based on what information they have and the environment around them.
I don't think 18 is necessarily too young, it depends on the particular person. I think we are too the man here on MERB against underage prostitution meaning anyone UNDER the age of 18, with a special disgust for blatant pedophilia. I would venture to say the same about sexual slavery and if any of us thought for a second that we were with an SP who was in such circumstances we would notify the proper authorities anonymously and report our findings to each other. I think for the most part those of us who post here have a high level of respect and appreciation for the SP'ing profession.
If any SP, let alone an 18 year old, is having serious problems dealing with what they do I would encourage them to stop the same way I would encourage anyone to stop doing anything they thought was derogatory to their well being. It would be better to have nothing than to lose your soul or sacrifice your well being. Not everyone is cut out for this profession, sadly there is only one way to find out for sure and in unfortunate circumstances damage can be done, but making a law to stop 18/19/20 year olds from SP'ing will do nothing more than efforts to stop people from using drugs have done. It won't stop anything, it will just drive it underground and drive the price up, making it more dangerous and harmful for women who now, in Canada and other countries where prostitution is legal, can make a conscious decision for themselves as to whether or not to start and when to quit.
The established standard for adulthood here is 18 and if they are old enough to make the decision to join the armed forces and possibly die fighting in a war, they are certainly old enough to decide what they will and won't do with their own bodies. Think of the hypocrisy in any other message to 18 year olds. On one hand the government will pay you peanuts to fight and die in a war over oil so the elite can get rich but its illegal to "rent" yourself out for sexual services to someone who will pay you handsomely? It would almost make one wonder if the government was trying to block off other avenues of self reliance for those who have no other way to help themselves. Whoring for billions amongst the wealthy elite is commonplace and widely accepted as normal behavior for young blue bloods, but if us common folk do it for a couple hundred bucks, thats a faux pas for some reason?
I thought my post #165 was clear but let me be clearer: Even though there are exceptions (like Karma and others), I still feel that the minimum age for SPing should be 21 years old. 
