Prostitutes must be 21 if law passes

A new Prostitution law has been proposed to Parliament, which includes a mandatory minimum age limit.

The law suggests that prostitutes must now be 21 years old when they start. Registration, and the client's duty to ask after the age of a prostitute are off the proposed bill. Minister Ivo Opstelten (Security and Justice, VVD) has brought a new version of the law to the House of Parliament for review.

Parliament initially criticized earlier revisions. The senate was doubtful about the usefulness, the need and the practical applicability of the registration obligation. Opstelten then made a promise to come with a weakened law.

Opstelten now insists that due to scrapping the obligation to register, the age norm of 21 had to be introduced. In the first proposal, the age of 21 counted as condition for registration.

According to Opstelten, municipal supervisors can control individual prostitutes on their age. Prostitutes under 21 can incur a light fine, and a client of the young prostitute can get a jail sentence of a year, maximum.