Prostitution of minors in France has risen by up 43 percent over the last four years, according to official figures published Friday. The government insists it remains committed to cracking down on exploitation networks, a decade after a landmark law made paying for sexual services a crime.
The data, released on Friday by the National Observatory on Violence Against Women, shows 416 minors were victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and 288 were victims of prostitution last year.
