Neo003 Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 PROVIDENCE ?? Rhode Island teens under 18 can't work with power saws or bang nails up on roofs. But dance at strip clubs? Sure. Just as long as the teens submit work permits, and are off the stripper's pole by 11:30 on school nights. It's enough to surprise even those in America's mecca of striptease and sin ?? Las Vegas. "Everybody buzzes about 'Nevada and Sin City, tsk, tsk,' " said Edie Cartwright, spokeswoman for the Nevada attorney general's office. "But we regulate it." Providence police recently discovered that teen job opportunities extend into the local adult entertainment world while they were investigating a 16-year-old runaway from Boston. The girl told detectives that she worked at Cheaters strip club this spring, and the police got tips about other underage girls working at another club on Allens Avenue. That's when the police found that neither state law, nor city ordinance bars minors from working at strip clubs. Those under 18 can't buy pornography, and no one may take pictures or film minors in sexually suggestive ways. But the law doesn't stop underage teens from stripping for money. Even if the police saw underage boys or girls on stage at a strip club, they wouldn't be able to charge them or the club owners with a crime. "I've been doing this a long time," said youth services Sgt. Carl Weston, "and I can't find anything that says it's illegal for a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old to take her top off and dance." State law says that anyone who employs a person under 18 for prostitution or for "any other lewd or indecent act" faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $20,000 in fines. But that isn't enough to prevent underage girls from working in strip clubs, said senior assistant city solicitor Kevin McHugh, who researched the issue a dozen years ago when a teenage dancer was found at a raided strip club. The term "lewd or indecent" is subjective, McHugh said, and is applied to behavior that's protected by the First Amendment. "Since we have strip clubs in Providence," McHugh said, "citizens don't consider [stripping] lewd." With the age of consent at 16 in Rhode Island, the police worry that teenage strippers could take their business to the next level and offer sexual favors ?? and it wouldn't be illegal. State law currently allows indoor prostitution, and two bills intended to ban it have stalled in the General Assembly. State and federal child labor laws dictate the number of hours and times of days that minors may work, and forbid certain jobs considered to be hazardous. For example, those under 16 can't work on ladders or pump gas. Youths age 16 and 17 can't work in manufacturing or excavation. "Nowhere does it say anything about a kid not being able to strip," Weston said. Establishments with city liquor licenses need to keep the teenagers from the booze, but not the stage. "You can't serve alcohol if you're under 18," Weston said, "but you can be the target of a man's groping hands at age 16." But a Rhode Island teen stripper won't find work in Massachusetts, where state law prohibits anyone from hiring minors under 18 for live performances involving sexual conduct. Other states have had mixed encounters with the issue. After a 12-year-old girl was found dancing nude in a club in Dallas last year, the city council swiftly passed rules barring minors from strip clubs and automatically revokes for a year licenses for sex businesses caught employing or entertaining minors. But an Iowa county judge ruled last year that a striptease by a 17-year-old girl at a strip club was artistic expression protected by the First Amendment. The state attorney general's office has asked the state Supreme Court to review the ruling. Nevada, meanwhile, doesn't let anyone under 18 work in casinos or in public dance halls where there is alcohol ? and there are no strip clubs in Nevada without one or the other, or both, said Cartwright, of the attorney general's office. Minors aren't even allowed to deliver mail to brothels. When questioned about Rhode Island's law, Michael J. Healey, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, offered a copy of the current state law but did not comment for this article. But Weston, of the Providence police, was adamant that the law should be changed. "It leads to a societal breakdown," he said. "These are just little girls." Source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agreenbhm Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 wtf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Symons Veteran Posted July 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted July 23, 2009 ...what :| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stezo2k Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 only in america eh? crazy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tharp Daddy Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 ... i guess that's one alternative to working at Walmart for a summer job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeeperOfThePizza Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 This is why we have pedophiles and pedobears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazzy88ss Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 lol @ the pedobear image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WelshBluebird Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Artistic expression protected by the first amendment? You have to be kidding me!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrewJW Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 *clang* this opens the bloomin floodgates.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Patriot Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 only in america eh? crazy Hmm, I seem to recall that 16 is the legal age for posing topless in many places in Europe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Spork) Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 wtf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhapimp Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 by 16 girls are well developed in body and mind i see no problem with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toadeater Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhapimp Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 lol shes 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lezard Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 ROFL at picture.... WTF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 lol shes 17 18, actually (according to Wikipedia). It's a bit weird that she's a few months older than me, yet she plays an 8 year old girl. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhapimp Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 well last i checked(the beginning of the year) she was 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trag3dy Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I was under the impression that minors couldn't work in places that served alcohol. Or rather you had to be of legal drinking age to work in places that sell it. I'm really amazed if that's not correct. But then not all strip clubs serve alcohol..so..yeah..still not right in any case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comic Book Guy Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 "But Weston, of the Providence police, was adamant that the law should be changed. ?It leads to a societal breakdown,? he said. ?These are just little girls.?"uot; Does it really? Apparently not, since this has been going on for a while. 'Little girls' equates to 16 and 17 year olds as well, apparently. The massive hardon people in the US have for 'protecting the children' is baffling. These are teenagers who, were they just a year older, would suddenly be 'adults.' These are girls who have hit puberty almost a decade ago. Moral authority needs to get over itself and be a bit more realistic. This story would have shocked me if the girls were pre- or shortly post-pubescent. That would be something to make a law about. 12 year olds aare>are '...just little girls.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I don't have any problem with under 18s stripping in general, but the problem is that with people maturing sexually at different ages it is hard to know where to draw the line as to where someone is being exploited, and where someone is old enough to know what they are getting into. Its an issue I am not sure I would like to touch as there is no easy answer, but I feel it is fair not to instantly criminalise them. I was under the impression that minors couldn't work in places that served alcohol. Or rather you had to be of legal drinking age to work in places that sell it. I'm really amazed if that's not correct. But then not all strip clubs serve alcohol..so..yeah..still not right in any case. I can only vouch for the UK, but I don't believe it is illegal for a minor to actually serve alcohol, but when a sale is made by a minor, it has to be approved by an adult over 18 who has been trained in age related sales. I believe the law may be a bit different when working in a bar however, but I am not 100% certain on that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azusa Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 i may need to rethink my opinion of America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soniqstylz Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 *packs bags* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhapimp Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 you can serve alcohol if your under the legal limit you just need to get an alcohol serving license i had a few friends who had one before they turned the legal age Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FRIEDjellyWALNUT Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 Is prostitution legal in Rhode Island too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Ba'al Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 Quite surprising indeed... with the US being so full of puritan freaks, it seems there are still a few who have some sense in their head :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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