Teen Selling Virginity On Online Trading Site To Pay For School

In Northern Ireland, a sixteen year old girl attempted to sell her virginity to the highest bidder using the U.K.-based online classifieds website Gumtree.

Her ad was listed under the heading "Virginity for sale," notes the Telegraph. The unnamed teen reportedly said she was offering her body "to the highest bidder" in order to pay for her education.

The startling story was pursued by a reporter at The Sunday Life, who investigated the claims and found the girl was serious about the transaction. In order to stop her, the paper dispatched a journalist who posed as an interested bidder and placed a bid.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, after being contacted by the reporter, the girl responded quickly via text with descriptions, including her bra size, and asked for details about the transaction. Her text messages to the reporter, who posed as a wealthy businessman, included:

I'm 17 at the end of the month, but I look way older. I'm tallish, size 14-ish, size 36D breasts, long browny-blonde hair. I actually have three piercings.

I can basically do this any Saturday. Do you want me all night? What exactly is it you wish to do?

Among a slew of texts, many sexual in nature, she also mentioned she was "probably gonna drink a lot before or I'll be shy."

Eventually, the reporter was the only bidder left at a price of £6,000 (or about $9,677). The reporter asked the girl multiple times whether or not she was sure about going through with the transaction, and the girl assured him she was, saying, "There's no way I'm gonna change my mind. It's only you now," referring to the fact that all of her alleged "other bidders" had dropped out of the running.

The girl met with the reporter in a bar to discuss the details face to face. During the conversation, the girl told the reporter what she would be using the money for, saying, "This money will mean I can buy loads of supplies for my art course" and she would also "put the rest away for university as I want to do art at uni."

After the meeting, the girl walked home, and a Sunday Life photographer followed her to her home, proving just how unsafe such online transactions and meetings can be for young girls.

However, before the transaction was to occur, the reporter called the girl and revealed his true identity as a reporter, and the girl sent "panicky texts claiming it was 'a joke'."

Online auctions such as this one have taken place before. About one year ago, 22-year-old Natalie Dylan decided to auction off her virginity, receiving offers of up to $3.7 million. The Telegraph names at least three additional situations in which women turned to online prostitution, including a Peruvian model who "put herself up for sale to help pay her family's medical bills but ended up having second thoughts and turning down $1.5 million."

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Comments

[ykk9]

06:52 PM on 01/28/2010

That price seems a little steep, even for a budding young werewolf. (was that really the best stock photo they could find?)

[bettyx1138]

10:04 AM on 01/28/2010

i'm so glad there were no innertubes when i was a teen.

[StopMakingSense2]

03:03 PM on 01/27/2010

I bet she won the young Enterpisers award.

[Dolmance]

09:28 AM on 01/27/2010

I used to have an cat. He had a very long career of serial murder; birds, lizards, rodents, even rabbits. The body count was added to daily. One day when he was very old and had spent the last few years spending his days in the sun with his eyes mostly closed and drooling until his muzzle was soaked through continuously, a mouse literally ran between his two front paws. He spent nearly an hour toying with it, finally swallowing it down from the tip of it's nose to the end of it's tail. His whole body seemed to be smiling. The joy was literally radiating off him for days.

When I think of this girl selling her virginity, and myself paying the purchase price, I'm reminded of that old beloved cat.

I'm considering kicking in for a ticket to Ireland and a lovely last whack at a virgin. The prospect seems absolutely wonderful.

[dadw5boys]

12:02 PM on 01/27/2010

Seems like people can rationalize anything for any reason to get what they want.

[Dolmance]

01:42 PM on 01/27/2010

What an odd comment. I don't feel the slightest need to rationalize in any way whatsoever. I'm right out front and can't see anything remotely wrong with it.

[Rachel O]

08:27 AM on 01/28/2010

But then how will you afford that Real Doll?

[Ian Rennie]

09:12 AM on 01/27/2010

this is undoubtedly not the only act of prostitution of someone of this age that took place in Northern Ireland this week. I wonder why this one is receiving such attention?

[heidihaspaws]

08:03 AM on 01/27/2010

Why is this suprising or shocking to some? At least she is being up front and honest. Many women sell their bodies for what they want, only they hide their motives and lie about it.

[NakedPete]

07:06 AM on 01/27/2010

Her body, her choice. I believe in a womans right to choose to do whatever she wishes with her body.

[vascopyjama]

06:13 AM on 01/27/2010

At least this should sell some papers.

[hottingers]

05:11 AM on 01/27/2010

This is an aboration. Most virgins have to pay to lose their virginity.

[ArtsyJane]

01:13 PM on 01/28/2010

"Most virgins have to pay to lose their virginity."

What??

[SteelTrapMind]

01:10 AM on 01/27/2010

Isn't there a Winger song which would be awkwardly appropriate for this story?

[KIVPossum]

12:55 AM on 01/27/2010

If you've got a marketable product, sell it.

[ruscle]

11:46 PM on 01/26/2010

How much can I get for my tired old slutty self? I just need enough to cover the supplies -- you know, a six pack and a bottle of Tequila.

[KIVPossum]

12:50 AM on 01/27/2010

My kind of gal. I'll be over at 9

[Sam418]

11:45 PM on 01/26/2010

Nice to see underage prostitution is alive and well. From some of the comments, even tolerated. Obviously, it's her body and her choice. But anyone who condones it should look in the mirror, picture their own 16 year old child and be ashamed of themselves.

[lisakaz2]

02:25 AM on 01/27/2010

Not underage. Age of consent in the British Isles (which I believe still is the law there) is 16.

[SpaghettyIrish]

02:36 AM on 01/27/2010

Age of consent in Britain and Northern Ireland is 16, IIRC.

[Sam418]

05:16 PM on 01/28/2010

In that case, I'll retract the underage part. Is prostitution legal in the Isles?

[MikeDu]

11:25 PM on 01/26/2010

We can't judge. What happened in the U.S. this past year happened in Ireland too. Work simply disappeared. Perhaps the only alternate this girl had to earning tuition money 'the old fashioned way' was no schooling at all and a lifetime spent on the dole. People will do ANYTHING to escape the inevitability of grinding, merciless, unrelenting poverty.

[wernerholm]

11:20 PM on 01/26/2010

Better to do this than join the Army....

1. She will get paid up front (if she's smart)
2. She will get to choose a liberal arts major, if she so chooses.
3. She won't have to kill brown people so Halliburton can steal their oil.
4. If the experience gives her PTSD she stands a chance of getting some help for the condition.

and one night beat four years in any time zone.