 In Europe , child prostitution flourished until the late 1800s ; minors accounted for 50 % of individuals involved in prostitution in Paris . A scandal in 19th @-@ century England caused the government there to raise the age of consent . In July 1885 , William Thomas Stead , editor of the Pall Mall Gazette , published " The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon " , four articles describing an extensive underground sex trafficking ring that reportedly sold children to adults . Stead 's reports focused on a 13 @-@ year @-@ old girl , Eliza Armstrong , who was sold for £ 5 ( the equivalent of around £ 500 in 2012 ) , then taken to a midwife to have her virginity verified . The age of consent was raised from 13 to 16 within a week of publication . During this period , the term white slavery came to be used throughout Europe and the United States to describe prostituted children . 
