Child Prostitution In W. T Stead's The Cult Of Childhood

The changes were slow and the legislation took time, however by the later half of the 19th century, there were a number of people who accepted the idea that childhood was a sacred thing that deserved to be protected. The image of the “innocent child” gave rise to the “cult of the child” in which poets such as William Blame and Woodsworth wrote heavily on the “holiness of the child” . In an article written by poet Ernest Dowson in 1889, named The Cult of the Child, he argues, “there are an ever increasing number of people who receive from the beauty of childhood, in art as in life, an exquisite pleasure ”. Much of this may have something to do with cultural transition to more Romantic ideas of time although this also served as a contradicting double-edged sword. Some “child-worshippers” that

A famous example of the means not justifying the ends is the highly controversial case of W.T Stead and his expose on child prostitution. Stead published a series of influential campaigns in The Pall Mall Gazette, most notably the series of articles called The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. In these particular articles, Stead aimed to raise awareness about child prostitution through abducting and “purchasing” a 13-year-old girl. Consequently, Stead drugged, accosted and subjected the girl to medical examinations (to prove her purity) and wrote about these accounts in The Pall Mall Gazette. These articles (featuring headlines such as “The Violation of Virgins” and “Strapping Girls Down”) were widely popular, resulting in shortage of supplies and selling up to 20 times the original value . These controversial accounts of child prostitution did lead to Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, which raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 years old . However, the means used to “advocate” for these rights highly contradicted with the aim, making Victorian views of children extremely confusing and