Berlin 6-12yos living in red light district offered picture book explaining prostitution

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Apologies if this has already been covered. I couldn't see it mentioned anywhere. Is there any possible justification for this? I can't imagine any. Here's an extract from the attached article.

The city of Berlin has prompted outrage from locals after offering a graphic picture book on prostitution to children via its official website. The book, titled Rosie Needs Money (Rosi sucht Geld), is advertised as a resource for youth aged 6 to 12 years old.
According to Equal Opportunities Officer Kerstin Drobick, the book is designed to explain prostitution to children of families residing in a red-light district of Berlin, located in Kurfürstenkiez, known as Kurfürstenstraße. ...

Rosie Needs Money is written from the perspective of a child named Maryam, whose family relocated to Germany from Syria.
Maryam narrates as she and her equally-young schoolmate, Martin, look for Rosie, a woman from Bulgaria who is in the sex trade. Maryam says that her mother told her that Rosie is often “looking for money” in the street. Rosie is described as having many friends who are also migrant women from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, and Lithuania.
“But they don’t seem to find much money. Their clothes are not enough. Their breasts and legs must freeze in winter,” observes Maryam. “Today we decided to finally ask Rosie what she does with men. Actually, we already know. They give her money and want to make love.”
Martin then appears to reference pornography, saying: “It’s different from mom and dad. Mom makes love to dad, but Rosie’s men don’t make love, they make sex like on TV.”
In the book, Rosie suggests that men use prostitutes due to lonliness, and advertises the sex trade as a legitimate and important field.
“You want to know what this has to do with love and sex? Everyone acts as if love and sex are always the same. Men say this to me and to their wives at home. But sometimes love is gone. Or the sex. That’s why my customers just want to talk to me and they give me money in return,” Rosie tells the children, before explaining how she has sex with clients in a flippant way.
“Most of the time it’s like this: Men want to put their penis in my vagina. A few times in and a few times out – and you’re done. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

https://reduxx.info/germany-pro-prostitution-picture-book-offered-to-children-by-government-officials/

Prostitution as a concept is bad enough on its own, whether human trafficking is connected isn't relevent. Any narrative to encourage the normalcy of prostitution is deeply disturbing.

That is one grim book. On many levels.

Yuck. Grooming clearly on display here. Even if it has been done with the best of intentions... just don't. Don't normalize this industry, and absolutely not to children, that should obvious.

Children are naturally conservative anyway, they don't want this! Again and again children are being politicised and treated as mini adults.

They have removed the download from the council's website.

I'm very glad to hear that, but who on earth ever thought it was a good idea to put it there in the first place? It must have been commissioned and the writers paid.

Snopes is now memory holing the incident and claiming that it never happened.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/berlin-children-prostitution-book/#Echobox=1695989192-1

'The children's book about sex work exists, and it's true that the official website for Berlin's government once listed it as a recommended resource. However, Berlin officials didn't "offer" the text to children, nor make it available to the public in anyway. Also, as of this writing, the book no longer appeared on the Berlin government's website.'

Snopes' claim is very easily disproved by checking the archive, where a pdf of the book is/was available.

https://t.co/onPTO1qKYL

Genevieve Gluck on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/snopes/status/1707791915133948155

Snopes’ slip is showing, eh?

Who Snopeth the Snope?

Snope Inception now required?

Like Russian dolls?

I was nodding in agreement this may be morally wrong until I read the post which implied that Germany is somehow worse than Syria because of legalised prostitution.

Just saw the Snopes post, ah ok, we can file this one away with the "German woman having to work as a prostitute due to legalised prostitution" myth :)

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hot-jobs/

I agree. What’s with all the immigrant references?!!!!

Well quite!

I can understand the need for some sort of explanation for newcomers re: the red light district but a) I can’t come up with a child friendly way to describe prostitution that doesn’t minimise the horror of it and b) telling immigrant girls that immigrant women have to service johns because immigrant women need money is just grim as grim can be, it’s grooming vulnerable girls while hiding behind some sort of ‘free books for kids to help with cultural integration’ shield.

Last Christmas my British HongKonger neighbours invited me to an event that was primarily aimed at HongKongers who had recently immigrated to the area.
All the kids at the event were given a kid’s guide book to life in Manchester, including my daughter (the organisers didn’t want her to feel left out). It’s a charming little book that talks about things like food (traditional British and the wide variety of foods from around the world that are on sale in British cities) and schools (explanation of what age child goes to which school, typical uniforms and how the school day is arranged).

That a pro prostitution book can be slipped through as something similar is truly grim, and shows how vigilant adults need to be about the material given to children.

"Snopes' claim is very easily disproved by checking the archive, where a pdf of the book is/was available"

Was going to ask how much of 6-12 year olds' online time is spent looking at pdfs on Gov websites? It's not as if it was stocked in school libraries or bookshops.

Who do you think the website was aimed at then?

Free government ’resources’ like this are generally aimed at teachers/youth workers/social workers/school counsellors etc & parents, who are in turn expected to print and distribute the pre approved material to children.

so disgusted by the bias against EE women shown in the book, as if we only exist to provide low wage work or be exploited.
most likely they should have replaced "migrant women from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, and Lithuania." with "trafficked"
why do I have to dehumanized with every opportunity, me who has worked so hard to integrate and contribute to the economy.

most likely they should have replaced "migrant women from Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, and Lithuania." with "trafficked"

That isnt in the interest of the authors of course. Their story is, that the "sex workers" came all voluntary, to take advantage of the liberal laws on "sex work". That about 80% ⊙ of prostitutes in Germany are non-citizens of Germany and some not even EU citizens, is not in their interest to tell. It might prompt questions how this came to be, and shine a light on the "industry" behind it....

⊙ https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/Grafiken/Soziales/2023/_Interaktiv/20230915-anmeldungen-prostituierte.html

Holy fucking christ I'm not sure I can put into words how awful this is

Bizarrely, the book concludes with quotes from children and young people who live in areas where street prostitution takes place. Most of the sentiment is overwhelmingly negative, and presented as examples of attitudes towards prostitution in youth which require discussion.

This bit probably disturbed me the most. They clearly recognise that people don't like red light districts, but apparently it's the "attitudes" that must change, not the seedy exploitation of vulnerable women.

I think Whyisegg's post is a parody.