Minors who sell/trade sexual services
When speaking about children and young people, it is usually more fitting to talk of trading rather than selling sex. There are several reasons for this. Children and young people rarely operate in the traditional prostitution markets, and they are often given other forms of reimbursements than money in return for sex, i.e. accommodation, food, clothes, drugs or top-up cards for their phones.
It is not illegal to sell sex in Norway, even in the case of young people. However, the preparatory works to the Child Welfare Act make it clear that prostitution is considered a serious behavioural problem, which requires individual intervention. This implies that young people are not merely free to sell sexual services without the authorities stepping in. These rules are based on the belief that people above the age of consent, but below the age of 18, are not yet sufficiently secure in their sexuality, and therefore need extra protection.