Sharon had wound up in the ''Area'', an Angeles City ghetto known for supplying children for the sex trade. Of some 500 sex workers in the town, about 75 percent are children, says Susan Pineda, head of the group Pro-Women Action. At the house where Sharon spent seven months, five of the eight ''working girls'' were under 17. Sharon had eight to 15 customers every night, even when she had her menstrual period or was running a fever. By the time she escaped with a customer's help last February, Sharon estimates she has had serviced more than 1,500 clients.
Area is only one of the growing number of sites that have become notorious for child prostitution.
Cultural myths also have a role in the preference for very young boys or girls. Some Asians seek out young partners for their ''rejuvenating or reinvigorating'' qualities. But it is not only foreigners who use the services of child prostiutes. Sharon says that while there were foreigners among her customers, most were Filipinos. Filipinos are the main users of Filipinas forced into prostitution''.