Hidden Danger: Engagement among Male Minors to Gay Patrons

Small-scale minor prostitution is rampant and mostly unreported. Despite their young age, they are compelled to do it because of several factors. The primary purpose of the study is to delve further into the minds of these minors why they engage in small-scale prostitution and to further add literature on few published studies in the Philippines related to these kinds of study. The study focused on the reasons, challenges, fears, desires, and realizations of these minors living in Pangasinan, particularly in the municipality of Sison. The study used a qualitative research method  using an unstructured interview anchored on the Social Exchange Theory, Family System Theory, Systems Justification Theory, Theory of Rationalization and Individual Deficiencies Theory. Purposive Sampling, Convenience Sampling, and Snowball Sampling was used to identify the participants of the study. The whole month of October 2024 was the period in the collection of data. The study had 10 participants in which all are from Sison, Pangasinan. Their responses were analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, particularly the Heideggerian type of phenomenology. The study revealed that poverty and dysfunctional family forces these minors into prostitution to earn money for themselves which is risky because they can get Sexually Transmitted Infections. At the lowest point of these minors, a gay patron comes along, offers them money, possibly inviting them to be a live-in partner which results to child grooming as a form of abuse, and then after time, the minor develops feelings to the gay patron and reciprocates the goodness showered unto him which results to Stockholm Syndrome. The findings of the study would form a basis of an intervention program. Moreover, expanding the scope of the research into other municipalities must be conducted to acquire more extensive and relevant data to explore the lived experiences of these minors.