Stop calling Epstein’s youngest victims underage – they were children

The world can feel overpowering, with all the darkness that seems to be waiting for us every time we turn on the news. But sometimes, to keep myself sane, I think – what are the small things we could do? And one of the small things we could do is to stop calling the victims of Jeffrey Epstein “underage girls”.

After listening to this week’s media coverage of the latest released files and the vile abuses that were committed, I think we can grant one piece of good grace to these victims, who might well now be adults but certainly weren’t at the time. We can call them what they were: children.

Underage is such a strange word – if we’re talking about girls, they are already young, otherwise we’d call them women. Underage suggests that if they had been older, it would have been alright to traffic them and sexually abuse them. Underage suggests the only problem is if they just weren’t old enough to be treated like pieces of meat in a butcher’s shop. “Underage girls” is a sexual and legal tautology – but we are not talking about sex here. We are talking about trafficked children. We are talking about child rape.

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When I listen to the coverage of this ongoing story, with the latest files released by the US government, though still only a fraction of what exists and with some redactions, removals and other general nonsense, the language of fun and japes still bounces around all over it.

Yes, you could say that the rich punters flew over to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island on the Lolita Express to attend his sex parties – or you could say that children were being put at the disposal of old men to abuse. Playboys, sex parties sound kind of fun and frothy – but I think we mean paedophile rings and child abuse gatherings. Gang rape, mass assault and organised abuse don’t have the same cute ring as sex games do they?

I’m genuinely sorry to list all these horrendous terms and take no enjoyment in typing them – but they need saying out loud, to give these children, as many of these girls were, the understanding and support they deserve as adults, to make sure nobody can ever turn a blind eye to such horrors again.

There’s a video online, made by some of Epstein’s victims, where they hold up pictures of themselves at the ages when they were going through this. They look like children because they are children. And it’s not as if we haven’t had enough time to get used to the harsh realities of this story.

Here’s a quote that Vanity Fair published in 2019, from a former air traffic controller who worked on the island and asked to remain anonymous: “On multiple occasions, I saw Epstein exit his helicopter, stand on the tarmac in full view of my tower, and board his private jet with children – female children. One incident in particular really stands out in my mind, because the girls were just so young.”

He goes on to say that he and his colleagues “definitely talked about how we didn’t understand how this guy was still allowed to be around children,” and went on to say that it was “absolutely insane” that a convicted sex offender was able to move around so openly in the era of MeToo. Oh yes, Epstein already had a conviction by this point!

But the world kept on allowing him to continue with his depravities and his high-profile, high-net worth pals kept in touch – with some even joking that they hoped they would be able to “play” again soon.

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In most countries, the age of consent is between 16 and 18, but there are outliers. For example, in France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Greece, Denmark and Iceland, the age of consent is 15. But ultimately, age of consent laws are designed to protect minors who may not have the maturity or capacity to make informed decisions about sexual activity. The thousands of testimonies from women who have come forward about Epstein show a poor case for consent – there was a clear imbalance of power between many of these girls and the billionaire financier.

My daughter is 14 years old. If she’s off school sick and I haven’t remembered to call the school by 9.30am, to let them know, they will call me. If I miss their call, they will call again. Their system is that they don’t stop calling until they get an answer, and I for one am very glad of this thorough system. Because if my daughter had left the house but not turned up at school, I would want to know about it – she is a child, and we want to know where our children are.

But when children the exact same age as her are mentioned in the Epstein coverage, they become “underage girls at sex parties”. Not children who have been trafficked to be delivered to be abused by middle-aged paedophiles. When people say they didn’t see any young women or girls at Epstein’s parties when they were there, it is just that. They didn’t see them because they didn’t care about them or who they really were.