PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island doesn’t really have a problem with under age strippers, but given how many editorial inches the topic has earned lately one would expect to find every club in the state crawling with teeny boppers. At least until recently, when the state’s clubs promised not to hire anyone under the age of 18.Prompting all of the hysteria is a single case of a 16-year-old Boston runaway who had been kidnapped and abused. Prior to her rescue, she briefly worked at Cheaters, a club that the Boston Strip Club Directory has referred to as “dark and dirty.”

Although some strongly condemned Cheaters for hiring the teen, who apparently had fake ID with an older age listed, the fact is that there was nothing illegal about the girl working as a stripper, a fact that was revealed as the entire sordid situation moved deeper into the world of law.

Title 11, Sec. 11-9-1 of Rhode Island’s Criminal code makes it an offense to “exhibit, use, or employ, or shall in any manner or under pretense sell, give away, let out or otherwise dispose of any child under the age of sixteen (16) years… in any illegal, obscene, indecent, or immoral purpose, exhibition, or vocation, injurious to the health or morals or dangerous to the life or limb of the child.” Those who violate the law face up to one year in prison and/or a $250 fine, as well as loss of custody of the minor.

However, the same section also indicates that 16 and 17-year-olds can work as prostitutes as long as they do not use a pimp or solicit customers in public.

Ironically, any adult customers would be guilty of pimping.

Further ironically is the fact that the same 16-year-old who could give a man a topless lap dance in a strip club could not be photographed while in the act of doing so. That, of course, would be child pornography.

Given that there has only been the one minor known to have worked as a stripper in the state, one might presume that this technicality would be seen as more bureaucratic than a real world danger.

Not to the state’s politicians.

Rhode Island Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts sprang immediately into action with the information reached her desk, declaring that “Allowing children to be exploited is reprehensible.”

Roberts, whose own minor daughter encountered difficulty getting a job as a camp counselor added that, “To think any minor could just as easily be employed as a stripper is mind-boggling. This must come to an end immediately.”

Providence police investigated all of the city’s clubs after the case of the 16-year-old runaway and found no minors working.

So, while legislators scramble to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist, all 10 Providence, RI strip clubs have signed a non-legally binding pledge to not hire dancers under the age of 18.

Meanwhile, Rep. Joanne Giannini [D-Providence] is working on a bill to make it illegal for anyone younger than the age of 18 to strip. Pundits are uncertain about the bill’s chances of survival, given that attempts to outlaw indoor prostitution have so far been unsuccessful.

This may explain why Providence Mayor David Cicilline has issued an executive order announcing that any club that hires a teen younger than 18 will be denied an adult entertainment license, because “if there’s one case, it’s one too many. If there are other cases, they need to be rooted out, and we have to make sure the right laws are in place.”

Richard Shappy, the owner of two Providence clubs and represents the Rhode Island Entertainment Association says “We welcome any legislation. We have no problems with it.”

According to Shappy, given the poor economic situation in RI, there is absolutely no incentive for club owners to hire minors. “We have so many girls who want to work,” he assures. “Housewives, college students, office workers, hair dressers. I have an LPN, an RN, a girl at the ticket counter at Green [local airport]…