Student auctions off her virginity

A 19-year-old female university student is offering up her virginity "by tender to the highest bidder" on a Hamilton-based auction website.

And that's disgusted reader Rosie Erceg, who complained by email to the Waikato Times that it was "yuck, sick and wrong".

Under the come-on heading "Relationship For Sale", "Unigirl" is putting herself on the block and offering up her innocence on the I Need website at ineed.co.nz, which is run by two Waikato men.

It features predominantly Hamilton ads and offers "modern-day trading" for buyers and sellers.

Unigirl says she is attractive, from the upper North Island, and desperate for money to pay ongoing university fees. "I have never had a sexual relationship and am still a virgin.

"I am offering my virginity by tender to the highest bidder as long as all personal safety aspects are observed. This is my decision made with full awareness of the circumstances and possible consequences."

Unigirl says she is fit, healthy, with a trim physique and has "no medical conditions of any nature".

She did not respond to a Times inquiry (about an interview).

Ms Erceg was unimpressed. "I don't think they should be allowed to run a website like that. It's just yuck, sick and wrong.

"I don't know who else to complain to about this.

"I just want to make everyone aware that they shouldn't use a website that mixes clean trading with sick people who want to sell themselves for sex. If they want to sell their sex for money they should look for a job in a brothel."

Website proprietor Ross McKenzie denied the ad was a publicity stunt, saying he was totally unaware of it.

"Our policy is that provided the ad is legal and doesn't offend the general standards of society it is okay, but I need to have a look at this and discuss it with my business partner.

"We want to have an approach where people are free to express their own opinion about things."

The website has been operational since August, catering for buyers, sellers, and for personal issues such as partners or travel companions, or people looking to lift their employment profile online.

Virginity auctions are becoming increasingly prevalent overseas.

Earlier this month bids reached more than NZ$18,000 when a Northern Ireland teenager auctioned her virginity on the website, Gumtree, with a British newspaper revealing the advert was genuine.

Meanwhile German authorities levied an unexpected "virginity tax" on an 18-year-old Romanian girl who sold the right to become her first sex partner through a German website.

They treated it as a case of selling sex for money, which is taxable in the country.

Elsewhere this month, in the Australian Women's Weekly, Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott said women should regard their virginity as "a gift" that should not be given away lightly.

- © Fairfax NZ News