... our culture finds it perfectly fine to pimp out and exploit kids in a variety of selfish ways as long as it's not sexual in nature, since acknowledging their attractiveness threatens the status quo. After all, sexual expression is very empowering (just ask the anti-sex officials of the Roman Catholic Church back in the day, and the Christian fundies to this day).

You will note that our culture is also wildly against "child labor," trying to equate it in our minds with sweatshops, because giving kids the right to work and earn their own way runs the risk of ending their dependence on adults and freeing them in numerous other ways as well. It would be much more difficult to control them if parents couldn't say "As long as I pay for your cell phone...", which is dirty pool considering kids are not legally allowed to earn anything substantive themselves. Rare exceptions are kids in the entertainment industry like Miley, and guess what? They aren't legally allowed to control their own money until they are past the age of majority!