Wait for her to ask it in a straightforward manner. Interrupting a conversation where 'whore' comes up will result in an awkward silence and pre-teen embarrassment.

Liken it to drugs, in an even-handed and honest manner: It's illegal, it can have nasty consequences, but sometimes perfectly average people engage in it and they don't get messed up at all.

If she's mature enough, mentioning the underage sex trade is worth it. Sometimes kids get snatched up (very rare) and sometimes boyfriends pressure girlfriends to have sex with other men for money. In both cases, tell her to talk to you and you won't judge her. You love her very much (and I'm sure she knows that).

And on a semi-related note, Vulvodynia might be worth learning about too. Sex is NOT fun and I spent decades in terror and being told I was psychologically messed up (the then-diagnosis was repressed memories of sexual abuse as a child) because EVERYTHING hurt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulvodynia

Random addendum, I know. Humor me. ;)

I think at 8 this is a lot to grasp - has she asked what "whore" means? And I don't mean to sound judgmental, but I'm having trouble figuring out how this word would be used in front of 8 year old. Mind you, I am currently being fined by my child every time I use the f-word in front him, so I probably have no business asking this question.

He's getting rich, by the way.

Anyway, when the time comes - like at 9 or 10 or if she asks, you can say something like "People like to have sex and they don't always have a partner. Some women and men have a job where they get paid to have sex. This is called prostitution and the people that do this are called prostitutes or sex workers. I believe...(insert values here.)

Sometimes the women who do this are called "whores." This is a very ugly and disrespectful word to use for prostitute."

Pile on the details as she gets older and you have further conversations. And apparently teens are being lured in by pimps at malls and stuff these days. It's a pretty big problem as the pimps are cute and charming and promise all kinds of "grown up" stuff. She should know about this by the time she's 12 or so.

I'm not sure that I would go there.

If you have an on-going dialog with your kid, it may come up... but I'd approach it from the angle of desperation to make money by some who have no skills. That is, to show that there is value in education, in goals, in bettering yourself...and that some do not value themselves, and so, must resort to selling their bodies.

(I'm sure there are some sex workers who will object to this classification, but I'm thinking to help put the act into perspective for this kid.)

I remember first hearing of a "brothel" in the classic movie "Guns of Navarone" near the ending, and turning to my folks, asking what's that. They shushed me*. [*My MOM at the time, simply told me it was a Bar. Which made no sense to me, since bars are not bad.]

The next day, during a car trip, my dad asked me if I knew what a whorehouse was. I said yes, and he dropped the subject. It would have been better if he had discussed the conflicting values in wartime, and how distressing this threat was to the character. But he didn't.