If high fashion modeling was done through conscription, I'd have a problem with recruiting the pubescent, or anyone for that matter. But it's not. It's a matter of choice. And I'm not about to infringe on anyone's choice (unless it's the decision to put Chloe Sevigny on a magazine cover).
A girl that wants to be a high fashion model has it tough enough. She's got to fit the requirements. She's got to be wanted by someone. And most random of all, she's got to be at the right place at the right time. At 13, why not let your face be known by tossing your hat in the ring. Chances are you're not going to make it anyway because you'll either change physically or because someone else will get the job. But if you do make it, it'll be worth it. And if starting out early in any form contributed to you making it, well good.
As far as being away from home, etc., who's to say homelife is any utopia? There's plenty of pressure, traps, exposures, creeps and regular run of the mill stuff at school alone. I mean, most kids aren't models and some of them have problems, right? So why single out high fashion modeling as the corrupting career.
Also, I just flipped through the February fashion mags. They aren't dominated by models born in 1991 or 1992. The haute couture runways in a couple of days won't be either. Same goes for the upcoming RTW season. Let's not lose the trees and forest or the forest in the trees or however that cliche goes. Just because a few contest winners and a few new girls' profiles have eye-catchingly recent birth years doesn't mean everyone does or it's some kind of shocking development.