Child Sex Trafficking is a sexual violation of children on a grand scale.
Through well-hatched schemes, crime syndicates rake in profits by marketing children as sexual commodities.
A victim of child sex trafficking endures slavery and sexual abuse that waste away self-worth and dignity.
When children are trafficked for sexual exploitation, most of them end up in prostitution. Children trafficked for prostitution often end up imprisoned in rooms, watched by armed guards. They are starved, beaten and raped by their own recruiters/captors. Most of them are severely beaten or chained to their beds when they refuse to comply with their captors’ demands or when they attempt to escape. Trafficked children may also end up in child pornography.
Even after rescue and return to their families, survivors of child sex trafficking continue to be tormented by violent memories of bondage to their captors. They bear the imprint of their painful experiences, altering the way they see the world, how they relate to people, and the way they live the rest of their lives.
Child exploitation comes in many forms, yet only child sex trafficking includes a dimension of place in its definition. A certain place may serve as a source, transit and/or destination for victims of trafficking.
Child trafficking is commonly called “modern slavery” as the physical displacement serves to provide captive manpower to a distant labor market. For the perpetrators, trafficking may be risky but highly lucrative. Profits are high and the penalties are low in most countries.
Sex trafficking destinations are usually places with an inadequate number of local children to meet the high demand in the sex industry.
Prostitution and sex tourism is usually tolerated, if not legal, in these places.
It is difficult to recognize its victims because:
- Traffickers hide from authorities by varying trafficking routes or masquerading as legitimate employment or travel agencies;
- Families of the children are knowingly or unknowingly in connivance with their traffickers, if not the children themselves;
- Victims may be ashamed to come out and/or do not wish to be deported;
- The crime cannot be recognized as such due to technicalities in legal criteria; and
- A lack of information particularly on child sex trafficking prevents the general public from recognizing these situations.
The issue is referred to as child sex trafficking to differentiate it from trafficking for non-sexual purposes which include child laundering (also called adoption fraud) and the exploitation of children as domestic servants, laborers, drug couriers, soldiers, beggars or organ donors.
Although trafficking is commonly considered a form of the commercial exploitation of children, there is a need to address child trafficking for sexual exploitation apart from other forms of sexual exploitation of children. There are two reasons for this:
- Trafficking is a common entry point for other forms of sexual exploitation; and
- Understanding and focusing on the key components of child sex trafficking helps us determine the potency of possible solutions.