What is commercial sexual exploitation?
'Commercial sexual exploitation' can be defined as: “children, both male and female, engaging in sexual activities for money, profit, or for any other consideration due to coercion or influence by an adult, syndicate or group”. The profit could go either to the child or to any third party involved in the transaction.
What is the scale of the problem?
Across the world, there are over one million children entering the sex trade every year. Around 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation over the last three decades.
In Southeast Asia alone, there are currently around one million children involved in the sex industry, some younger than 10 years old. However, this is not a problem exclusive to the developing world. At least 97 countries have reported cases of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. In the United States, it is estimated that between 244,000 and 325,000 children are commercially sexually exploited every year.
Inextricably tied in with the issue of sexual exploitation is the issue of trafficking in children. In Thailand each year, over 200,000 foreign children are trafficked into prostitution and over half of those in the Thai sex industry have been sold or trafficked into it. According to a recent report, children are trafficked from Honduras to brothels in southern Mexico. Girls as young as 12-years-old are being sold for $100-$200.
What are the causes of commercial sexual exploitation?
There are many causes of commercial sexual exploitation and the greatest is poverty, linked with high levels of unemployment and a lack of education. Where there is a situation of conflict, natural disaster or political instability, the accompanying breakdown of social structure leads to children receiving less protection and being more susceptible to exploitation. Many governments around the world do not tackle the problem with the urgency it deserves. Often there is a lack of protective legislation and law enforcement is poor.
Corruption amongst police and other officials can be widespread. Brothels are warned of planned raids, brothel owners benefit from police collaboration and sometimes sex businesses are even owned by the authorities.
Exploitation and HIV/AIDS
A disturbing recent trend is that traffickers in the sex industry prize younger girls. This is due mainly to the belief that they will be free from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and the erroneous belief that virginity can cure STDs, including HIV/AIDS. Children in the sex industry are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection. In the worst hit countries, teenage girls are infected at five to six times the rate of teenage boys and it is estimated that 11.8 million young people between 15-24 years of age are living with HIV/AIDS. Nearly 6,000 young people become infected with HIV each day.
Commercial sexual exploitation and the UK
The UK is not exempt from the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. There are no accurate figures but the police regularly report British and non-British children working in the sex industry and current estimates are of 5,000 child sex workers, of whom 75 per cent are girls.
When it comes to sexual exploitation and trafficking, the UK Government do not hold figures on how many women were the victims of sexual exploitation or trafficking. The Government have delivered two national enforcement campaigns against trafficking for sexual exploitation, involving all 55 police forces. In 2006, Operation Pentameter 1 recovered 88 victims of trafficking, and during Operation Pentameter 2, this number was doubled to 167 (13 of whom were children).
UK agenda for action
On 1 May 2004, the Sexual Offences Act became law and made it illegal to traffic people into, within, and out of the UK for sexual exploitation. UNICEF UK welcomes the legislation and its high penalties to tackle the abuse of children through prostitution and pornography, but recognises a continuing failure to provide specialised and centrally funded care and support for child victims of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. UNICEF UK calls upon the Government to treat child sex workers as victims not criminals and provide them with the care necessary for their rehabilitation.
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