Selling of young children for sex in another country. "Children As Commodities"

Children As Commodities

According to the World

Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children,

it has been estimated that every year one million children are forced into the multi-billion dollar sex trade. Poverty is often quoted as the underlying cause of the sale of children into the sex trade, but it is important to note that not all poor families sell their children. What pushes a family to make money by selling a child has been called "poverty plus the closing of options". It often involves an already impoverished family facing unemployment and forced migration as well as the influence of raised expectations from contact with consumerism. However, some parents who sell their children into the sex trade do so unwittingly. They are tricked by traffickers who promise to find their children lucrative jobs in the city. Many remain ignorant of the eventual fate of their "working" children.

Trafficking Of Children

Trafficking, or the illegal moving and selling of human beings across

countries and continents, has long been outlawed by most national legislation and international human rights conventions.

English: South Africa HIV & AIDS Orphanage

English: IPSF HIV/AIDS Campaign Logo

English: Red_ribbon_of_HIV_AIDS_Monument_in_Kiev

This modern form of slavery continues in its most virulent form in the trafficking of children for sexual purposes.

Children whose families send them to the brothels as wage-earners could be called victims of 'soft' or 'family-based' trafficking. Set against this are children who are unwillingly and unknowingly abducted, drugged, or otherwise dragged to the brothels. These are the victims of 'hard' or 'coercive' trafficking. Hard trafficking is often organized by syndicates who have the resources, contacts, and expertise to coordinate the movement of children illegally and clandestinely across borders and continents.

This "industry" is a flagrant and devastating abuse of children and often involves bribery, kidnapping, false documents, sham marriages and adoptions, bonded labor and violence.

Children who are trapped...