SRI LANKA
According to Unicef and ILO [International Labour Organisation] there are 40,000 child prostitutes in Sri Lanka and 6.4% of the country's child population gets pregnant.
In Sri Lanka, the plantation sector has been identified as a notorious area for trafficking of children into the worst forms of child labour, particularly child domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation, according to ILO.
The National Child Protection Authority issued a warning in 2011 of an increase in child sexual exploitation, related to the rapid growth of tourism.
THAILANDIA
Child prostitution in Thailand involved
800,000 children
under the age of sixteen in 2004.
According to Ecpat, due to the
hidden nature of child sexual abuse
reliable figures are hard to compile and cases difficult to document. Available figures estimate that currently some 30,000 to 40,000 children, not including foreign children, are exploited as prostitutes.
Sexual exploitation of children in Thailand, as in many other countries, is tremendously influenced by
tourism.
Pedophiles have an entire
worldwide network
of people looking for children through human trafficking. And sex tourism makes it harder to stop.
BRAZIL
Sex trafficking is an appalling truth to many young people in Brazil, where there are
half-a-million child
sex workers, according to the National Forum for the Prevention of Child Labour.
Children
as young as 12
are selling themselves for sex for as little as
80p
in Brazil, according to an investigation by Sky News.
According to the documentary "Brazil- Children for sale", hundreds of children who live in the slums leave their homes in search of tourists, who are
"eager for easy and cheap bodies", to
earn money
and
escape poverty
.
Unemployment and poverty is extremely high in Brazil and children are sometimes
encouraged by their parents
to start prostituting.
UNITED STATES
According to Crimes Against Children research Centre (CCRC), the numbers of juvenile prostitutes within the United States range
from 1,400 to 2.4 million
, although most fall between 300,000 and 600,000.
"Prostituted children remain the orphans of America's justice system. They are either
ignored
or, when they do come in contact with law
enforcement, harassed, arrested, and incarcerated
while the adults who exploit them - the pimp and their customers - largely escape punishment," said Julian Sher, author of the book Somebody's Daughter:
The Hidden Story of America's Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them.
CANADA
Inuit babies and children are being
sold by their families
and are "prostituted out by a parent, family member or domestic partner", according to a recent report by Canadian Department of Justice.
The sexual exploitation of children is a
deeply–rooted reality
in too many Canadian homes, families and communities, according to a 2011 report by a Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights.
The committee, which started the investigation in 2009, heard that in one year there were almost
9,000 reported sexual assaults
against children
(many of whom belong to aboriginal communities) in Canada. The overwhelming majority of sexual abuse goes unreported.
Social service organisations have estimated the number of trafficked Canadians to be as high as 16,000 a year,
but the number of children trafficked within Canada from place to place remains uncertain due to the
clandestine nature
of the activity, Unicef Canada said in a statement in 2009.
THE FIVE COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST RATES OF CHILD PROSTITUTION
Underage prostitutes in Brazil
FBI agent leading away a suspect arrested in the "Operation Cross Country II" in 2008.
Causes of Child Prostitution:
- The principal cause of prostitution is poverty . Parents often feel obligated to sell their children to pimps because their low salary does not allow them to meet the needs of their family.
- Each year, wars, natural catastrophes and the HIV/AIDS epidemic all contribute to the increase in the number of orphans . Being so vulnerable, these children accept any kind of work
- Over the past forty years, the sex industry has been industrialised and diffused by new methods of communication . The rise and normalisation of pornography in particular has contributed to the development of prostitution.
Sexually exploited children are uneducated children . Rejected by their relatives and marginalised by society, they have little access to healthcare and suffer extremely unhygienic conditions
Physical level:
- vaginal tearing
- pain
- infection
- unwanted pregnancy
Psychological level:
- depression
- personality or sexual orientation confusion
- problems with behaviour (aggressiveness or anger)
- trouble sleeping
- loss of self-confidence
WHAT DOES CHILD PROSTITUTION MEAN?
Child prostitution has been defined by the UN as "the act of
engaging or offering the services
of a child to perform sexual acts for money or other consideration with that person or any other person".
Sexual exploiters utilise the docility of children because they are
less able to defend
themselves. This deviant attitude is often caused by the feeling of sexual and economic power, by the desire for new experiences, or by the feeling of impunity related to anonymity.