Child Prostitution - An Escalating Problem

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What is child prostitution? Is poverty the only motivator? Exploitation of children is bad enough, but child prostitution takes it to another level. Tackling the problem has and will not be easy but it must be done.

Child prostitution is defined as the using children and teenagers to work as prostitutes. Legally, anyone below 18 years of age is considered a child or a minor. Thus, child prostitution is prostituting anyone below 18 years of age.

There are some definitions however, that limits the definition of “child” to pre-pubescent and early-pubescent children thereby putting teen prostitution in a different category.

Nevertheless, the convention on the rights of children define child prostitution as any act where children are used for sexual activity in exchange for remuneration or any form of consideration given to the child or to any other person.

In 1999, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention identified child prostitution as one of the worst forms of child labor and urged countries that formerly tolerated the practice to remove it immediately.

Child prostitution is also linked with trafficking of children and is usually used to describe in part the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC). Child sex tourism is also one type of child prostitution.

In most cases of child prostitution, there is another party that is benefiting from the transactions either in the form of a pimp who overseers the activities of the child or an abuser who negotiates directly with the child in exchange for sexual gratification.

While child prostitution tend to be an escalating problem in many developing countries like Thailand and India, even developed and industrialized nations like the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan are affected by the epidemic. In Asia, an estimated 1 million boys and girls are engaged in child prostitution.

Child Prostitution - Getting to the Root of the Problem

Poverty has been identified as the number one proponent of child prostitution. Thus, it is logical to assume that eradicating poverty is one effective way of eradicating child prostitution.

In developing countries where economic opportunities are scarce, children are often drawn to the streets to sell sex in order to help provide for their families. In addition to this, the ever increasing expectation and desire to acquire the modern goods the world is offering can be just too much for children with little or no means.

Nevertheless, poverty is not the only reason why it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get children selling sex off the streets. Many child prostitutes are stowaways and have no families to care for their welfare. At the same time, they are also wary of the police and social services.

If a child prostitute is arrested and taken into custody by the social services, there is a big chance that he/she will be back on the streets in a few hours. In many cases, child prostitutes are already addicted and hooked to drugs like cocaine and need to make a living to support their habit.

Also, many child prostitutes are members of organized syndicates that offer them protection in exchange for their services, or money, or drugs. As such, authorities may find themselves tackling an organized crime instead of simply saving children from the streets.

Moreover, many developing and industrialized countries have no formal and concrete plans or strategies to tackle child prostitution in spite the number of international conventions that were held to eradicate the problem.