Child Sex Tourism

What Is Child Sex Tourism?

Each year, more than one million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade. Child sex tourism (CST) involves people who travel from their own country to another and engage in commercial sex acts with children. CST is a shameful assault on the dignity of children and a form of violent child abuse. The sexual exploitation of children has devastating consequences. Tourists engaging in CST often travel to developing countries looking for anonymity and the availability of children in prostitution. The crime is typically fueled by weak law enforcement, corruption, the Internet, ease of travel, and poverty. These sexual offenders come from all socio-economic backgrounds and may hold positions of trust.

A Global Response

Over the last five years, there has been an increase in the prosecution of child sex tourism offences. At least 32 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow the prosecution of their citizens for CST crimes committed abroad. In response to the grotesque phenomenon, NGOs, the tourism industry, and governments have begun to address the issue. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) established a task force to combat CST. The WTO, the NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes ( ECPAT ), and Nordic tour operators created a global Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism in 1999. As of March 2005, 100 travel companies from 18 countries had signed the code. [See www.thecode.org]

  Read more on Child Sex Tourism at:  ECPAT International

Nearly a third of young people have received unwanted sexual comment online or by text. Just 7% of parents know their child has been subjected to such material.  4.2 million websites contain indecent images 100,000 websites contain indecent images of children

Source: Ceop

Cross-border cooperation in the European Union to prevent sex offenders from working with children.  Read the briefing from the NSPCC, February 2007

  Who are your kids chatting to online?

Parental Control Software

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