For the trafficking of children to be reduced, we must ensure that prosecution of the men who are fueling the child sex slave industry is severe.
Act Against Injustice are aware that for every child rescued, another child takes his or her place. In order to end international slavery, demand must end.
Whilst traffickers are known to abduct children to meet this demand, it is more common for traffickers to target vulnerable children, for example those living in conflict or poverty and outside of a protective environment.
Eager for a better life, children are often enticed by promises of a higher standard of living, a better education and in particular a job. As a result they become willing participants in what they believe to be economic migration or smuggling, unaware that they are actually being trafficked and unaware of the abuse and exploitation they will face. Often, parents hand their children over to traffickers, unaware of the risks involved. Education of people is also instrumental.
There are two sectors where the labor services of trafficked persons are known to be subject to exploitation: prostitution and domestic work. There are three related factors that are the key to explaining the exploitative conditions experienced by many migrant domestic and sex workers: (1) the unregulated nature of the labor market segments in which they work (2) the abundant supply of exploitable labor and (3) the power and malleability of social norms regulating the behavior of employers and clients.
In Thailand in particular, both the survey and interview data suggest that buying sex can be part of a rite of passage, as well as a ritual to consolidate relationships with male friends, so is it peer pressure. In Scandinavia, social pressures to be a real man seem to vie with strong social pressures not to buy sex, making prostitute-use into an essentially private rather than public matter, so nurture is important. In Thailand 78 per cent had first gone to a prostitute when aged 21 or below, and in Italy over half of those who had bought sex were aged under 18). Having once experimented with prostitute-use, the vast majority of our respondents continued to buy sex. Most express a preference for prostitutes aged 25 or under, and a quarter prefer those aged 18 or below. However, the data also indicates that even clients with an express preference for teenage prostitutes base that demand on a set of ideas about age, gender and sexuality that allow them to imagine teenage girls as women who: (a) will not be harmed by the sexual experience, and (b) are capable of consent, around the age of 15, as below that age they would be harmed by working in prostitution.
Prostitution is quick, easy and satisfying, like buying fast food when you are really hungry. In Delhi, most clients prefer lighter-skinned Nepali sex workers, with European sex workers were normally placed at the top.42% of Thai clients selected light skinned as one of the three qualities they most favored in a sex worker. In holiday resorts in Tenerife, for example, British tourists and expatriates who buy sex often view migrant British sex workers as more desirable than Latin American ones because they value linguistic sameness; for the same reasons, Spanish tourists and local clients tend to favor Latin American sex workers.
This tells us that the demand is usually by the under 25’s; for light-skinned girls under 25 and many under 18. Many factors qualify such as peer pressure, social norms and how a person is brought up and their expectations are important. The promising aspect is that most clients, when visiting a younger prostitute, will have 2 prerequisites, that the girl will not be harmed by the experience and that they are able to consent. We must ensure that the client understands that most prostitution is trafficking. People who do not understand this will carry on as normal; those that do gain an understanding and may change their approach, this could significantly reduce demand.
