1.8 mil­lion chil­dren world­wide are caught in com­mer­cial sex exploita­tion, and the busi­ness is boom­ing. Those with per­verse appetites have eas­ier access to chil­dren through tech­nol­ogy such as the inter­net. Also, chil­dren in poverty are eas­ily lured into the sex slav­ery through promises of money food or candy.

From the Global Post, writer Deena Duzder sheds light on this dis­turb­ing trend.

“The recent eco­nomic down­turn is set to drive more vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and young peo­ple to be exploited by the global sex trade,” says Car­men Madri­nan, exec­u­tive direc­tor of ECPAT Inter­na­tional, the orga­ni­za­tion that authored the August 2009 report. “The indif­fer­ence that sus­tains the crim­i­nal­ity, greed and per­verse demands of adults for sex with chil­dren and young peo­ple needs to end.”

Increas­ing poverty in children’s coun­tries of ori­gin and smaller bud­gets for social ser­vices are two of the fac­tors height­en­ing children’s vul­ner­a­bil­ity. Dete­ri­o­ra­tion of liv­ing con­di­tions often com­pels young peo­ple to aban­don school in order to con­tribute to the fam­ily income, putting them at risk of seek­ing liveli­hood options that lead to their being exploited, accord­ing to ECPAT International.

As a result of the cur­rent global down­turn, hun­dreds of fac­to­ries have closed in Thai­land, leav­ing thou­sands of both Thai and non-Thai work­ers unem­ployed. Unem­ploy­ment is ris­ing at a rate of about 100,000 work­ers a month and may climb to 1.5 mil­lion by the end of the year.

“If you ask me, the gov­ern­ment is not cor­rect­ing the source of the prob­lem,” says Asipong. “It’s just treat­ing the symp­toms. Poverty is a big con­tri­bu­tion to the prob­lem in Thai­land, espe­cially in the coun­try­side. Whether par­ents or chil­dren, both have to strug­gle to survive.”

Street chil­dren and state­less chil­dren are extremely vul­ner­a­ble to com­mer­cial sex­ual exploita­tion, says Amanda Bis­sex, UNICEF Thailand’s Chief of Child Pro­tec­tion. “We need to improve law enforce­ment and the eco­nomic wel­fare of chil­dren,” she says, “but we also need to address people’s atti­tudes and cre­ate an envi­ron­ment where there is zero tol­er­ance for abuse of chil­dren, whether in their home coun­try or overseas.”

Ear­lier this year, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes stated in its Global Report on Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons that 79 per­cent of all global traf­fick­ing is for sex­ual exploita­tion, one of the world’s fastest-growing crimes. The report stated that the pro­por­tion of minors involved in the var­i­ous forms of human-trafficking increased from about 15 per­cent to nearly 22 per­cent between 2003 and 2007. This past June, the Obama Admin­is­tra­tion expanded the U.S. watch list of coun­tries sus­pected of not doing enough to com­bat human-trafficking, putting more than four dozen nations on notice that they might face sanc­tions if their records don’t improve.

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