The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

1. It’s Your MoveYouth Action Group1st Floor, 67 Station Rd, Observatory 7925, Cape \townTel: 021 4485421 Fax: 021 4474997Email: info@molo.org.za

2. TheCommercial SexualExploitationof Children Young People’s Perspective

3. Outline • Case study • Reporting CSEC/ young people • Who gets prostituted and sexually exploited • Factors that impact on the CSEC • Different levels of CSEC • Who are responsible for CSEC of children • Challenges in the fight against CSEC • Recommendations • Conclusion

4. Reporting CSEC/young people • CSEC has recently taken on endemic proportions • Trucking routes • Child sex rings • Used to push drugs and gang operations • Prostitution as a means of survival • Pornography

5. Who gets prostituted and sexually exploited • All children & young people vulnerable • Especially those who have run away • Also those from stable homes • Children pimped by parents • Made false promises of work • Children are trafficked inside & across SA borders

6. Factors that impact on the CSEC • Increase in unemployment • Low levels of education • Changes in the extended and nuclear family • Changes in the religious and cultural beliefs of society • Breakdown in family and community support systems • Lack of social welfare and protective services for children • Lack of effective inestigation, sentencing and prosecution of offenders

7. Factors that impact on CSEC cont… • Increased demand for black children for sexual purposes • Changes in the international sex industry • Increased demand for sexual acts with younger children • Wrong beliefs that children are free from STD’s • Wrong beliefs that sex with a virgin will cure STD’s, including HIV & AIDS • Relative bargaining power of older sex workers • Children are less likely to negotiate terms of exchange

8. Different levels of CSEC Various sectors of sex industry • Prostituted • Pornography • Sold into marriage • Prostituted to travelers

9. Who are responsible for CSEC of children • Individuals at all levels - club owner - taxi driver - teacher - parent • Organized gangs/syndicates • Criminals and criminal networks

10. Challenges in the fight against CSEC We young people have identified the following challenges… Stop all practices of commercial sexual exploitation of children • Destroy all child trafficking networks and syndicates • Put preventative measures in place • Establish support structures for survivors • Ensure effective implementation of laws • Make sure that child protection authorities enforce such legislation • Ensure adequate and effective sentencing of offenders

11. The needs of child survivors Survivors of CSEC need to receive adequate support to help with recovery. They need support in the healing process and their re-integration into society in the form of: • Counselling from professionals and peers • Adequately trained polices, legal enforcers and all other professionals dealing directly with children • A safe-way house • Educational and vocational training • Skills development

12. Recommendations • Young people have active role to play • Empowerment • Protection • International children’s day to fight CSEC • Education • Healing process • Focal database • Focus on demand side • Harmonization of legislation and co-operation • Strong action against corruption • Shared mechanisms that provide info about CSEC • Action from Government

13. Conclusion • Although CSEC is rife in our country we have to acknowledge and applaud the work that young people have done. • Work has to start at grassroots. • Need for young people to be motivated and mobilised • Young people are the best communicators to their peers

14. “Child and youth prostitution is a reflection of the disease in society’s soul. Many of us disappear without a trace. No one knows what happens to us when we die. A child is murdered and no one cares because she is a prostitute. Society’s hands are just as bloody as the guy who did it.” “We are responsible for our children and young people – yet the issue is not ours alone. Governments, communities and society as a whole must be held accountable for the sexual exploitation of our children and youth”