UN Fears Rising Child Sex Trade

The sexual exploitation of children is becoming increasingly widespread because of the greater reach of the internet, the involvement of organised crime, economic pressures and the impact of HIV/AIDS, a UN-organised conference on the issue in Bangkok heard yesterday.

Experts warned that unless governments translate the many recently-passed laws on the issue into action, millions more children could end up in sexual slavery. "In most respects it's getting worse as the forces driving sexual exploitation become more powerful," said Gopalan Balagopal, a child protection adviser with the UN's children's body Unicef.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked annually while the number of children thought to be sexually exploited is much greater than that.Thai welfare groups believe the annual increase in their country is about 20%.

The majority of exploited children are young teenagers but Mr Balagopal said it was not uncommon to find children as young as nine years old.

Carmen Madrinan, the executive director of Ecpat International, a non-governmental organisation that combats the sexual exploitation of children, said the boom in internet paedophilia was not restricted to developed nations. "What we're seeing now is that even in places with lower connectivity, such as in Asia, the [exploitation] is growing very very rapidly," she said.

Mr Balagopal said poverty was a large factor in many areas. "Worsening economic conditions make people more vulnerable to child sexual exploitation," he said. "They place families in a position where the parents feel they have to sell their children."