Definitions
Child Sex Trafficking: The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a child for the purpose of a commercial sex act, which is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC): A fundamental violation of human rights and children’s rights. It arises through a commercial transaction or exchange in which one or more parties gain a benefit – cash, goods or kind – from the exploitation for sexual purposes of someone aged below 18. CSEC includes child prostitution, child pornography, and other forms of transactional sex where a child engages in sexual activities to have key needs fulfilled, such as food, shelter or access to education.
Human Trafficking: A modern-day form of slavery. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation and/or forced labor. Victims are young children, teenagers, men and women. After drug trafficking, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world today. Of all three, human trafficking is growing the most quickly.
Factors
Any commercial enterprise involves supply, demand, and the business. In human trafficking, the "supply" being sought after, traded, and used are innocent children.
Supply: Children are the most vulnerable of all human beings and, therefore, the most easily manipulated and coerced. Those most at-risk and vulnerable are children who are desperately poor, affected by war or genocide, or without parents or an education. The number of children in the world affected by these socioeconomic hardships are overwhelming, meaning the supply to this growing industry is practically endless. But much can be done in the way of prevention for these at-risk children. Please see our list of organizations to learn about those who work in prevention and rescue.
Demand: Child sexual exploitation happens because there is a demand for children's bodies. There are men and women who pay to have sex with a minor and who will travel to places around the world to do so. There can be no end to the supply as long as there is a demand for these children, the product. Child sex tourism is on the rise; however, so are the number of laws being created to stop it.
Business: Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. Pimps, pornographers, and traffickers are reaping financial rewards off a child's innocence every day. These individuals are smart professional fully capable of manipulation. They know what they're doing, and they are making a hefty profit as they watch their supply and demand grow.