Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.” If the morality of our society were to be determined based on the risk and danger faced by children around the world today, we would not be praised to be a moral society at all. The lives of children and their innocence have always been of high importance to members of the society. With increasing importance placed on material gains, the priorities of people have shifted. As such, the exploitation of children for material gains is prevalent in various avenues in the world. Innovations in science and advancements in technology are aimed to better the lives of all human beings. They are aimed to be beneficial to all and to eradicate the problems associated with poverty. However, modern day technological advancements have resulted in the evolution of child sex trafficking into a global cyberspace phenomenon that victimizes millions of children worldwide. In this essay, we will assess the issue of online child sex trafficking and impacts globalization has had on it.
The US federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines sex trafficking as “The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act where such an act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age”. The commercial aspect of trafficking is critical to distinguishing between sexual assault and trafficking. There must be an exchange of anything of value such as money, food or shelter for a sex act for it to be established as trafficking. Children are commercially sexually exploited through prostitution, pornography and e...
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Works Cited
Child trafficking statistics. US & International (2013). Retrieved on 11 November, 2013, from http://www.arkofhopeforchildren.org/issues/child-trafficking-statistics#.UoGgxSefVUU.
Child victims of human trafficking (n.d.). Retrieved on 11 November, 2013, from http://www.law.washington.edu/AsianLaw/HumanTrafficking/child_victims.pdf
Criddle.L. Child Trafficking and the Internet (n.d.). Retrieved on 11 November, 2013, from http://ilookbothways.com/2010/06/15/child-trafficking-and-the-internet/. Latonero, M.(2011). The Role of Social Networking Sites and Online Classifieds. Human Trafficking Online, 18-21.
Webcam child sex tourism must stop!(2013). Retrieved on 11 November, 2013, from http://www.tdh.ch/en/news/webcam-child-sex-tourism-must-stop?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tdh-News-English+%28Tdh+-+News+in+English%29.
Awareness of child sexual trafficking can be viewed as a balanced scale, with one side representing the country’s population that is fully informed of the issue, while the other side is either unaware or unattached to the issue. The public needs to have more involvement with this affair based on multiple concerns; first, the act of child sex trafficking itself is a serious crime that violates human rights (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Second, various negative health repercussion including transmittable sexual diseases, physical damages, mental disturbance, post traumatic stress disorders, and other illnesses plague many victims (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Third, sexual trafficking is responsible for generating poverty as a result of obstructing economic, and social development (Reid, 2012). Child sex trafficking proves to be a global dilemma affecting numerous countries
Kotrla, K., & Wommack, B. A. (2011). Sex Trafficking of Minors in the U.S.: Implications for Policy, Prevention and Research. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk: Vol. 2 (Iss. 1), article 5.
According to Reid, “… child sex trafficking would comprise all activities involved in inducting a minor’s involvement in commercial sexual exploitation, from the initial recruitment of the minor into commercial sex exploitation to buying the sexual services of the minor” (3).
According to Van Wormer & Bartollas (2014), sex trafficking, “encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work” (p. 289). Sex trafficking is also a very lucrative business, it is estimated to make $31. 6 billion annually. This amount is estimated from the 2.5 million people who a trafficked each year. The exact number of people who are victims of the sex industry cannot be predicted accurately for all over the world. In the United States alone there is about 14,500-17,500 people trafficked each year. Human trafficking it the third biggest organized crime after drug and arms trafficking (Hodge, 2014). Young men make up about 44% of people being trafficked, while women and girls
Sex trafficking is when women, young girls, and young boys are held in slavery and forced into prostitution for the financial gain of others in brothels in the United States, Europe, and other developing countries such as Thailand and the Philippines (Sexual Slavery). It’s happened to many women and children throughout many years in many of these countries for money and more power. Often purchased or kidnapped off the street, women, girls, and boys are trafficked across international
Trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation and provision of a person for the purpose of commercial sex. American trafficking victims are estimated to be between 100,000 and 300,000. Most of these are from the million are so children that are thrown out of their home or they have run away usually to escape abuse and/or sexual violence. (Shelley, pg. 230) The law says that a person under the age of 18 has to have been defrauded, forced or coerced into the sex trade against their will. Sex trafficking venues are wide and vast. Victims of sex trafficking can be found in brothels, strip clubs, esc...
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
An estimated 20.9 million people are currently being trafficked worldwide (The Polaris Project, 2014). According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, reauthorized in 2013), sex trafficking is defined as, “A commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, and/or in which the person induced to...
Teaching youth at an early age what a healthy and unhealthy relationship looks like and how to be safe on the Internet is key in combating the issue of exploitation and trafficking. As well as training professionals and individuals who may come across victims in any setting to be able to recognize the signs of sexual exploitation and sex trafficking. By an increase in training and awareness, the world may be able to gain a more realistic calculation of how many individuals are affected by either sexual exploitation or sex trafficking.
The United States has one of the largest percentages of trafficked humans worldwide, however so many individual are unaware of this issue. As many as 17,500 individuals are thought to be trafficked into the United Stated annually, and some have estimated that 100,000 U.S. citizen children are victims of trafficking within the U.S. (Siskin & Wyler, 2010). Since many cases go unreported, these estimates may be fewer than the actual number of victims in the US. There is substantial evidence that supports the ideology that woman and children from low socio-economic status are most likely targeted (Okech, Morreau, & Benson, 2011), of all the people trafficked each year about 70 percent of women and 50 percent are children that are mainly forced into the sex trade (Human Trafficking Statistics). Among socio-economic problems, the trafficking business feeds on conditions of vulnerability, such as family conflicts, natural disasters, youth, ignorance, gender, social exclusion, political instabil...
One of the largest targets for sex traffickers is a child. Since children are considered vulnerable they are easily coerced or kidnapped and made to perform sexual acts for others and live in debt to their owner or pimp. “Sex traffickers frequently target vulnerable people with histories of abuse and then use violence, threats, lies, false promises, debt bondage,
Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a $32-billion-per-year business, and that 79% of this activity comprises sexual exploitation. As many as 2 million children a year are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, according the the U.S. State Department.-- Cynthia G. Wagner. (Darker Side, par. 4) The words prostitute, pimp, escort, and stripper tend to be way too common in the American everyday vocabulary. People use these words in a joking manner, but sex trafficking is far from a joke. Everyday, from all different countries, people are bought and sold either by force or false promises. Some are kidnapped and others come to America with dreams of a dream life and job. The buyers involved in the trade will do anything to purchase an innocent life just to sell for their own selfish profit. Many people wouldn’t think of a human body to be something you can buy in the back room of a business or even online. But those plus the streets are where people are sold most often. There are many reasons and causes for sex trafficking. The factors behind sex traffic...
An article released by the BBC entitled “Horrors of India’s Brothels Documented” brought this shocking global issue to my attention. The article provides information about a young Indian girl who was only 11 when she was sold into sex slavery by her neighbor (who had persuaded her family to let her go with him to Mumbai); she was taken from her impoverished village in West Bangel. Brutally raped the first night she arrived in a brothel, Guddi is only one of 20,000 sex workers in that specific area [Kamathipura] (2013). The article elaborates on the history of sex slavery in India. It points out that laws have recently been put into place against human trafficking. However, the laws are not being strongly enforced due to the sheer number of the cases. Human trafficking is like a plague that is spread throughout the world, and India is one of the hardest hit places. This paper will elaborate on the reasons this condition exists in India, and explain the connections that India has with the rest of the world that stem from this issue.
Human trafficking is a worldwide problem. From California to Australia, it happens. “161 countries are reported to be affected by human trafficking by being either a source, transit, or destination count. Out of the 161 countries, 56% of those are in Asia and the Pacific, being the number one place it occurs” (UNGIFT). Trailing far behind with 10% is Latin America and the Caribbean” (UNGIFT). No matter the location or the state of the economy, human trafficking is always in progress. “People are reported to be trafficked from 127 countries to be exploited in 137 countries, affecting every continent and every type of economy” (UNGIFT). “The majority of trafficking victims are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old” (UNGIFT). Just because those are the most common ages, doesn't mean that it only happens to them. Children are also affected by human trafficking. “An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year” (UNGIFT). So many people think that it is just teens and adults that get stuck into the trafficking business, but it is also small children.
One reason why human trafficking is a serious crime that many people are unaware of is because it secretly takes place in the United States. Between 2007 and 2012, there were reports of 9,298 different cases of human trafficking (Polaris Project). An example of how unknown this topic is is that 41% of sex trafficking cases and 20% of labor trafficking cases were proven to have United States citizens as victims (Polaris Project). And this is only what we know so far. There are thousands of cases that we don’t know about. Many people also don’t know that men, women, and even children are also taken hostage by human traffickers. An example of this would be that out of those 9,298 cases that were reported, women were victims of sex trafficking in 85% of those cases. Men were victims of labor trafficking in 40% of those cases (Polaris Project). Approximately 300,000 children are at risk of being prostituted in the United States (U.S. Department of Justice). Children are even more under the radar than we know about. On average, one in three teenagers on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving their home (National Runaway Hotline). For example, two female friends who were minors ran away from home and were prom...