UN Report Looks at Child Sex

Millions of children are being bought and sold for use as sex slaves, according to a new UNICEF report. It recommends a global campaign to eradicate a multibillion-dollar industry in the sexual exploitation of youngsters. UNICEF called for laws to protect children from abuse and said the laws must be enforced with tough penalties. The report estimated that approximately 1 million children, mostly girls, enter the commercial sex trade every year. Because traffickers operate clandestinely, shuttling children through underground networks, and because some governments don't recognize the problem, accurate statistics are hard to come by, the report said.

"Zero tolerance means ending the trafficking of children, their sale and barter and imprisonment and torture," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said in a statement issued with the report late Tuesday. The underlying causes of commercial sexual exploitation of children include poverty, discrimination against girls, war, organized crime, globalization, greed, traditions, beliefs, dysfunctional families and the drug trade, UNICEF said. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has been ratified by 191 nations, states that a child has the right to be free from abuse, to receive an education and to play -- all of which the report says are casualties of sexual exploitation.

Victims of commercial sexual exploitation are at high risk of unwanted pregnancies, of contracting AIDS or other STDs, and of suffering lifelong sexual, physical and emotional damage, the report said. The few children who manage to escape the sex trade face social stigma, family rejection, shame, fear of retribution and the loss of economic prospects.

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