Over 500,000  children are sold each year for sex

Child prostitution has been declared as illegal and a punishable offense in most countries. Thousands of minors are kidnapped, trafficked and forced to work as prostitutes. Most of the abducted children are below the age of 13. It has been approximated that over 15 million children are actively involved in prostitution worldwide.

Sex tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry. Due to fear of HIV/AIDS there is an immense demand for virgins and underage prostitutes. The valuation of a prostitute depends on her age, class. A middle class girl between the ages of 16-18 is paid 100 dollars. An upper class girl below the age of 13 is paid as much as 500 dollars. There is a popular myth among the sex offenders that if a man sleeps with a virgin, he could get rid of his sexually transmitted diseases and hence making minors exposed to these.

Horrifying:  Traffickers often lure people with money or job opportunities.

Incapacitated: Most of the times, victims are trafficked to different countries and they find it hard to understand the foreign culture and language and hence they're left helpless.

Cruel: Traffickers routinely threaten the girls and their families with serious abuse.

Workaholic : On an average a single prostitute handles 10-15 customers per day.

Pricy: Virgin’s fetch five times more money than non-virgin’s.

Victims of human trafficking are forcibly raped and often taught new sex acts. 60% of the trafficked women’s are re-sold by the pimps for a higher price. Most of the child sex trafficking victims come from North Korea, Brazil and Cambodia. Each year thousands of North Korean women who illegally enter China, are drugged and abducted by the sex traders upon arrival. These women are forced to work in Massage parlors, brothels and strip joints. And if they fail to comply with the pimp’s demands, they are sent back to Korea where they are severely penalized. 

Child sex workers go through vigorous physical and mental abuse. According to a report by UNICEF, 70% of the prostitutes have suicidal tendencies and suffer from mental stress. 6% of the trafficked women are known to have STDs. Due to poor law enforcement and regulations for unorganized sex crimes, human traffickers are hard to catch. However, there are many famous non-government organizations- ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), The Children’s Organization of Southeast Asia (COSA), Heal International who have been actively operating to fight child trafficking issues.

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