Splintered Lives - Barnardo's

PAGE 58
chapter
9
Routes into and out of
the sex industry
Whilst there are direct parallels, in terms of ensuring physical survival, there are also
important differences in the context of children and young people globally, and hence in
the factors which account for their being sexually exploited, and the conditions which
would provide them with an effective and sustainable route out. In her review of child
prostitution worldwide Amima Basak (1991) offers the following as routes in for children
in South East Asia:
Many are guided into it by their older friends, some are lured by pimps and some
children are even offered by their parents to sex syndicates for additional family
income either knowingly or unknowingly. A few are drugged, raped or intimidated
and taken into sex rings. (p10)
Other sources stress an increase in trafficking within and between countries (O'Grady
1994). Whilst we can make connections, in the West, currently, there are no recorded
public markets where children are sold into varieties of servitude, and few people would
be so desperate economically that they resorted to selling their children (although we
know some sell sexual access to their children).
Various forms of social dislocation (war, massive social change, such as that occurring
currently in Eastern Europe, or national/international economic policies) create contexts
in which children and young people become particularly vulnerable.
It is ironic that in countries which outlaw most forms of child labour, prostitution and
pornography may appear the only options for homeless children who desperately need
money (lCCB, 1988, p.18).
But for sexual exploitation to be a survival option the demand also has to exist. There
are a number of necessary conditions for the sexual exploitation of children to exist. At
minimum this involves:
�� a market for it;
�� organisers of it;
�� vulnerable children to use in it.
The vast majority of the former two categories are men, heterosexual and homosexual,
who both wish to have access to child pornography and/or prostitution, and who are
willing to organise their own and others access to this.
Men as customers, producers or organisers need access routes to children and these
can be fashioned in a number of ways: through paid and unpaid work; through children
they have already abused/involved (these may be children they live in the same
household as or not); or developing an accepted unthreatening presence in a
neighbourhood.