Public HealthChild prostitution: global health burden, research needs, and interventions
Section snippets
Contributing factors
Social, cultural, and economic factors contribute to child prostitution through gender bias, discrimination, poor education, and poverty.5 For example, in some communities, prostitution is widely accepted, laws against child prostitution are not enforced, or both. In other communities, male clients believe that children are less likely to pass on HIV infection and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).5 Children of sex workers are at risk of being prostituted.6 Homeless, runaway, or abandoned
Human rights issues
Child prostitution is a gross violation of children's rights and dignity. UNICEF characterises it as “one of the gravest infringements of rights that children can endure.”13 In Asia, an estimated 1 million children in the sex trade are held in conditions that are indistinguishable from slavery.14
Children have a right to be protected from prostitution under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention was adopted as an international human rights treaty in 1989, and has been
Research
Although most reports on child prostitution acknowledge that it results in many serious health problems, there are very few reliable morbidity and mortality data. Health data for child prostitution are extremely restricted because some studies are not published; published studies are difficult to access and tend to report qualitative, rather than quantitative, health data; and funding for large quantitative studies is difficult to obtain. Information on prostituted children could be derived
Needs assessment and research
Comprehensive quantitative studies on child prostitution are urgently needed at community, national, and global levels to assess the magnitude of child prostitution, identify the conditions under which children are forced into prostitution, identify the health problems of these children, and determine the long-term health needs of children who are no longer prostituted. Data from these studies could be used to develop interventions to prevent child prostitution; mitigate the health problems of
Preventing child prostitution
Although many individuals and organisations are working to prevent child prostitution, additional interventions are needed to address the health consequences at community, national, and international levels. Many interventions are aimed at addressing the demand for prostituted children, such as the criminalisation of sex tourism. Although many countries have laws to prosecute people who travel overseas for sex with minors, these laws are seldom enforced. More research-based interventions are
Mitigating adverse health effects of prostituted children
Health services for child prostitutes have been proposed in the plan of action from the First World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children,28 and in the model nation plan by End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT).29 Moreover, under the recently passed optional protocol on child prostitution of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, signatory nations are obliged to take measures to assist prostituted children,
Rescuing and reintegrating prostituted children
Local, national, and international strategies should be developed and implemented to rescue prostituted children. Once these children have been rescued, they need sustainable medical and psychological support and opportunities for schooling or vocational training. Programmes to rescue children and provide them with sustainable services should be assessed and details of successful programmes should be shared. For example, in Cambodia, 232 children were rescued during police raids of 40 brothels.
A call to action
Children have the right to be protected from prostitution and, if they have been prostituted, to receive necessary health services. These rights will never be fully realised until there is the political will to enforce laws and fund services. Health professionals have critical roles in developing this political will.
A coordinated international campaign is needed to prevent child prostitution, provide services to children who are prostituted until they can be removed from prostitution, and
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