What we do

Flourishing economic growth in our region comes with unwanted developments as well. With more disposable income, the demand for entertainment increases and that includes expansion of establishments that make sexual services available. Unfortunately, to young migrating people finding or fearing other work options impossible, the proliferation of sex-related establishments increases income opportunities. Commercial sexual exploitation also is one of the end purposes of trafficked children.

• Local demand. A flourishing tourist industry in our region contributes to the exploitation of children. While Western men are the most visible sex tourists, the majority are Asians from other countries in the region. However, the attention placed on the large numbers of foreign clients overshadows the even larger population of people seeking sexual services who range from local businessmen to migrant males alone in new cities.

• Pornography and Internet exploitation. Technology innovations have enabled more sophisticated abuse of children, particularly through the Internet. Networks of abusers use the technology to first create pornographic materials and then to pass them around the Web and sell illicitly on CDs on streets and in markets where pirated video material is found.

• Paedophilia. Crack-down campaigns on paedophilia have prompted paedophiles to develop more savvy communication networks to disseminate information on where they have more freedom of movement. Countries such as Cambodia, which struggle with a reputation for the easy availability of young children, have been jailing abusers in recent years. This has inadvertently encouraged other abusers to move further through the region to Pacific islands, where reports of problems with foreign paedophiles have started surfacing.

© UNICEF/LAO01176/Holmes

Popular tourist areas, including bars that offer sex services, are among the typical destinations of trafficked children in Thailand

UNICEF in Action

UNICEF focuses its child protection efforts in three areas:

• Prevention. The key to prevention is ensuring that all children, especially girls, attend school so that they can eventually support themselves and become less vulnerable to people who may try to coerce them into the sex trade or exploit them in other ways.
• Protection, with a focus on countries’ laws and law enforcement. UNICEF works with governments to ensure that the police and judiciary are aware of the problems and take steps to better enforce existing laws against the sexual exploitation of children.
• Recovery and reintegration involves reaching children who have been sexually exploited, extracting them from the situation, providing them with services and support, and finding long-term solutions for their safe integration into a community of their choice.