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© UNICEF/HQ00-1004/Noorani

Yv (name changed), 21, has been involved in prostitution since she was 15, when she was kidnapped and sold for US$130. She lives in a brothel in southern Cambodia.


Overall, we should always be careful to use language that emphasizes the fact that children involved in prostitution are being exploited. So we should talk about 'sexually exploited children' or 'prostituted children', for example, not 'child prostitutes'. Language should also make it clear that child commercial sexual exploitation is always wrong. So we should talk about 'abusers' and 'exploiters', not 'customers' or 'clients'. Similarly, we should not describe children as 'working' in the sex trade, because this suggests legitimate employment. And we should not talk about 'sugar daddies' (men who have a continuing abusive relationship with a child, exchanging rewards, gifts or protection for sex) because this makes an abuser and exploiter sound like a generous and fatherly figure (see also Brain teaser 1).

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