Child Exploitation

Child trafficking is a form of child abuse. It is the exploitation of children for economic or sexual purposes, and includes the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a child for exploitation. Children may be sold, illegally adopted, forced into early marriage, recruited into the armed forces, pushed into prostitution, or trafficked to work in mines, factories, or homes. In such environments they are exposed to extreme forms of abuse and are denied access to basic services and the meeting of their fundamental human rights. Trafficked children often lack basic legal status and support networks, making their condition virtually "invisible."

Children without parental care, living in poverty, and those in high risk environments such as war affected regions, are all highly vulnerable to trafficking. Conflict and post conflict environments pose the greatest risk to children since the breakdown in family and social systems, the increase in poverty, and large numbers of troops present, are all factors which make sexual and economic exploitation of children more common.

Prevention is crucial to reduce the incidence of children affected and includes the registering of all displaced children, and their temporary care until verification and family reunification activities can take place. All children, caretakers, and communities should be educated on the risks to children and protective steps to ensure children do not become separated and exposed to abuse and exploitation. Where possible, unaccompanied children should be placed in regulated and protective family environments such as kinship or foster care.

Governments, the police, border controls, teachers, and all organizations responsible for protection must work together to prevent trafficking, identify those children at risk, advocate for their safety, and prosecute those responsible. This includes awareness raising for communities, institutions, and personnel working with vulnerable groups, such as armed forces, peacekeepers, and humanitarian workers.

Support services for children who have been trafficked should include medical, psychosocial, family reunification, and legal elements, to facilitate the reintegration of the child into the community and to enable educational and economic opportunities which are in the child’s best interests.

This section of documents examines the nature of trafficking in more detail, and includes policy and practical information to prevent and respond to child exploitation.

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Stop the War on Children 2020 Gender Matters: The West and Central Africa brief

Save the Children, 2020

This brief - a supplement to the Stop the War on Children 2020: Gender matters report - highlights the situation of children in conflict zones in West and Central Africa with a focus on gender.

"Internett er et Stort Mørkt Rom": Håndtering av risiko for seksuell utnytting over internett på barnevernsinstitusjon

Save the Children Norway, 2020

This report from Save the Children Norway explores what child welfare institutions in Norway are doing to protect children in their care from the risk of online sexual offences.

Children in Care: Exploitation, Offending and the Denial of Victimhood in a Prosecution-led Culture of Practice

Julie Shaw, Sarah Greenhow - The British Journal of Social Work, 02 Dec 2019

The following article reports upon recent research, which explored the perceptions of professionals of the issues that affect the sexual and criminal exploitation of children in care, along with a discussion of the effectiveness of current responses to these issues and the challenges that professionals face.

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Children in Care: Exploitation, Offending and the Denial of Victimhood in a Prosecution-led Culture of Practice

Julie Shaw, Sarah Greenhow - The British Journal of Social Work, 02 Dec 2019

The following article reports upon recent research that explored the perceptions of professionals of the issues that affect the sexual and criminal exploitation of children in care, along with a discussion of the effectiveness of current responses to these issues and the challenges that professionals face.

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Guidelines for ethical research on sexual exploitation involving children

ECPAT International, 01 Dec 2019

Doing research involving children in the context of sexual exploitation raises a range of ethical questions and dilemmas. This document provides guidance for negotiating these ethical questions for a range of people engaged in field research (from lead researchers to data collectors).

Country Care Review: El Salvador

Better Care Network, 01 Oct 2019

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as part of its examination of El Salvador's initial reports, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

Nightmares and flashbacks: The impact of commercial sexual exploitation of children among female adolescents placed in residential care

Nadine Lanctôt, Joan A. Reid, Catherine Laurier - Child Abuse & Neglect, 30 Sep 2019

This study aimed to assess differences in the level of post-traumatic symptoms reported by those who experienced commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) during adolescence and those who did not.

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Children and Families at Risk and Need for Integrated Childcare and Support Centres

Murli Desai - Rights-based Integrated Child Protection Service Delivery Systems, 18 Sep 2019

The aim of this module from the book Rights-based Integrated Child Protection Service Delivery Systems is to learn about children and families at risk and the need for rights-based Integrated Child Care and Support Centres.

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The Impact of the Care Setting on Child Rehabilitation

Better Care Network, 12 Sep 2019

In this video, Sreyna and Chenda, two practitioners from Hagar Cambodia, discuss their learning regarding the impact of the care setting on child rehabilitation.

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Cambodian Practitioner Learning Video Series

Better Care Network, 12 Sep 2019

Comprised of 12 videos and accompanying discussion guides, this video series features the learning from practitioners working across a range of care-related programs and practices in Cambodia.