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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Lesotho: Violence Against Children Survey Factsheet

Together for Girls, 2019

The Lesotho VACS Fact Sheet provides country-specific data on sexual and physical violence against children in Lesotho.

How filmmaking can support advocacy: The Voluntourist and orphanage tourism

Chloe Sanguinetti - Modern Day Slavery and Orphanage Tourism, 2019

This chapter from the book Modern Day Slavery and Orphanage Tourism draws on the author's film The Voluntourist that has aided in raising the groundswell of objection to orphanage tourism.

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Specialized Residential Placements for Child Trafficking Victims 2019

Amy Farrell, Sarah Lockwood, Kelly Goggin, Shannon Hogan - Violence and Justice Research Laboratory, Northeastern University, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2019

This study outlines the policies, practices, and programming that have been implemented across the US to provide specialized responses to exploited and trafficked youth within residential placement settings.

Short-term Missions and Volunteering: Safeguarding Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Homecoming Project, 2019

This guide was developed by Homecoming and has been written to help those in the Christian community who are thinking about whether they should volunteer in an orphanage (or residential care institution, children’s village, children’s home or centre).

Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation

The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2019

Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation - a 40-country benchmarking index - examines how countries are responding to the threat of sexual violence against children.

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What drives voluntourism? Internal impulses and external encouragement

Pippa Biddle, 2019

This chapter from the book Modern Day Slavery and Orphanage Tourism aims to identify the motivations behind voluntourism, categorizing them into types so as to provide a foundation upon which we might better assess why it is that so many voluntourists seek to work with children, often in institutional environments.

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Human trafficking victimization among youth who run away from foster care

Natasha E. Latzman, Deborah A. Gibbs, Rose Feinberg, Marianne N. Kluckman, Sue Aboul-Hosn - Children and Youth Services Review, 23 Dec 2018

This paper uses administrative data to describe the characteristics and experiences of a population of youth in the child welfare system considered to be at particularly high risk of victimization: youth who have run away from foster care.

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Wise and Honoring Representations of Children in Media: Protecting Vulnerable Children

Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), 12 Dec 2018

This guide from the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) offers strategies for protecting children in creating and sharing digital media of children.

Kristen Cheney 'Combatting the Orphan Industrial Complex'

Kristen Cheney | HagueTalks, 25 Nov 2018

In this video, Dr. Kristen Cheney discusses how her work led her to study the growth of the Orphan Industrial Complex and its adverse effects on children, families, communities, and child protection systems.

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Volunteer Tourism in Cambodian Residential Care Facilities—A Child Rights-based Approach

Marit Ursin and Mona Lock Skålevik - The International Journal of Children's Rights, 24 Nov 2018

This article analyzes the impact of volunteer tourism on children’s wellbeing in residential care facilities in Cambodia by employing a child rights-based approach.

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