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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Razones para decir NO al Voluntariado en orfanatos

Better Volunteering Better Care, 2016

Este documento provee una explicación detallada de las razones que Better Volunteering Better Care está desalentando el voluntariado internacional en orfanatos (centros de atención residencial).

Child Labor and Household Composition: Determinants of Child Labor in Mexico

Patricia Murrieta Cummings - Asian Journal of Latin American Studies (2016) Vol. 29 No. 3: 29-54, 2016

The researcher in this study investigates the “relationship between child labor and the opportunity cost of schooling, taking into account other factors that influence parents’ decisions about child labor and schooling.”

Analytical report: Child Fosterage and Child Domestic Work in Haiti in 2014

Tone Sommerfelt, 31 Dec 2015

This report is an analysis of the overall findings from the research project on Haitian child domestic workers.

The Voluntourist

Chloe Sanguinetti, 10 Sep 2015

This 28-minute documentary film, by filmmaker Chloe Sanguinetti, explores the phenomenon of “voluntourism,” a recent trend in which people, typically young people from Western countries, travel to countries in the Global South to volunteer.

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Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children: Zero Draft Strategy

The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, 01 Sep 2015

This strategy explains how The Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children plans to prevent and respond to violence against children over the next five years. It will provide a platform to accelerate efforts to make girls and boys safe in the future, with the aim of delivering targets to end all forms of violence against children by 2030.

Beyond Orphanages: Family and Community-Based Orphan Care Webinar

Child Family Health International (CFHI), 19 Aug 2015

In August 2015, Child Family Health International (CFHI) held a webinar reviewing the situation of children living in residential care facilities around the world.

View Webinar Recording

Volunteering in Orphanages: Official Position Statement of IAIM Australia Inc.

The International Association of Infant Massage Australia, 01 Jul 2015

The International Association of Infant Massage in Australia has launched a position paper on volunteering in orphanages in order to address the problem of untrained volunteers being encouraged to conduct child care and infant massage practice in residential care centres, particularly in developing countries.

Child Victims of Human Trafficking: Outcomes and Service Adaptation within the U.S. Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Programs

Hilary Chester, Nathalie Lummert, and Anne Mullooly, 01 Jul 2015

This paper presents the features of the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) program model that most effectively meets the specialized needs of foreign-born child victims of human trafficking.

AMT Position Statement: Orphanage Volunteering

Association of Massage Therapists, 01 Jul 2015

In this position statement, the Association of Massage Therapists (AMT) of Australia clearly states that it does not endorse orphanage volunteering, referring to the positions of the Better Care Network, UNICEF, Save the Children and the ChildSafe network.

UNICEF Child Protection Earthquake Response April-May 2015

UNICEF, 01 May 2015

This document reviews UNICEF’s achievements in ensuring children’s protection in the 6 weeks following the devastating earthquakes in Nepal in 2015.