Child trafficking is an act in which children are taken out of their respective and protective environment and preying on their vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation.
Trafficked children are sexually exploited by child pornography. The United States defines child pornography as any visual activities depiction of sexually conduct involving a minor. Federal law prohibits any production, distribution, importation, reception, or possession of any image, video, or depiction of child pornography.
Child sex trafficking refers to all activities including the recruitment, harboring, transporting, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or solicitation of minor for a commercial sex act. Criminals such as pimps and traffickers mainly target children who are vulnerable due to impoverished conditions. These offenders deceived parents and children with offers of love, friendship, housing, food, clothing, attention, or everything that will make their life beautiful. Once a trafficker has earned the trust of victims they will engage the child into acts of prostitution using psychological, emotional, and physical abuse. These acts are aimed to trap children and people in lives of prostitution.
Many times child trafficking end kids in harmful or physically hard labor. The global estimates for children in hazardous labor exceed 73 million. These children are forced to carry heavy loads, scavenge garbage dumps, using dangerous agricultural equipment, forced to be child soldiers, and even end up begging.
Children are always trafficked for the function of drug smuggling. They are used for transportation and also as dealers of drugs on the streets. Many times they are given drugs for their work which further enslaves them through addiction. Worse children who are used for this type of child trafficking are treated as nothing more than criminals. That means they are victimized twice, once by traffickers and again by the legal system.
Some children end up doing domestic work like slaves did in our world’s history. They are forced to clean, cook, and pick up after people. Being kidnapped or having parents accepting into allowing this to happen leaves kids suffering. They are objects, possessions to be bought, sold.
Common examples of child domestic slavery are working in restaurants, homes, hotels, or other areas where morally corrupt business owners are looking for cheap labor.
Currently a reality of our world is children are taken and used to fill adoption biddings. International adoption is the most common type of child trafficking for the purpose of adoption. Children are taken from homes, orphanages, schools, parks. Most people think uncontrollable children as the only vulnerable category, it isn’t true. Many parents are tricked, or threatened into giving up their children.
There are so many causes of child trafficking, but we would just focus on the 3 main causes of child trafficking.
Poverty is the common cause of child trafficking. Poor families in many cases have no choice but to abandon their children. This makes them orphaned and easy targets for child trafficking. Poverty is the primary cause for a lot of children left on the streets. These children are easily lured in by promises of a better life from traffickers posing as humanitarians. Even in cases where children are still living with parents in poor homes, they are vulnerable. Some parents are deceived into stories from traffickers about how they can help their children find education and employment.
When children don’t have the basic skills to support themselves they are more vulnerable. Illiteracy is one of the common issues that lead children to being trafficked. They can’t read anything around them and have no idea where they are or who their captors are.
During crisis where children are lost or orphaned, trafficking is mostly common. Be it an earthquake, pandemic, or other disruption child trafficking increases in these times and locations. While it is more common in countries where human rights are already being violated child traffickers take any opportunity to find, transport, and sell children.
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