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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Human Trafficking and Child Welfare: A Guide for Child Welfare Agencies

Child Welfare Information Gateway, 01 Jul 2017

This bulletin is intended for child welfare agency leadership in the US and explores how child welfare agencies can support children who have been victimized as well as children that are at greater risk for future victimization.

Does your business include voluntourism products or orphanages in tourism programs?

The Code, 01 Jul 2017

This policy outlines the issues of voluntourism and orphanages in relation to child protection, and states the criteria by which organisations (private commercial companies, social enterprises and charities) involved in voluntourism activities may apply to join The Code.

Trafficking in Persons Report 2017

U.S. Department of State, 27 Jun 2017

The Trafficking in Persons Report is an annual publication of the U.S. Department of State, providing a snapshot of human trafficking around the world with attention to key issues, trends, standards, and updates.

Child Marriage and Violence against Children

Ruth Koshal - Girls Not Brides, 21 Jun 2017

This Girls Not Brides presentation provides an overview of child marriage, its impact and relationship to violence against children and alternative care, offering recommendations for research, policy, and practice at global, regional, and national levels when it comes to preventing child marriage and responding to those impacted.

Stolen Childhoods: End of Childhood Report 2017 - Arabic

Save the Children, 01 Jun 2017

Every child deserves a childhood of love, care and protection so they can develop to their full potential, but this is not the experience for at least a quarter of our children worldwide. This new report – the first in an annual series – takes a hard look at the events that rob children of their childhoods.

How safe are our children? The most comprehensive overview of child protection in the UK

Holly Bentley, Orla O'Hagan, Alison Brown, Nikki Vasco, Charlotte Lynch, Jessica Peppiate, Mieka Webber, Ruth Ball, Pam Miller, Anne Byrne, Maria Hafizi and Fiona Letendrie - NSPCC, 01 Jun 2017

This report compiles and analyses the most robust and up-to-date child protection data that exists across the 4 nations in the UK for 2017.

Stolen Childhoods: End of Childhood Report 2017

Save the Children, 01 Jun 2017

Country Care Review: Cyprus

Better Care Network , 08 May 2017

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities during the seventeenth session (20 March 2017 - 12 April 2017) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.