Child prostitution has been defined by the UN as "the act of engaging or offering the services of a child to perform sexual acts for money or other consideration with that person or any other person". By , international awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation and the sale of children had grown to such a level that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
Although girls are sexually exploited both in the sex industry and by sex tourists, many NGOs believe that it is boys who face greater abuse by foreign sex offenders, NGO Ecpact Ending Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking said. In Sri Lanka, the plantation sector has been identified as a notorious area for trafficking of children into the worst forms of child labour, particularly child domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation, according to ILO. The National Child Protection Authority issued a warning in of an increase in child sexual exploitation, related to the rapid growth of tourism.
According to Ecpat, due to the hidden nature of child sexual abuse reliable figures are hard to compile and cases difficult to document. Available figures estimate that currently some 30, to 40, children, not including foreign children, are exploited as prostitutes.
Sexual exploitation of children in Thailand, as in many other countries, is tremendously influenced by tourism. And sex tourism makes it harder to stop.
The photographic documentary, "Underage" by photographer Ohm Phanphiroj shows the life of thousands of underage male prostitutes in Thailand. Sex trafficking is an appalling truth to many young people in Brazil, where there are half-a-million child sex workers, according to the National Forum for the Prevention of Child Labour. Children as young as 12 are selling themselves for sex for as little as 80p in Brazil, according to an investigation by Sky News.
