MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
Oprah is doing a show about this topic today, Christiane Amanpour is her guest
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200511/20051102/slide_20051102_284_201.jhtml
The trafficking of children for the purposes of prostitution has been called the ugliest, most preventable man-made disaster in the world. One brave person who has seen the realities of this desperate, depraved underworld up close is CNN international reporter Christiane Amanpour.
Christiane says she has witnessed instances in which parents or guardians sell girls—some as young as 10 years old—into prostitution. Sometimes they do so with the full knowledge of what is to come. At other times the parents or guardians are unaware, believing that the girls will simply be working in some other way to support their families.
According to World Vision, an international children's watch group, a quarter of all who travel internationally so that they may solicit sex from children are U.S. citizens. "As awful as it sounds, that is true," Christiane says. "Of course it's not just American citizens. It's Europeans and, in many parts of the world, it's the local people. Europeans [travel] a lot to Asia and Southeast Asia for that kind of sex service, but the majority, the bulk, is the local community."
Think it's not happening in your neighborhood? Think again. Get the facts on child sex trafficking, and let your voice be heard.
What You Need to Know
Sex Trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.
An estimated $9.5 billion is generated in annual revenue from all trafficking activities, with at least $4 billion attributed to the worldwide brothel industry. (Ibid.)
An estimated 2 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry. (UNICEF)
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. (UNICEF)
Around the world between 50 and 60 percent of the children who are trafficked into sexual slavery are under age 16.
Human trafficking is the second-largest organized crime in the world.
25 percent of all child sex tourists around the world are U.S. citizens.
The largest number of people trafficked into the United States come from East Asia and the Pacific (5,000 to 7,000 victims). The next highest numbers come from Latin America and from Europe and Eurasia, with between 3,500 and 5,500 victims from each. (U.S. Departments of Justice, Health & Human Services, State, Labor, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 2004. Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.
to send a letter to your Reps
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200511/tows_past_20051102_letter.jhtml
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200511/20051102/slide_20051102_284_201.jhtml
The trafficking of children for the purposes of prostitution has been called the ugliest, most preventable man-made disaster in the world. One brave person who has seen the realities of this desperate, depraved underworld up close is CNN international reporter Christiane Amanpour.
Christiane says she has witnessed instances in which parents or guardians sell girls—some as young as 10 years old—into prostitution. Sometimes they do so with the full knowledge of what is to come. At other times the parents or guardians are unaware, believing that the girls will simply be working in some other way to support their families.
According to World Vision, an international children's watch group, a quarter of all who travel internationally so that they may solicit sex from children are U.S. citizens. "As awful as it sounds, that is true," Christiane says. "Of course it's not just American citizens. It's Europeans and, in many parts of the world, it's the local people. Europeans [travel] a lot to Asia and Southeast Asia for that kind of sex service, but the majority, the bulk, is the local community."
Think it's not happening in your neighborhood? Think again. Get the facts on child sex trafficking, and let your voice be heard.
What You Need to Know
Sex Trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.
An estimated $9.5 billion is generated in annual revenue from all trafficking activities, with at least $4 billion attributed to the worldwide brothel industry. (Ibid.)
An estimated 2 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry. (UNICEF)
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. (UNICEF)
Around the world between 50 and 60 percent of the children who are trafficked into sexual slavery are under age 16.
Human trafficking is the second-largest organized crime in the world.
25 percent of all child sex tourists around the world are U.S. citizens.
The largest number of people trafficked into the United States come from East Asia and the Pacific (5,000 to 7,000 victims). The next highest numbers come from Latin America and from Europe and Eurasia, with between 3,500 and 5,500 victims from each. (U.S. Departments of Justice, Health & Human Services, State, Labor, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 2004. Assessment of U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice.
to send a letter to your Reps
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200511/tows_past_20051102_letter.jhtml
