Report released on sexual exploitation of children

Commissioned by the US Department of State, a September 13 report by Shared Hope International entitled DEMAND seeks to unveil sex trafficking, sex tourism, and sexploitation of children on three continents. Referring to these growing phenomena as “modern-day slavery”, the DEMAND report seeks to expose the markets that foment business that prostitutes children and women throughout the world.

The founder of Shared Hope International, Linda Smith said “This study is unique in that it focuses on the business of sex trafficking and sex tourism by investigating the markets that comprise the sex industry,” Smith added “It is basic economics—supply and demand. In order to stop this victimization we need to end demand for the product— many of whom are children.”

SHI undertook a 12-month investigation in the ostensibly disparate countries of Jamaica, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States where a shared culture of sexual tolerance allows major markets for local and international sex tourism and trafficking to flourish. In the US, investigators looked at the sex markets in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Washington DC since these are visited by large numbers of foreign and domestic visitors who access the local sex markets through easy international travel.  

The DEMAND report examines three critical pieces of the sex tourism and sex trafficking marketplace: the buyers who bring demand, the traffickers and recruiters who supply victims (like products to market), and the facilitators that feed the market. “The market for sex trafficking and sex tourism is just like a shopping mall,” noted Smith – a former member of the US House of Representatives. “Buyers can choose from a variety of human products of various ages and colors, and as long as buyers continue to purchase this human product and facilitators support the market, the shopping mall stays open.” 

According to the report, in the commercial sex markets, demand exceeds supply. Traffickers manipulate, coerce, and force victims (especially juveniles) into the industry to meet demand. While institutions and individuals facilitate the sex trafficking and sex tourism markets in every country, technology is the single greatest facilitator and the engine behind the growth of the global sex industry. The use of the Internet for commercial sex services— particularly pornography and escort services—offers website visitors and owners anonymity and supports an illicit market. Since 1997, the number of child pornography images on the Internet has increased by 1,500 percent.

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