We all dream of a world where children are safe and free,but miserably, today many children are becoming victims of sexual exploitation in travel and tourism. Although tourism is not the cause of these crimes, many offenders used to travel just to commit these abuses. Tourism professionals have a major role to play to stop this menace from this industry.
Finding the intensity of this issue, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking)International was founded in the year 1990.It is a global network of businesses and civil society organizations whose aim is to fight and eradicate the sexual exploitation of children globally. It focuses on ceasing the online sexual exploitation of children, the children trafficking for sexual purposes and the sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry.
The money-making sexual exploitation of children involves the buying and selling of children below 18 years of age for sexual purposes. Sexual exploitation of children in tourism,prostitution of children, child sex trafficking and child pornography are all different forms of this crime.In travel industry the sexual exploitation of children mostly takes place in hotels and in other travel infrastructures.
On the context, Japan is a country which is going through such problems frequently. Children of this country are facing revenge porns or sexual extortions more often. This Bangkok based ECPAT International with its 104 network members, is actively working here in Japan along with 92 other countries to forbid sexual exploitation of children in tourism.
Asian nations, particularly the Philippines and Thailand, as well as South America, Eastern Europe and Russia are the main sources from where innocent people are being trafficked. And along this line as an example Japan becomes the transit country and sometimes becomes the source destination for such filthy activities.Japanese citizens, including children, are also victimized within the country for prostitution and pornography. Thus the country is trademarked for manga and anime, meaning sexy, dirty, naughty, and lustful behaviors, including “boys love.”
In 2018, ECPAT has accomplished its ground-breaking research on the online sexual exploitation of children, with a highly productive meeting of the network and international summit in Bogotá. Its new strategic framework has got an approval.
The oranization has achieved commitments from the international community to restrict the travelling of child sex offenders. It has consulted productively with religious leaders in Abu Dhabi. The network also reported multiple national and regional studies on the sexual exploitation of children, including South Asia, Southeast Asia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,Cambodia, the Central African Republic, Georgia, Ireland, Japan, South Korea and Viet Nam etc.
The Executive Director of ECPAT, Robbert van den Berg said, “Despite the achievements of the year 2018, our work is far away from finished, of course. I am afraid that countless children all over the world will be sexually exploited in the coming year also – and no country or region is immune. I hope, when we come back to our work in January we can make next year just as productive as the last one.”
Despite 20 years of attempts, the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism (SECTT) has spreaded across the World and out-paced every effort to respond at the international and national level. In today’s World, which is highly interconnected, people do travel a lot and even the most remote parts of the planet are now easily accessible. The credit goes to cheaper travel and the wide-spread of the Internet. Although this is fruitful and welcoming in many cases, to its negativity, it encourages the risks of child sexual exploitation.
ECPAT has also created “The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism”,in short ‘The Code’which is a multi-stakeholder initiative with the mission to provide awareness, tools and support to the tourism industry to prevent the sexual exploitation of children
ECPAT appeals the tourism companies to join ‘The Code’ with a commitment to take essential steps to help protect children and send a clear message to the world that they do not accept or tolerate sexual crimes against children.
