Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People in the UK

– a review

Authors: Elaine Chase and June Statham

Name of Institution: Thomas Coram Research Unit

Institute of Education, University of London
27/28 Woburn Square
London WC1H 0AA

Correspondence: Elaine Chase, as above.

[email protected]
020 7612 6935

Keywords: Children, prostitution, trafficking, pornography

This is a preprint of an article published in Child Abuse Review 14: 4: 4-25

(2005) See: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5060

Abstract

This paper reviews recent information and data relevant to the commercial sexual
exploitation of children and young people in the UK. Three main aspects of
exploitation are addressed: abuse through prostitution; abuse through pornography;
and the trafficking of children and young people to and through the UK for the
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. Most published research in this area
relates to young people exploited through prostitution. The review explores the range
of vulnerability factors, the processes used to engage young people in prostitution,
and the types of support strategies for those being exploited. Rather less information
is currently available on the scale of child pornography, or the links between the use
of pornography and other forms of sexual abuse. The Internet as a modern
technology for proliferating child pornography is discussed, alongside its role in
providing opportunities for paedophiles to access and „groom‟ children for sexual
purposes. Finally, the review provides a summary of research on trafficking of
children to and through the UK for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation,
and demonstrates the limited knowledge about this topic.

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Introduction

In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the extent and scale of
abuse of children and young people through sexual exploitation, both internationally
and in the UK. Much of this awareness can be attributed to the work of key local and
international voluntary and non-governmental organisations that have lobbied for
recognition of the problem and have led the way in conducting relevant research.

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) of children and young people within the
UK falls into three key distinct, although not exclusive, areas: abuse through
prostitution; abuse through pornography; and the trafficking of children and young
people to and through the UK for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation.
Children and young people are also known to be used in other areas of the sex
industry such as stripping and phone sex although there appears to be little written
and known about these areas of work.

Current policy context

Within the UK, the Children Act (1989) provides the legal framework for the care and
protection of all children (including those temporarily in the country). Area Child
Protection Committees (ACPCs), soon to be replaced by Local Safeguarding
Children Boards under proposals in the Green Paper Every Child Matters (HM
Treasury, 2003), are responsible for developing and agreeing local policies and
procedures for interagency work to protect children.

Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department of Health et al., 1999) and the
supplementary guidance, Safeguarding Children Involved in Prostitution (Department
of Health et al., 2000) recognise the need to protect children from organised abuse,
child pornography, the Internet, and prostitution, and provided relevant protocols for
an inter-agency approach towards recognising and responding to the sexual
exploitation of children and young people. The National Plan for Safeguarding
Children from Commercial Sexual Exploitation (Department of Health and Home
Office, 2001), updated in 2003, provides the national strategy for safeguarding
children from commercial sexual exploitation for 2003-05.

In May 2004, the Sexual Offences Act replaced the 1956 Act, and represented a
major overhaul of the legislation. The Act defines a child as someone below the age
of 18 years, and not 16 years as in the 1956 Sexual Offences Act. A new offence of
‟commercial exploitation of a child’ implies legal protection for children up to 18 from
exploitation through prostitution and pornography. It includes a number of new
offences with strict penalties, and for the first time differentiates between children and
young people, with harsher penalties of up to life imprisonment incurred for those
exploiting children under the age of 13 years. New clauses have the potential to
award further protection from CSE including Clause 17, introducing the offence of
sexual „grooming‟ of children; and Clause 110, introducing a new „Risk of Sexual
Harm Order‟.

Scope and purpose of the review

The negative impact on young people of abuse through prostitution, and the
complexities surrounding the contexts in which this takes place in the UK, have now
been well documented (Palmer, 2001; Barnardos, 2002; Pearce, 2003). However,
there is still little hard data on the scale of the problem (Swann & Balding, 2001;
Pearce, 2000). Less has been written about other forms of sexual exploitation of

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children such as child pornography and related activities, or the trafficking of children
for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Using published and unpublished literature and relevant statistical data, this paper
provides an overview of the types of commercial sexual exploitation and their scale;
the characteristics of those affected and the mechanisms employed to exploit
children and young people in the UK. It explores the interface between different
forms of exploitation (such as pornography or trafficking and exploitation through
prostitution) and the personal impact that such exploitation has on the lives of
children and young people. Finally, it discusses the types of approaches that offer
protection and support to children and young people involved in prostitution, and
considers evidence for the effectiveness of existing preventative mechanisms.

Methodology

Information was gathered in autumn 2003 from literature and Internet searches and
from personal contact with UK specialists in this area of work. All members of an
existing forum of experts with responsibility for guiding the National Plan on
Safeguarding Children were contacted to identify both key relevant literature
(including unpublished or „grey literature) and on-going research in this field. Next,
searches were carried out using relevant databases such as Child Data Abstracts
and the electronic library for social care (eLSC), as well as Internet search engines.
Key search terms included „sexual exploitation‟, „sexual abuse‟, „prostitution‟,
„pornography‟ and „trafficking‟, combined with „child‟ or „children‟. A snowballing
approach was adopted, following up references from the most relevant articles.
Finally, key websites of all organisations and charities known to work with children
who are sexually exploited were searched, along with recent articles on the Guardian
Group website.

Defining the problem

The sexual exploitation of children can take many forms including: trafficking,
prostitution, sex tourism, mail-order-bride trade, involvement in pornography,
stripping, battering, incest, rape and sexual harassment (Estes, 2001). Each of these
requires a context-relevant solution (May-Chahal & Herczog, 2003). This paper
focuses specifically on the commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of children and
young people as far as possible, although the distinction between CSE and other
forms of abuse is not always clearly defined.

The term ‘child’ is used as defined by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child, Article 1 as “every human being below the age of 18 years
unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”. While
adhering to the focus on under 18 year-olds, we refer to both „children‟ and „young
people‟. This is important for two reasons: firstly young people in their teenage years
do not consider themselves as „children‟; and secondly age differentiation is clearly
defined for the first time within the Sexual Offences Act (Home Office, 2003), with
different penalties given to „abusers‟ of children according to the age of the „child‟.

The sexual abuse of children involves practices by which a person, usually an

adult, achieves sexual gratification, financial gain or advancement through the abuse
or exploitation of a child‟s sexuality by abrogating that child‟s human right to dignity,
equality, autonomy, and physical and mental well-being (Estes, 2001). Trafficking
became enshrined in international law for the first time in 2002, in the Palermo
Protocol, which defines it as the recruitment, transportation, harbouring or receipt of a
person for the purposes of exploitation, whether sexual or otherwise.

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The term commercial sexual exploitation (henceforth CSE) is distinguished from
sexual abuse per se, by focusing on the use of children for some form of „pecuniary
advantage‟, understood in the wider sense to include cash and rewards in kind so
long as there is some means of accounting in monetary terms. The Declaration and
Agenda for Action of the World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children held in Stockholm in 1996 provided this definition of the practice in general:

„The commercial sexual exploitation of children is a fundamental violation of children's

rights. It comprises sexual abuse by the adult and remuneration in cash or kind to the
child or a third person or persons. The child is treated as a sexual object and as a
commercial object. The commercial sexual exploitation of children constitutes a form
of coercion and violence against children, and amounts to forced labour and a
contemporary form of slavery‟.

In the rest of this paper, we review the literature on the three main forms of
commercial sexual exploitation (through prostitution, pornography and trafficking) and
then consider information about ways of protecting children and young people from
such abuse.

Abuse through prostitution

Child prostitution refers to “the sexual exploitation of a child for the remuneration in
cash or in kind, usually but not always organised by an intermediary (parent, family
member, procurer, teacher etc” (Estes, 2001).The exchange is exploitative because it
comes about in a relationship of unequal economic, cognitive, and psycho-social
power.

In recent years, the term „ child prostitute‟ and similar terms have been replaced in
the UK and elsewhere by others such as „children abused‟ or „children exploited‟
through prostitution (Barnardos 1998; 2002 Spangenberg, 2001), reflecting a
paradigm shift from a „punishment‟ to a „ welfare‟ model ( Barrett and Melrose, 2003).
This approach recognises the need to focus on more effective prosecution of
coercers (the pimps) and the offenders or abusers (those paying to have sex with
children (Home Office/ Department of Health, 2001; Barnardos, 2002).

Quantifying the scale of prostitution involving children and young people is

problematic since much activity is hidden away in brothels, massage parlours and
saunas, and there are clear practical constraints and ethical issues in conducting
appropriate research (Melrose, 2002; Melrose et al., 2002). Available Home Office
data are of limited use in estimating numbers involved in prostitution, and offences
concerning child abuse do not currently distinguish those where commercial sexual
exploitation is a factor. The Crime and Disorder Act (1998) sought to end the practice
of cautioning or convicting a female under the age of 18 for prostitution and while this
move must be applauded, as a result in 2001 there were only 8 cautions („offence by
prostitution‟) reported against young women between the ages of 15 to 18 years.
(National Statistics, 2002).

Estimates of the numbers of young people involved in prostitution in the UK range

from around 2000 a year with one third under 16 years (Bluett et al., 2000), to up to
5,000 (Barrett, 1998). In a study conducted by Barnardo‟s, 48 agencies combined
knew of over 600 girls and young women and 150 boys and young men 18 years and
younger who were involved in prostitution (McNeish, 1998). A 2001 review of the
government guidance on Safeguarding Children (Swann & Balding) found that over
three quarters of all Area Child Protection Committees in England reported some
children involved in prostitution in their area.

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What is known is that abuse through prostitution affects children and young people of
different ages, both male and female, and encompasses a range of exploitative
behaviours, many of which combine extreme and degrading forms of physical,
emotional and sexual abuse (Barnardo‟s, 1998; Barnardo‟s, 2002). Furthermore,
recent years, have witnessed a decrease in the age at which children and young
people are first exploited through prostitution (Spangenberg, 2001; Palmer, 2001),
with girls as young as nine and boys as young as six known to have been abused in
this way (Barnardo‟s, 2002).

Although by no means a homogenous group, a number of studies have highlighted

similar patterns of disadvantage for children and young people exploited through
prostituion. These include factors such as: family problems; abuse and/or violence;
running away from home or from substitute care; truanting from school; peer
pressure; drugs; sleeping rough and losing contact with family and social networks.
(Melrose et al. 1999; Pearce 2000; Department of Health el al. 2000; Stein and
Wade, 2000; Valios, 2001; Taylor-Browne et al., 2002; Phoenix, 2002; Cusick et al.,
2003; Pearce, 2003; Scottish Executive, 2003).

Yet these are clearly not the only predisposing factors. Young people may engage in
prostitution whilst living at home or in local authority care. Barnardo‟s claim that more
than one third of young people seen since 1995 by their services lived at home with
their parents1, and experience of residential care has been linked with vulnerability to
exploitation through prostitution for boys as well as girls (Matthews, 2000).

Other reasons for entry into and continuing in prostitution are less tangible, and relate
to issues of basic needs such as food and accommodation (Phoenix, 2002; Pearce,
2003), or because young people want things that they cannot afford through other
means which leads in some cases to their own decision to become involved in
prostitution (Melrose et al., 1999). There are also clear indications that, once
involved, some young people experience a particular lifestyle that affords them things
that they could not otherwise have (Taylor-Browne et al., 2002)

While there are many similarities in the patterns of disadvantage that make both girls
and boys vulnerable to abuse through prostitution, for boys these other factors can
coincide with further rejection or alienation, resulting from them disclosing to a parent
or carer that they are gay (Palmer, 2001; Barnardo‟s, 2002). Palmer (2001) describes
two main, but not exclusive, categories of boys and young men who get drawn into
prostitution: those „escaping‟ from a situation which leaves them vulnerable to abuse,
who generally end up on the street entering transactional sex for survival; and those
who are „conditioned‟, sometimes in early childhood, into abusive activity which
eventually leads them into a life of prostitution and later to possible pimping and
abuse of other vulnerable young people.

Overall, boys and young men selling sex are thought to be far less visible than girls
and young women, probably resulting from the additional stigma of homosexuality
and of men selling sex. Sexual exchanges happen in less open places where they
are less likely to be identified, such as public toilets, parks, bus and train stations,
cruising areas and multi-purpose shopping areas and arcades. Mobile phones and
the Internet provide further covert ways of making contact and enabling activity to
remain hidden (Donovan, 1991). Little is known about the profile of those buying sex
from boys and young men, but anecdotally most are said to be heterosexual married

5
men, bisexual men or those not confident to be openly homosexual (McKegany and
Bloor, 1990)

In recent years, much more has come to be understood about the complexities and
dynamics surrounding the prostitution of girls and young women. Pearce (2003)
identified three categories of girls and young women exploited through prostitution:
those who were at risk of being exploited through the types of lifestyles and
relationships that they were involved in; those who swapped sex for favours such as
shelter, food, things they felt they needed or wanted; and those who defined
themselves as prostitutes. A study by Barnardo‟s (1998) identified four stages of
taking and maintaining control of the lives of girls and young women. The first stage
involves ensnaring a young person through providing gifts and an expensive lifestyle;
the next stage is about creating dependency and encouraging cutting of ties with
family and friends; the third stage involves taking control over all aspects of the
young girl‟s life; and finally total dominance occurs with the creation of a „willing
victim‟ prepared to do anything including having sex with other men in order to please
the „boyfriend‟. Further research has identified the particular vulnerabilities of girls
and young women to exploitation through „pimping‟ and the consequent emotional
and physical abuse from such coercive relationships (May et al., 2000)

Research also highlights the complex inter-relationship between drug use and sexual
exploitation (Cusick et al., 2003). This works either through coercers preying on a
young person‟s drug dependency and entrapping them through managing their
supply of drugs in return for payment through prostitution; or by generating a
dependency on highly addictive drugs as a means to subsequently control their lives
and their involvement in prostitution (Pearce, 1999; May et al., 2000; Somerset,
2001; Barnardo‟s, 2002; Thompson, 2003). There is increasing evidence of
widespread use of crack cocaine among women involved in sex work (Ward et al.,
2000), and evidence that young people involved in prostitution report higher levels of
drug use than other young people (Cusick et al., 2003). Moreover drug dependency
has been identified as a major obstacle to enabling a choice to exit from prostitution
(Cusick et al., 2003). There does appear however to be a broader relationship
between drug use and vulnerability more broadly and not just affecting those
exploited through prostitution. Other research has drawn a link between significantly
higher levels of drug use among young people who sleep rough, are persistent
offenders, who run away on a serial basis and who are not attending school or are
excluded from school (Goulden and Sondhi, 2001).

Abuse through pornography

Child pornography is defined as “any representation of a child engaged in real or

simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child
for primarily sexual purposes" (Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child, 2002).

In recent years, the Internet and related technology such as mobile phones have
come to provide both important ways for potential offenders to access children and
young people, and quick and effective mechanisms for the sale and transfer of
pornographic images. While such activity existed long before the existence of the
Internet, new technology has added a „virtual‟ variable to the problem of the sexual
abuse of children, particularly in relation to pornography and paedophilia. At the
same time, it has removed the communication constraints and social sanctions
previously surrounding pornography and paedophilia (Arnaldo, 2001). At the touch of
button, child abusers can access thousands of exploitative and even live images
(Downey, 2002a; Hill, 2003).

6
There is, however, limited systematic and reliable data currently available on the
problem of child pornography and the Internet, its impact on children or the
relationship between child abuse and child pornography (Renold et al., 2003).
During 2000, there were a total of 81 convictions of „possessing obscene material for
gain’ under the Obscene Publications Act (1959); 218 convictions of „taking or
making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children’ under the
Protection of Children Act (1978); and 77 convictions of „ possessing an indecent
photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child’ under the Criminal Justice and Public
Order Act (1988) (Home Office, 2002b).

Although images depicting the abuse of children can have considerable commercial
value (Wyre, 2003), they are often traded or exchanged between paedophiles rather
than sold (Estes, 2001), the most recent world wide mechanism being through „peer
to peer‟ transfer (Gillen, 2003a). Although there is no direct financial gain in these
transactions, they bolster the demand for pornography and indirectly perpetuate and
extend the abuse of children for these purposes. Recent high-profile police
investigations, such as Operation Ore, have seen the arrests of hundreds of people
on charges of possessing child pornography, downloading and making pornography
on the Internet. The magnitude of the operation was thought to be beyond the current
capacity of the police force (BBC News Online, 2003).

The Internet has also become a significant mechanism for „grooming‟ children for
sexual exploitation. Grooming is defined as: „a course of conduct enacted by a
suspected paedophile, which would give a reasonable person cause for concern that
any meeting with a child arising from the conduct would be for unlawful purposes‟
(Home Office, 2002a). There has been increasing concern and media coverage of
the role of the Internet in enticing children into sexual activity with paedophiles and
prostitution as well as its use to traffic and sell children (Barnardos, 2002).

One study conducted over five years in chat rooms intended for children and
teenagers highlighted how communication technologies, including mobile phones,
are used for exploitation and abuse and how they limit attempts to supervise the
children‟s use of the Internet (O‟Connell, 2003). The term „cybersexploitation‟ is
coined by the author to cover the process of „grooming‟ children in cyberspace with
the intention to sexually abuse a child in the real world. This same study provides in-
depth insight into how the grooming process works, including how victims are
selected; how paedophiles collaborate together to identify children that meet
desirability criteria, and patterns of grooming conversations from relationship-building
through to engaging the child in sexual fantasy enactment, which tend to involve
coercion, control and aggression.

The Internet has provided therefore scope for forms of sexual abuse of children that
present serious challenges for traditional policing methods and community safety
strategies. (Kennison & Read, 2003). Furthermore, it has created new larger social
networks with fewer controls. Virtual cyberspace allows paedophiles, previously
socially marginalized, to communicate freely with each other, thereby endorsing and
validating behaviours that are exploitative of children. The Internet allows them to
subvert their identities and to assume fictitious names, ages, descriptions and
intentions in order to lure children. Furthermore, chat rooms provide a safe haven for
collecting child pornography, exchanging pictures, images and video footage. Above
all, they facilitate more direct contact with children through the use of direct email or
mobile phones.

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However, the potential links between the possession of child pornography or the
taking of indecent photographs of children and actual abuse are rarely
acknowledged, or are played down. Edwards (2000) demonstrated how in both
magistrates and Crown courts, a clear distinction is made between the taking of
pornographic photographs of children and the abuse of children. Defendants charged
with possession or distribution of child pornography were said to successfully
minimise their actions in the eyes of the court, while judges failed to recognise the
danger posed by defendants convicted of possession and distribution. This was
reflected in the very short prison sentences often given to those found guilty.

Abuse through trafficking

Trafficking is defined the Palermo Protocol within the United Nations Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons. Although the Protocol deals
with both adults and children, it makes specific reference to the situation of children.

There is clearly an overlap in the UK between A recent review of information on

trafficking of children and young people to and through the UK (Candappa, 2003)
provides a comprehensive account of some of the complex issues involved, and
highlights the overlap between trafficking of children and young people and their
sexual exploitation. This review found that trafficking generally takes place in two
major ways: cross-border international trafficking, and internal trafficking within the
borders of a country or state. There is evidence of young people being trafficked into
the UK (brought under false pretences of a better life and opportunities) and
subjected to exploitation by pimps to work either on the streets or hidden away in
brothels or massage parlours (Kelly and Regan, 2000; Arie, 2003).

Certain factors are known to foster international trafficking of people generally. These
include: globalization of transport, markets and labour; women‟s socio-economic
inequality; economic transition (especially in the Former Soviet Union), social
dislocation as a result of conflict; and demand factors (Candappa, 2003). Pearce
(2000) outlines how economic and political changes that have taken place in both
central and eastern Europe, and within Western European economies, have brought
specific forms of „feminised poverty; and have seen the increasing movement of
impoverished children within and between European countries. Added to these are
increasingly restrictive migration and refugee and asylum politics in the countries to
which children and women are trafficked (Walthius and Blaak, 2002), which make the
trafficking of humans across borders a lucrative business.

Research on international trafficking is still very limited and is restricted to mapping of

the problem, reviews of frameworks and policy responses. Even in relation to the
trafficking of adults, data on the numbers involved in trafficking, either as victims or
perpetrators, are very unclear and largely guesstimates (International Organisation
on Migration 2001; Kelly, 2002). Furthermore, figures for women and children are
usually combined, although Kelly (2000) has estimated that 10-30% of those
trafficked are minors. The US Department of State (2002) estimates that, globally,
700,000 women and children are trafficked per year. However, as a rule, different
studies do not cross-reference or complement each other to provide a solid research
base (Kelly and Regan, 2002).

At least 250 children are thought to have been trafficked to the UK in the last five
years (UNICEF, 2003). However, this figure is thought to largely underestimate the
actual number of trafficked children, most notably because of the relative newness of
trafficking as a phenomenon and the fact that many local authorities are only just
beginning to keep records of trafficking incidences.

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Many children arrive in the UK accompanied by an adult for legitimate reasons such
as education, re-unification with family or fleeing war or other conflict situations. In
the majority of cases, the adult with the child is allowed to enter the UK. If, however,
there are concerns about the child or the relationship between adult and child, then
various steps are taken to protect the child, including taking the child into social
services‟ care or returning the child to their family in the country of origin.

Most of the limited information on child trafficking in the UK relates to children who
are unaccompanied, and who come to the attention of the authorities at the point of
claiming asylum. Although there are useful descriptive accounts of young asylum
seekers and their vulnerability to exploitation (UNICEF, 2003; Kelly, 2002), there is
very little concrete data on the scale of the problem. The lack of clear identification of
people who are trafficked means that they are often classified as „ undocumented‟,
„illegal immigrants‟, or, if trafficked for the purposes of prostitution, as „prostitutes‟ and
subjected to either deportation or detention in an immigration facility.

It is thought that unaccompanied children and young people who have not been
trafficked but who are seeking asylum may be particularly vulnerable to exploitation
once they arrive in the UK, especially when their immigration status is uncertain and
they are not sure of their situation. At that point they have no money, they are often
placed in hostel-type accommodation where they are highly vulnerable and easily
targeted for exploitation, yet are cut off from appropriate support. This is particularly
the case when they are housed away from the local authority with responsibility for
them.

Other children are brought into the country for the purpose of exploitation. Children
from Africa tend to disappear from social services care, while a trafficker or third
party usually meets those from Eastern Europe at the point of entry. Others enter
clandestinely in the backs of lorries, some who are older arrive with a student visa,
others arrive with a man claiming to be a boyfriend, and the age of the girl or young
woman is disguised. Once in the UK, they may be used in prostitution or domestic
exploitation, or they are trafficked through the UK to other European countries.
Children and young people entering the country via these routes only usually come to
the attention of authorities after they have been exploited.

Once in the UK, young people are moved around to service demand in various parts
of the country, although the picture of how and to where they are trafficked is actually
very unclear and it is often only single cases that come to light in such diverse places
as West Sussex, Newcastle and Glasgow (UNICEF, 2003). There does appear to be
some diversification of trafficking routes within the UK to areas where authorities are
less vigilant or less equipped to deal with the issue. Young people who arrive in the
UK under false documentation organised through pimps have no rights to remain if
they manage to escape from their situations or when the industry has no further use
for them. Seeking help will most often lead to deportation.

There currently appears to be little evidence of trafficking of boys for the purposes of
sexual exploitation (Kelly, 2002). Various strategies are used to recruit women,
including young women, in their home countries. These include deception, promises
of a better life and exploitation of the lack of opportunity and life chances available to
them at home. Reportedly, those coming from West Africa are bound by „curses‟
which they believe can only be lifted once the cost of their passage to the UK has
been repaid (Downey, 2002b). Once recruited, various mechanisms are used to
control and keep young women working including rape, assault, drugs, threats of
harm to family members, and removal of identity documents. Although some women

9
know they are being recruited for „escort work‟, they are still deceived in terms of
conditions of their employment and ability to pay off traffickers (Candappa, 2003)

Mechanisms for protection: legislative and policy frameworks

Legislation and protocols, both international and national, offer one route to
protecting children and young people from commercial sexual exploitation. The First
World Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in
Stockholm in 1996, for the first time recognised commercial sexual exploitation as a
human rights, labour, health, education and law enforcement problem. A second
World Congress, held in Japan in December 2001, reviewed progress that had been
made in the intervening five years. This included the European Council Framework
Decision on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Combating the Sexual
Exploitation of Children and Child Pornography (2000), and the Council of Europe‟s
Convention on Cybercrime (2001). In 2002, an optional protocol was added to the
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child arguing against „the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography. Further details of international
frameworks to protect children against CSE can be found in Chase and Statham
(2004).

In the UK, the legal and policy initiatives that aim to protect children and young
people from commercial sexual exploitation were described earlier in the introduction
to this paper. Reforms proposed under the Sexual Offences Bill, which became law
in May 2004, have mostly been warmly welcomed by many organisations concerned
with the safety and protection of children (Leason, 2002), despite some concerns that
they do not go far enough to protect the most vulnerable children from exploitation
particularly with respect to trafficking (UNICEF, 2003).

Approaches to support

There is some disagreement about the approach to support that should be fostered
by legislative and policy frameworks. International lobby groups such as the „anti-
violence‟ lobby tend to view prostitution as a form of sexual violence, while pro-rights
groups advocate for the right to work as a prostitute under non-discriminatory or
decriminalised systems (Scrambler and Scrambler, 1997; International Prostitutes
Collective, 1999) However, Pearce (2000) points out that both sides are unified in
their view of the need for greater protection of children (Scrambler and Scrambler,
1997; Barrett, 2000).

While child protection procedures currently provide the framework in the UK for
protecting children and young people from all forms of abuse and exploitation, their
relevance and adequacy in protecting and supporting children in relation to
commercial sexual exploitation has been questioned (Green 2000; Calder 2001).
Some authors highlight the inadequacies of inter-agency child protection systems to
adequately address abuse through prostitution or other forms of perceived
exploitation (Ayre and Barrett, 2000).

Others have more fundamental criticisms of this approach. (Phoenix, 2002) questions
the relevance of „simply transposing the problem of youth prostitution into a problem
of child (sexual) abuse‟ and claims that this ignores the complexities surrounding
„youth prostitution‟. Phoenix argues that a distinction is often made between those
„deserving‟ of protection and support because they accept the services and support
offered, and those who continue to be involved despite being offered support to stop
their involvement in prostitution. In a similar vein, Barrett and Melrose (2003) point
out the anomalies of government guidance stating that children exploited through

10
prostitution should be defined as „ children in need‟ (Department of Health/ Home
Office, 2001) unless they „persistently‟ and „voluntarily‟ return to prostitution, in which
case they should be processed through the criminal justice system.

Aside from the political debate about the relative merits of different approaches to
protecting young people, there is also a highly practical debate in that young people
involved in prostitution in many cases will not perceive themselves as being victims
of abuse (Barnardo‟s, 1998), nor will they define themselves as „child prostitutes‟
since they view the term degrading, labelling and stigmatising (Calder, 2001).
Furthermore, there are questions as to whether current child protection systems have
the capacity to adequately address the issues of abuse through prostitution (Green,
2000; Barrett and Melrose, 2003)

Intervention strategies

Legislative and policy reforms alone , do not provide adequate protection for children
and young people. Pearce (2000) points to the example of the Netherland where
highly pragmatic and far reaching reforms including the removal of a ban on brothels;
brothel inspections to ensure that minors are not employed; a new section 250a of
the criminal code creating an offence for forms of commercial operation of involuntary
prostitution and prostitution involving minors; and the abolishment of the „complaint
requirement‟ for sexual acts involving children between 12 and 16, meaning that a
prosecution can be made without a child making a statement; could not ensure the
safety of young people. In addition, extensive training and awareness-raising across
a range of agencies is required in order to set up multi-agency protocols, and to alert
professionals to key warning signs that a young person is vulnerable abuse
exploitation (Valios, 2001; Swann and Balding, 2001). We review below the literature
on strategies to support children and young people at risk of, or exploited through,
prostitution, pornography and trafficking. It is important to note, however, that there
are few studies to date that have evaluated the outcomes of different interventions.
Most reports are descriptive accounts of the types of services that are provided and
the types of young people that they support.

Exploitation through prostitution

A number of studies highlight the complex difficulties faced by young people trying to
exit prostitution, including financial difficulties and debt; drug dependency; single
parenthood; lack of qualifications and training to enable them to look for alternative
employment; housing problems; criminal convictions (through prostitution); and
abusive partners and/or pimps. (Taylor-Browne et al., 2002). The longer young
people remained involved, the more entrenched became the patterns of behaviour
that kept them exploited, making it difficult for them to find a way out, particularly
when they had lost contact with family and friends and their most direct peer groups
were also all involved in prostitution (Taylor-Browne et al., 2002; Palmer, 2001) or
they have an on-going drug dependency (Cusick et al, 2003).

Other studies highlight the difficulties for agencies in supporting young people
involved in prostitution, including denial by young people; drug use and dependency;
and the difficulty of balancing choices and rights with effective protection (see, for
example, Swann & Balding, 2001). Young people may have developed a fear and
mistrust of existing services based on previous experiences (Cusick, 2002; Pearce,
2003). Services which provide local outreach and drop-in support, so called
„recovery‟ services (Department of Health et al., 2000), and those that adopt a strong
multi-agency approach, appear to be the most effective in both protecting young
people from exploitation and collecting evidence to be used against abusers (May et

11
al., 2000). Unfortunately, however, these types of intervention are rare and there is
still a general lack of protection offered by the criminal justice system when reporting
pimps for violence and abuse (May et al., 2000)

There is an increasing recognition of core principles that underpin seemingly

successful strategies to support children and young people. Holistic, non-
judgemental and multi-dimensional support services are required which are able to
address the complex needs of young people and are based largely on harm
minimisation approaches rather than on „quick fixes‟. Services need to address
immediate needs such as homelessness, drug and alcohol dependence and single
parenthood, while at the same time promoting young people‟s central participation in
initiatives to support them, and focusing on raising their self esteem and ability to
control their lives (Barnardo‟s, 2002; Miller, 2003).

However, support for young people at risk remains geographically patchy across the
UK, with the majority of services concentrated in major cities. Despite multi-agency
policies and protocols in place, many voluntary agencies face difficulties in joint
working, including problems in agreeing definitions of risk and confidentiality
(Phoenix, 2003).

Exploitation through pornography

Various strategies have been explored in recent years to combat the proliferation of
child pornography through the Internet, with variable success. Such strategies
include: legal and regulatory approaches imposed by governments; policies of self-
regulation adopted by the Internet industry; and action by individuals, parents, civic
groups and NGOs - or a combination of all of these. In 2000, the Children‟s Charities
Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS) was launched. The coalition campaigns to raise
awareness of the hazards children may encounter when using the Internet; to get
companies in the Internet supply chain to adopt child safety policies; and to lobby
Government for action - including changes in the law if necessary.

Identifying and providing support to children and young people exploited through
pornography is highly complex and in some cases impossible (Downey, 2002a;
Gillen, 2003a). Furthermore, although social workers receive high quality training in
child protection, they are often unaware of the dangers posed by the Internet
(Downey, 2002a).

Exploitation through trafficking

Children arriving in the UK alone are entitled to protection under the Children Act,
although there is evidence that generally this provision is insufficient to protect and
support children and young people (Refugee Council, 2003). For complex reasons,
including experiences of abuse and rape, threats to family back home and other
controlling mechanisms such as curses and „voodoo‟, children taken into care who
have been trafficked often flee to meet their trafficker, or they are abducted. The
accommodation provided by social services is normally inadequate to provide
protection and support, since victims of trafficking require „round the clock‟
supervision and highly specialised support and counselling to enable them to escape
from their traffickers (Downey, 2002b). On the whole, social services departments
lack knowledge about the complexities of trafficking and how to identify and
investigate it (Gillen, 2003b; Somerset 2001), although there are some examples of
authorities developing procedures for responding to the needs of vulnerable young
people arriving from abroad who might be „at risk‟ from exploitation (Kent Social
Services Department, 2002; Kent County Council, 2002).

12
The organisation ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Pornography, Trafficking) with Anti-
Slavery International have highlighted steps that need to be taken to effectively
combat trafficking in the UK and provide adequate support. These include the
provision of safety and extended leave to remain for those trafficked, in line with
article 6 of the UN Protocol on Trafficking and clearer protocols between social
services and immigration (ECPAT, 2001). A Counter-Trafficking Steering Group,
initiated by the National Missing Persons Helpline, was set up in 2002 involving
police, immigration, the Home Office, voluntary organisations and social services. In
addition, the Home Office has designed a web-based toolkit on trafficking, to raise
the profile and understanding of the issues at a local authority level (Home Office
2003).

Conclusions

This review has attempted to draw together what is known about three important
areas of commercial sexual exploitation of children and young people: exploitation
through prostitution: through pornography and related activity; and through trafficking
for the purposes of exploitation. It has highlighted the strengths of the existing
research base as well as identified gaps in knowledge in these areas.

There is a need for greater exploration and research around a number of areas of
exploitation of children. For example, more needs to be known about young asylum
seekers, their vulnerability to abuse through prostitution and the effectiveness of
current support mechanisms. The relationship between use of the Internet and other
forms of abuse against children and young people, including grooming for
prostitution, needs more attention. There is a general need for clearer and more
systematic data collection on all areas of abuse, particularly in the light of the
changes introduced by the Sexual Offences Act (2004).

More broadly, further work is necessary in terms of capacity building, training and
awareness-raising for a range of professionals, including immigration officers, social
workers, the police and other professionals providing direct support to children and
young people at risk of exploitation. Finally, there is clearly a debate still to be had
around the appropriateness and adequacy of existing child protection procedures to
address these types of commercial sexual exploitation of children and young people.

Acknowledgement

This review was undertaken by the Thomas Coram Research Unit for the
Children‟s Safeguards Unit at the Department for Education and Skills. The
views expressed in this article are those of the authors and are not
necessarily those of the Department.

13
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