Child sex tourism involves traveling abroad to engage in the commercial sexual abuse or prostitution of children, with many child sex tourists being pedophiles who use the internet to plan trips. Exploited children often experience mental and physical harm, including HIV, drug addiction, malnutrition and PTSD. While some countries have taken steps to address child sex tourism through laws and codes of conduct, it remains a problem facilitated by poverty in countries like Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil and others.

1. Moral Bankruptcy
Children for Sale
Babu P George, PhD
The University of Southern Mississippi
US Department of Justice Workshop on Human Trafficking, 2009, NYC

3. CST is the travel to a foreign country for the
purpose of engaging in commercially-facilitated
child sexual abuse----or the prostitution of
children.

4.  The majority of child sex tourists are pedophiles
 The majority of exploited children are under 12 years old
 Pedophiles use the internet to plan their trips by seeking
out and trading information
Child sex tour operators working in clandestine manner
 Generally these are destinations and cultures of extreme
poverty.
How do they find the exploited
children?

7.  Mental and physical consequences for the
exploited children
HIV/AIDS
Drug addiction
Pregnancy
Malnutrition
Social ostracism
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
 Death

8.  TF-CBT is a psychotherapy approach for
children and adolescents who are experiencing
significant emotional and behavioral difficulties
related to traumatic life events.
 Children learn new skills to help process
thoughts and feelings related to traumatic life
events; manage and resolve distressing
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related
traumatic life events; and enhance safety,
growth, parenting skills, and family
communication.

9.  Thailand
 Cambodia
 India
 Brazil
 Mexico
Costa Rica
Nepal
Kenya
Some leading hotspots of child
sexual exploitation include:

11. Made child exploitation a federal
crime, prosecutable in the United States
 U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens
cannot engage in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign
country with a person under the age of 18
Whether or not the U.S. citizen or permanent
resident alien intended to engage in such illicit
conduct before going abroad is irrelevant.
Doubled the penalty from 15 years to 30
years.

12. Prior to 2003, prosecutors had to "prove"
intent of traveling abroad for the purpose of
molesting children
almost impossible to demonstrate.
PROTECT Act shifted the burden
made predators liable for the act itself
Proving Intent

13. The U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement participates in investigating and
capturing child sex tourists
Agents stationed internationally to work with
foreign governments
Interpol
ICE is a member of the Virtual Global Taskforce
Report suspected child predators and any other
suspicious activity through ICE’s toll-free hotline:
1-866-DHS-2ICE
“ICE”

14. • Extraterritoriality: Prosecute nationals even if the crime
is committed outside the domestic territory
• Dual criminality: Prosecute regardless of whether the
act is a crime in the territory where it is committed
• Purpose of travel: Prosecute even if a prior intent to
engage in child sex cannot be established
• Covered activities: Expand the scope of activities
deemed to be criminal by including all types of sexual
and related abuses of children
• Prevention: Include proactive measures to prevent the
incidence of CST

15. In response to CST, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), the tourism
industry and governments have begun
to address the issue.

16. In 1999, The WTO, ECPAT and the
Nordic tour operators created a global
Code of Conduct for the Protection of
Children from Sexual Exploitation in
Travel and Tourism.
Over 200 travel companies from 21
countries have signed the code.