The conundrum of trafficking or selling human beings for sex, organs, rituals is more large-scale in Canada and growing exponentially. While human trafficking is an age-long, border-less crime of global proportion, its current form and dimensions have enormous impact on many.
Human trafficking is a criminal offence in Canada with serious penalties. It involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, receiving, holding or hiding a person or exercising control, direction or influence over a person’s movements for the purpose of exploiting or helping to exploit that person. Exploiting means coercing a person to provide labour or services through fear. Young people who have been exploited through the sex trade can appear older than their years, confident, and defiant. This can mask the isolation, pain and fear they endure. safety or the safety of someone they know. Exploitation also includes using force, threats of force, deception or coercion to remove a body organ or tissue from a person.
In precarious positions, children and youth are being exploited and sexually abused by adults. They are asked provide sex for a place to sleep, a meal or a ride, sexual activities in exchange for money, drugs, alcohol, gifts, services, or other items. Children and youth are being sexually trafficked, seduced, manipulated or coerced to take sexual pictures/videos of themselves (i.e., child pornography) that can be sent over the internet. Even though this is a criminal offence, it is pervasive.
The average age when youth are first exploited (male or female) is 13 to 15 years old. Lesbian, gay and bi-sexual youth are at higher risk of sexual exploitation than other youth. Youth are at an increased risk of sexual exploitation if they have been kicked-out or have run away from home. Young males are just as likely to be sexually exploited as young females. 1 in 4 exploited youth admit to being sexually abused by a relative or caregiver. A third to over a half of all sexually exploited youth are Aboriginal.
Surprisingly, the perpetrators can include the victim’s parents/ guardians, extended family, or circle of friends. In the sex trade, “johns” (i.e., customers) abuse children and youth through buying sex. Recruiters who lure children and youth into the sex trade are often about the same age as their potential recruits. Female recruiters are often “owned” by pimps; males can receive money or other rewards for recruiting. Recruiting and pimping also takes place within youth gangs, street gangs, and organized criminal groups. Youth can exploit their peers, by trading sexual acts for drugs or alcohol, or by pressuring them into sexual activities either in groups or in front of one another.
Youth who are sexually exploited can also experience so much. From physical, sexual violence and injury, from pimps, johns and others to HIV infection, STDs and other illnesses or addiction and abuse of alcohol and drugs, emotional and mental health problems, loss of personal privacy (e.g., if sexual images of youth have been circulated online, people can recognize them from their online images), robbery and theft of property and so on.
HPM remains committed to developing and disseminating practical information to prevent and address the sexual exploitation of children and youth. The less obvious and yet extraordinary vulnerability of women and girls to these extreme abuses have remained elusive and abhorrent.
Join us in the plight to help end sexual exploitation and human trafficking through education.
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