Title:

Child Exploitation

Publish Date:

January 2011

ISBN:

978 1 86168 574 2

Covering Ages:

16 to 18 years

Issue Description

The exploitation of children and young people is a major issue worldwide. Across the globe, children are forced to work as domestic labourers, as workers in clothing 'sweatshops' and as child soldiers. Others are sexually abused and forced into prostitution or pornography. How can we tackle human trafficking and ensure that children's rights are preserved? How does child labour affect the products available to buy here in the UK? How can child sex tourism be stopped?This book examines the issues at home and abroad.

The information comes from a wide range of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper articles, features, magazine articles and surveys, literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.

Price:

£7.95

Quantity:

Key Facts

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) believes that up to 1.2 million children are trafficked annually all over the world. (page 1)
  
  
• Two-thirds of all children that are not going to school are girls. The work that they perform is often hardly visible, e.g. in one’s own or someone else’s household (domestic child labour). (page 5)
  
  
• More than 200 million children worldwide are still in child labour and a staggering 115 million – at least – are subject to its worst forms. (page 6)
  
  
• Most child labourers continue to work in agriculture (60 per cent). Only one in five working children is in paid employment. The overwhelming majority are unpaid family workers. (page 7)
  
  
• Given its hidden nature, it is impossible to have reliable figures on how many children are globally exploited as domestic workers. According to the ILO, though, more girl-children under 16 are in domestic service than in any other category of child labour. (page 12)
  
  
• Commercial sexual exploitation of children through prostitution is a global problem and is closely connected to child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Demand for sex with children may come from both local and foreign exploiters. (page 17)
  
  
• Trafficked and exploited children will all suffer from a form of post-traumatic stress relating to their sense of powerlessness and the degree of violence they experienced at the hands of their traffickers, which can be extreme. (page 29)
  
  
• Less than half of prosecutions for human trafficking offences, including the exploitation of children for sex or crime, result in a conviction. (page 31)
  
  
• Africa has the largest number of child soldiers. Child soldiers are being used in armed conflict in Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan. (page 33)
  
  
• There are at least 300,000 child soldiers in the world today. One in three is a girl. (page 35)

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Child Labour

Child exploitation, Frequently asked questions about child labour, Facts on child labour 2010, The face of child labour from Africa to Asia and the Americas, Emerging economies ‘worst for child labour risk’, Domestic labour, The consumer and child labour, ILO fears the goal of eliminating child labour by 2016 may not be reached.

Chapter 2 Commercial Sexual Exploitation

The commercial sexual exploitation of children, Safeguarding children and young people from sexual exploitation, ‘They like us naïve’: how teenage girls are groomed for a life of prostitution by UK gangs, Trafficked and exploited children, Fifth of Britons unknowingly aid child trafficking, according to survey, Concerns raised over low number of convictions for child trafficking.

Chapter 3 Child Soldiers

Questions and answers about child soldiers, Fighting isn’t just for boys: girls go to war, Rebuilding the lives of Congo’s child soldiers.

Key Facts

Glossary

Index

Acknowledgements

Assignments

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