21 August 2017

Sexual exploitation


What is child sexual exploitation?

Sexual exploitation of children and adolescents remains a taboo subject, also in Europe and in Luxembourg. Child sexual exploitation exists everywhere in the world. Here, one should not underestimate the risk of sexual exploitation online, especially since the possibilities of the internet and the smartphones increase these risks for young people. One speaks of sexual exploitation if there is a sexual abuse against an exchange (or a promise of an exchange) in cash or in kind (accommodation, food, good grades, gifts, etc.) either for the victim or for a third person. Different forms of child sexual exploitation exist: Child trafficking for sexual purposes, exploitation of children in prostitution, child sexual exploitation in travel and tourism, certain forms of child marriages, and child sexual abuse materials. The latter includes different forms of online sexual exploitation such as “pornography” in which children are exploited, grooming (online solicitation), some cases of sexting, and sextortion (sexual extortion). Hundreds of thousands of children from developing countries are victims of sexual exploitation for commercial purposes each year.