No such thing as a child prostitute, anti-trafficking groups say [View all]

[inanna]

Source: Reuters

Thu Jan 8, 2015 4:43pm EST

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Children sold for sex are crime victims and should not be branded as prostitutes, anti-slavery advocates said on Thursday in launching a U.S. campaign to raise awareness of child sex trafficking and to change how its victims are treated.

The term “child prostitute” implies that consent was involved when in fact there was no such thing, they said. Underage girls and boys who are forced to sell their bodies have very little choice when traffickers fully control them through violence, manipulation and coercion.

“Girls repeatedly raped and exploited are not prostitutes. They are victims and survivors of child rape and they deserve all the support and services we provide other abused children,” Malika Saada Saar, director of Rights4Girls, a human rights group focused on gender-based violence against girls and young women, said at a seminar here.

Rights4Girls, with support from Google and the McCain Institute, is leading the No Such Thing campaign, which calls upon policymakers, law enforcement and others to eradicate the term child prostitute.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/us-trafficking-us-children-idUSKBN0KH26920150108?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews