Child Prostitution

Child prostitution is the prostitution of a child, meaning a person under the legal age of consent, and is treated in most jurisdictions as illegal under general prohibitions on both prostitution and child sexual abuse. It most often takes the form of sex trafficking, in which a child is kidnapped or deceived into the sex trade, or of survival sex, in which a child exchanges sexual activity for food, shelter or other basic necessities, and it is frequently linked with child pornography. Researchers estimate roughly ten million children are involved in prostitution worldwide, with the practice most common in South America and Asia though present in both developing and developed nations, and girls make up the large majority of those affected. Every United Nations member state has committed to prohibiting the practice under the Convention on the Rights of the Child or its Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.