Let Children Be Children:Child Exploitation in the 21st Century
同志社国際高等学校１年

北村涼

At the age of seventeen, Min Min was promised a well paying job and a better life.
He boarded a boat that was supposed to take him from Myanmar to Thailand, but did
not realize until later that he had been tricked.
boat, where he worked for three years.

He was sold to an Indonesian fishingIn addition to refusing to meet his basic needs,

Min Min’s owners made him work overnight and without any safety equipment.

Hisslavers threatened him and told him that if he ever attempted escape, torture and an

英語 高校生－agonizing death would be awaiting him.

Min Min was eventually able to escape andreturn home to his family, but many children in his situation are not so lucky.
The exploitation of children is a 21st century issue that needs to be resolved
urgently.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 1.2 million

children around the world are currently being trafficked for economic and sexualexploitation.

Childrenarebeingexploitedinmany

different

industries

includingagriculture, fishing, textiles, and prostitution. In many cases, child slavers deceive, kidnap,
or buy children from their families.

These children are exposed to dangerous conditions,violence, and abuse and are deprived of proper education and basic needs.
cause of child labor and exploitation is poverty.

Out of desperation, struggling families

turn to selling or sending their children to work.

This practice over time becomes

accepted and even normal in these impoverished areas.
developing countries may face economic troubles.

The primary

Mutually, business owners in

These small businesses must compete

on a global scale, against multinational corporations that use industrial machine power tomanufacture goods.

In an attempt to increase efficiency and reduce expenses, smaller

businesses turn to employing children.

Economic strain on both the family and thebusiness’ part can lead to a dependence on child labor.
There are many solutions that organizations and governments are trying that simply
do not work.

Most of these flaws lie in legislation.

In many countries, children who

have been forced to work are persecuted instead of given a chance to be a functioning
member of society.

Prostitution, in particular, is treated as a crime; children involved in

prostitution are charged and punished for actions they were coerced into doing.
result, children are deterred from escaping exploitative conditions.

As a

The actions that thechild was forced to take later become the chains holding them down in bondage.
Additionally, laws against child exploitation are ineffective because of corruption ingovernments and law enforcement agencies.

Many child slavers use money as a tool toavoid persecution. There are even incidents in which the police “save” children from theiremployers, only to sell them back into bondage.

Vannak Prum, a young Cambodian boy

who was sold to a fishing boat, managed to escape from his dire conditions.

When hereached a police station and asked for help, the police officers sold him to a palm oilplantation.

We can only imagine the humiliation and loss of hope Prum felt when hisescape failed.

There are many loopholes around laws that ban child labor, and therefore

further actions must be taken.
If laws are not effective in controlling and preventing child exploitation, then what
can we do about the problem?
ourselves.

When asking this question, we must first look at

It is easy to point the finger at the corrupt governments of developing

countries, but are we, citizens and leaders living in developed countries, contributing tothe problem?

The answer is a definitive yes.

International Monetary Fund (IMF).

An example is a corporation called theThe IMF and World Bank were set up by developed

countries to aid developing countries in reducing debt and promote economic stability.
During the international debt crisis of the 1980’s, the IMF lent money to developing
Although this act in itself was benevolent, the IMF is now

acting as a loan shark; subsequently forcing countries to cut spending on health andeducation, destroy their own food industries, and devalue their own national currencies.
Essentially, the IMF is pushing developing countries further and further down the slippery
hole of modern colonization.

In order to alleviate poverty and as a result, prevent childlabor, the IMF must rethink its loan repayment plans and allow these developing
countries to grow economically.
Another way we can prevent child exploitation is to stop supporting it.

There aremany ways we consciously and unconsciously benefit from child exploitation.

First, many

people from developed countries travel to poorer areas for child sex tourism.

It wasfound that in Southeast Asia, a majority of the tourists that went to child brothels werefrom countries including Japan, America, and South Korea.

Second, we buy most of our

products from multinational corporations and consequently make it more difficult forsmaller businesses to compete on a global level.

Perhaps by supporting smaller

businesses in developing areas, we can counteract the need for child labor.
The final solution is to bring awareness to modern child slavery.
corruption in companies, governments, and law enforcement agencies.

We must expose
How can we hopeto stop child labor if those that are supposed to enforce the law are breaking it?

Bybringing to light the problems in our society and government, we can help emancipate
children from exploitation.
Clearly, child exploitation does not have a “quick and easy” fix.
children of today are responsible for the future of society.

However, theHow can we hope to have abright future if those who will build it are being exploited? Children should not be forced
to harvest crops; they should be harvesting the fruits of knowledge.

Children should not

be forced to sell their bodies; they should be strengthening their minds.
not be fishermen; children should be children.

Children should

Let us speak up and fight for those who

do not have the voice to speak up for themselves.

－英語 高校生

countries in desperate need.