They were later sent to other centres where they were treated less sadistically - but threatened with being sent back to the first centre if they disobeyed. Pornography and Child-selling Children are exploited worldwide not only for use as prostitutes, but as subjects of pornography. They also describe auctions where girls were sold. In Karachi in 1983, a slave market was held where women and girls kidnapped from Sri Lanka and Bangladesg were sold into prostitution. How many children are sexually exploited for commerical purposes worldwide is not known.
Estimates vary from hundreds of thousands to millions of children.
The lack of knowledge stems only partly from the difficulty of tracking down such clandestine dealings. It also arises from two other difficulties. First, if organisations like governments or powerful vice rings are profiting from child sex, then the motivation to make thorough, large-scale investigations is hampered. And second, countries and comminities often don't want the murky relaities hidden in their shadows to be pulled out into the light of day. They prefer to make the murk 'disappear' by denying it exists - or by making out it exists only in aberrant cases, rather than facing the fact that it is part of their social system.