This illegal industry thrives across international borders exploiting children through pornography and prostitution. Many of these children are forced or deceived into the industry by strangers while others are either sold into prostitution to pay off family debts or are living on the streets to escape from abuse in the home. The trafficking of these vulnerable children for sexual purposes has become a flourishing international industry. In all cases, commercial sexual exploitation subjects children to physical and psychological trauma and exposes them to disease, drug addiction, pregnancy, social ostracism, and a future of violence and poverty. Children who grow up this way often become both physically and emotionally dependent on their abusers.
Sex tourism is especially on the rise in countries in Central and South America.
In Colombia, for example, there was a 500 percent increase in sexual exploitation of children between the ages of 8 and 13 between 1986 and 1993. In Nicaragua, approximately 92 percent of prostitutes are between the ages of 12 and 18. Although the number of child victims of prostitution is highest in Asia and Central and South America, there is not a country in the world that is immune to the problem. In Asia, brothels and street prostitution are common and frequently linked to organized crime. Girls, who are often considered an automatic liability by their families, are especially at risk.