Manitoba: Hotels to watch for sex exploitation

Last Updated: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | 6:05 PM CT

CBC News

The Manitoba government and the provincial hotel industry are teaming up in an effort to crack down on child sexual exploitation.

Wednesday, the province said staff at hotels will be trained to spot situations where a child might be at risk of being exploited by a guest and how to notify authorities of their suspicions.

‘There should be jail time. There should be huge penalties. There should be fines’—Rebecca, a former sex-trade worker

“We’re working with the hospitality industry and putting abusers on notice that people aren’t going to look the other way when they bring these young victims into hotels,” Gord Mackintosh, the provincial family services minister said.

Ignored by society, Afghan dancing boys suffer centuries-old tradition

By Atia Abawi, CNN
October 27, 2009 — Updated 1721 GMT (0121 HKT)

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — A young boy dressed in women’s clothing, his face caked in make-up, dances the night away for a crowd of men.

The bells on his feet chime away, mimicking the entertainment and sexual appeal of female dancers. But there is no mistaking his pubescent body and face as he concentrates, focusing on every step in order to please his master and his master’s guests.

This all played out in a video that CNN obtained from a person involved in the parties.

The boy is but one youth among many throughout the country forced into an age-old underground tradition known as “bacha bazi,” or “boy play,” in which young boys are taken from their families, made to dance and used as sex slaves by powerful men. The number of boys involved is unknown — the practice has been going on for centuries, in a country where such practices are overshadowed by conflict and war.

For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival

Running in the Shadows
October 27, 2009
By IAN URBINA

ASHLAND, Ore. — She ran away from her group home in Medford, Ore., and spent weeks sleeping in parks and under bridges. Finally, Nicole Clark, 14 years old, grew so desperate that she accepted a young man’s offer of a place to stay. The price would come later.

They had sex, and he soon became her boyfriend. Then one day he threatened to kick her out if she did not have sex with several of his friends in exchange for money.

She agreed, fearing she had no choice. “Where was I going to go?” said Nicole, now 17 and living here, just down the Interstate from Medford. That first exchange of money for sex led to a downward spiral of prostitution that lasted for 14 months, until she escaped last year from a pimp who she said often locked her in his garage apartment for months.

Press Release: More Than 50 Children Rescued During Operation Cross Country IV

For Immediate Release
October 26, 2009
Washington D.C., FBI National Press Office (202) 324-3691

Over the past 72 hours, the FBI, its local and state law enforcement partners, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) concluded Operation Cross Country IV, a three-day national enforcement action as part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative. The operation included enforcement actions in 36 cities across 30 FBI divisions around the country and led to the recovery of 52 children who were being victimized through prostitution. Additionally, nearly 700 others, including 60 pimps, were arrested on state and local charges.

“Child prostitution continues to be a significant problem in our country, as evidenced by the number of children rescued through the continued efforts of our crimes against children task forces,” said Kevin Perkins, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “There is no work more important than protecting America’s children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization. Through our strategic partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies, we are able to make a difference.”

SA: ‘Children used for sex’

July 08 2009 at 12:04PM
By Fouzia van der Fort

Children are being smuggled underground to have sex with illegal miners who live and work in disused mine shafts, says the director-general for the Department of Mineral Resources, Advocate Sandile Nogxina.

Nogxina was presenting a departmental report to a public hearing on illegal mining at parliament on Tuesday.

Johnny Ramrock, secretary for the portfolio committee of mining, told the Cape Argus this was the first the committee had heard of underground sex work involving children.

Last month 86 bodies were recovered after an underground fire broke out in Harmony Gold’s disused Eland Shaft at Welkom in the Free State. and more than 300 illegal miners were arrested.

Child labor in Lebanon: A breakdown

Posted July 6th, 2009

Lebanon has the highest proportion of working kids aged 10 to 17 in the world, with over 100,000 children in the country who are victims of child labor and illicit trafficking. Rights groups say better coverage of the often misreported story could help inform people about the realities of child labor.
By SIMBA RUSSEAU

BEIRUT, July 6, 2009 (MENASSAT) — In Lebanon, there are over 100,000 children who are victims of child labor and illicit trade, vulnerable to exploitation and working in hazardous conditions. Lebanon has the highest proportion of working kids aged 10 to 17 in the world.

Omar is a 14 year-old shoe shiner from Syria. His hands, face and clothes are covered in dirt and he can sometimes be seen squatting in a corner on the sidewalk with a look of deep sadness.

Normally, he wanders up and down the different posh neighborhoods of Beirut, sometimes for eleven hours a day carrying a shoe cleaning kit while begging for clients.

Aurora man accused of pimping child prostitutes

By Associated Press
7:17 AM MDT, July 1, 2009

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Aurora Police are looking for runaway girls who might have been forced into prostitution after arresting a man they suspect was pimping girls using online ads.

An undercover investigation led to an arrest Tuesday of 24-year-old Bobby James Doss. Detectives are holding Doss on charges of pimping a child after tracking a girl through an online sex ad. She told investigators she was a runaway working as a prostitute for Doss.

Authorities say they suspect more girls may be involved. The girl they interviewed Tuesday is in protective custody, and Doss is being held without bond.

While interviewing the underage prostitute at a hotel room, police arrested her suspected john, 37-year-old B A C.

Original at KDVR

KS: Trafficking task forces prevailing

By Jan Biles
Created June 27, 2009 at 10:32pm
Updated June 27, 2009 at 11:56pm

Kristy Childs ran away from an abusive stepfather when she was a teenager, and within a few months found herself under the control of a pimp and turning tricks first in Denver and then in other cities across the country.

Sometimes, the teenager and the men paying to have sex with her would be arrested and taken to jail. She would be charged with prostitution while the men would be released and told not to go back to the area of town where prostitutes worked.

Childs didn’t understand why she was punished more harshly.

OH: A new word for prostitute: Victim

Naive and vulnerable girls lured by slick-talking pimps are drugged, beaten and held hostage for sex. They are our children, and they are the latest casualties of human trafficking.

Sunday, June 28, 2009 3:29 AM
By Alan Johnson and Mike Wagner

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The rusty black Chevrolet crept slowly down W. Broad Street until a stranger waved it to a stop. The man handed the driver $50 and climbed into the back seat beside a cute young woman with brown hair and brown eyes.

Before sunrise, about 20 more strangers would do the same.

Ashley Berner, barely 18, pleaded to the driver to let her go. Three other women, who had taken her in from the streets, introduced her to the man she didn’t realize was a pimp. Soon, he was beating her and threatening to kill her and harm her family if she didn’t continue prostituting in the back seat of that car.

New Nevada Law Cracks Down on Child Prostitution

Posted: June 26, 2009 02:31 PM PDT
Kellene Stockwell
Channel 2 News

Dettrea King speaks with the wisdom of the streets and she’s not even old enough to drink. At 18 and a half, Dettrea lived a lifetime of hurt. “I started to use drugs at a young age. I was sexually abused. I ended up selling my body for drugs and for money.”

All of that was before her 13th birthday.

Five years of prostitution led her to a six month juvenile jail sentence in Caliente starting June of 2008. Then there was three months of a juvenile hall in Clark County and finally one month of rehab and release April 9th.