Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
What is CSEC?
"COULD I BE INVOLVED"
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) refers to sexually abusing a child for economic gains. CSEC constitutes coercion and violence against children and amounts to forced labor and a contemporary form of slavery. Accordingly, a child is sexually abused by an adult for remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a third person or persons. Here, the child is treated as a sexual and a commercial object. CSEC can take various forms like:
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Prostitution of children
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Child pornography
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Child sex tourism
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Other forms of transactional sex
Children are not developmentally, legally, or socially able to make informed choices to enter or remain in commercial sexual exploitation. Instead, they do so as a result of desperation, coercion, enticement and/or manipulation.
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A child under the age of 16 cannot consent to sexual activity.
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Commercial sexually exploited children should be treated as victims of abuse rather than offenders.
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CSEC victims do not choose their lifestyle; rather, they are manipulated into it by perpetrators.
Warning
CSEC Victims are recruited in a variety of ways, including:
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Targeting runaways
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Seduction and coercion
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False advertising for "modeling" or "acting" or dancing
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Peer recruitment Internet chat rooms or other forms of social media
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Violence and forced kidnapping
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Parent/Caregiver exploiting children
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Exotic dancing
Help is Available
If you are involved or know someone who is a victim of CSEC, please contact:
Children’s Advocacy Centers of Georgia, Inc (CACGA)
CACGA.org
Hotline 1-866-END-HTGA (363-4844)
#ENDHTGA