Child Labor in the United States does not readily come to mind when one brings up human rights or social injustice issues. After the Fair Labor Standards Acts was passed in 1938, largely due to groups like The National Child Labor Committee, institutionally endorsed use of children for labor in the US was virtually wiped out. Globally, child labor is still an enormous issue. 8.4 million children are involved in work that the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention defines as unacceptable for children. This includes the trafficking of children for debt bondage, forced labor, armed conflict, and the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). In the United States, roughly 199,000 incidents of CSEC take place each year according to a study released by Estes & Weiner in 2001. (CLEP)
Children have historically been used as laborers for a few reasons, including their increased accessibility into smaller spaces (like broken down machines) and the ease of which it is to abuse them without risking organized resistance. However, the number one reason for using children is that employers have routinely considered them to be cheaper labor than adults. Because of their age, they have been considered to be cost-effective.
This view is still prevalent among perpetrators of CSEC today, only on a more disturbing level.
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As a toddler, I could play dress-up with the best of them. Almost as soon as I’d learned to walk I made it a practice of donning my grandmother’s high-heels and parading around the back patio, bottle-in-hand, likely with more grace and poise than I could muster now in such footwear. Like many other little girls, I’d watch my mother putting on her make-up and beg for her to share some lipstick or blush. Dressing up was a way to mirror the beauty of the women in my life, and the same is still true for many young girls.
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Why does our culture continue to raise men who think it is ok to buy sex?
One of the most troubling truths in the issue of sex trafficking is that the demand is seemingly endless. Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal business in the world, second only to drugs. The most agreed-upon statistics for the global profits earned from human trafficking (calculations seen in the 2005 report from the International Labour Office report by Patrick Besler) equal US $32 billion. Of that number, $28 billion comes from sex trafficking. The business runs with a backbone similar to any other market: supply and demand. Demand in this context is men who are willing to purchase. Back to the original point, there is a horribly high percentage of people in this world who see nothing wrong with buying sex.
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This week, Wyndham Hotel Group becomes the latest hotel to pledge the prevention of child sex tourism in its hotels. As the third major US hotel chain to sign The Code (officially known as the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism), Wyndham joins Carlson Companies and Hilton Worldwide in the fight against the sex trafficking of children. Amanda Kloer of Change.org reports, “Wyndham’s decision to sign The Code comes after nearly 14,000 travelers signed a petition on Change.org” that was organized by San Diego native Tim Rosner. READ MORE
On Thursday afternoon of June 30th, the Meet Justice Staff, among many other listeners, tuned in to hear Dottie Laster host her show TRAFFICKED on Here Women Talk radio. This week’s show featured an analysis of the State Department’s Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report that was released this past Monday. In addition, Dottie spoke to Meet Justice Operations Manager Jessica Reis about Meet Justice’s efforts in the fight against human trafficking. Both were great segments—if you missed the hour-long show, check out the archived version here.
After the show, I had the fantastic opportunity to talk with Dottie about her efforts in advocacy and her thoughts on recent trafficking-related developments. In an hour-long conversation that featured my jumbled questions and Dottie’s eloquent answers, we covered a variety of topics, from immigration law and grant funding to victim awareness and trafficking prevention. Dottie has dabbled in every aspect of the human trafficking advocacy world, and has made an impact in each and every one of her efforts.
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