Child Trafficking and Its Role in the Current World

Human trafficking is a global issue that has held prominence for centuries, however its relevance has only recently been acknowledged. Many believe it to be an issue solely faced by adults who end up in bad paths in life, however this is far from the reality. In fact, the rate of child trafficking incidents is rising exponentially and has caused it to become a large sector in the trafficking industry.

Children are most often trafficked due to their increased vulnerability for commercial sexual exploitation or for labor, consisting of domestic servitude, agricultural work, factory work and mining, or forced to fight in conflicts. Currently, around 25% of all victims are children around the ages of 11-14, with most being sold 20 to 30 times daily on average. Considering that the trafficking industry generates $150.2 billion on average annually and is the second largest criminal enterprise, slowing these trends down will be a hardship unless a wide effort is made to combat it. ( OneChild, Child Liberation Foundation) 

As of 2018, 2.4 million Canadians have reported being sexualy victimized as a child and 51.6% of all criminal cases in the US being child sex trafficking cases. A majority of these children having been lured into sexual exploitation by a family member or friend. These actions have had major repercussions, including global economic impacts and costs resulting from the consequences of physical, psychological, and sexual violence against children, which could be as high as $7 trillion.

Currently, 426 million children live in conflict zones, nearly one-fifth of the world’s children, and as this industry becomes more lucrative, more children will be exposed to its cruelty. As of 2014, at least 120 million girls under the age of twenty have been forced to engage in sex or other sexual acts. This coupled with the fact that earlier studies have shown that sexually exploited children serve between two and thirty clients per week, approximately 100 to 1500 clients per year, showing the extent of these horrors. (UN News, OneChild)

However change is being made with organisations and programs around the world aimed at educating and rehabilitating child victims to break out of this cycle. Possible future additions to legislations regarding labour supply chains can also aid in preventing child labor in trafficking.

With the growing significance of human trafficking, we at Future Unchained Toronto are dedicated to spreading information on all topics involving human trafficking through engaging informational events and outreach through social media platforms, in an effort to educate the public on this issue and to change the future of human trafficking.