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It is not a very visible problem in our community, but each year, youths as young as 13
years are recruited to work in the sex trade. They do it because they are lured by
promises of glamour and excitement, because they can sell their bodies for the security of
a place to stay or food to eat, or because they have a drug habit or alcohol problem they
must feed. The life they encounter on the street and in the sex trade is anything but
glamourous and secure. Beatings and rape, drug and alcohol addiction, sexually
transmitted diseases such HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea , and unwanted pregnancy await
many of them. In 2000, Burnaby social service agencies tracked 35 local young people
who were either known or suspected to be working in the sex trade, or who were highly
at-risk to be recruited. That figure equates to one whole school classroom of youths who
are experiencing or are likely to experience exploitation and abuse in the child sex trade!
Stemming the tide of young people lured into the commercial sex trade will take a
co-operative effort on the part of all sectors of the community. Public education is an
essential first step in raising the awareness of this community issue; awareness is a
necessary prerequisite to action. The Burnaby-New Westminster Task Force on the
Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth has prepared this information to help raise
public awareness of this issue. The Task Force is led by the City of Burnaby and has
representation from over twenty Burnaby agencies, including the Burnaby School District,
the Burnaby RCMP, Simon Fraser Health Region, several Provincial ministries, and a
number of non-profit service providers. For more information about the work of the Task
Force, call the Burnaby Planning Department at 604.294.7400.

What is the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth in the Sex Trade?
Most people are familiar with the term "prostitution" which means the trading of sex for
money or anything else - food, a place to stay, alcohol or drugs, cigarettes, a ride
somewhere, and so on. The less familiar term - "sex trade" - is applied to a large and
lucrative industry which includes prostitution, but also other activities such as
pornography, stripping, and phone sex. Children and youth who are involved in the sex
trade are sexually exploited. They are being victimized and abused by predators who
either buy sex from them or profit from their sex trade activities.
Only a small proportion of the young people lured into the sex trade work on the streets.
The rest work in indoor or "hidden" venues such as massage parlours, escort agencies,
health enhancement centres, pornographic film studios, phone sex lines, or behind the
closed doors of private homes or "trick pads".