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The child-sex tourism industry that caters to pedophiles preying on the world's
poorest children is slowly being chipped away at through tougher laws in the
United States and new efforts worldwide to pull back the curtain on this
underground network. Although trafficking in children has plagued countries
such as Cambodia, Thailand, and Costa Rica for decades, in the past year a
synergy has developed between the US, NGOs, and the UN to curb the part of the
multibillion-dollar sex-tourism industry that targets children.And their efforts are
beginning to show results. In the US, pedophiles who regularly traveled abroad
for cheap, abundant child sex are being prosecuted. In other countries where
poverty and lack of education drive the sex trade, new sobering advertising
campaigns will start warning potential offenders of the consequences of buying
sex with a child.Wednesday a campaign called the Code of Conduct for the
Protection of Children From Sexual Commercial Exploitation in Travel and
Tourism, or simply "the code," was launched at the UN.A joint effort by UNICEF,
the World Tourism Organization, and ECPAT-USA, a global organization that works
to end child prostitution, the "code" is designed to create a more responsible
tourism industry, one vigilant against child exploitation. Its signatories commit to
helping identify — and more importantly — report potential abusers.Fifty
companies have signed on to the code, but so far only one from the US, Carlson
Companies Inc., has agreed to participate.On her way to New York Tuesday night
for the official launch of the code, Carlson chairman and CEO Marilyn Carlson
Nelson said the code would be "a commitment to help raise awareness with
employees" at many of the Carlson's properties, which include Regent
International Hotels and Radisson Hotels."I do hope others in our industry will
follow. I think most thoughtful CEOs these days are considering corporate social
responsibility in a new context," Ms. Nelson says. The push for the travel industry
to do its part to curb the demand aspect of the global sex trade comes a year
after President Bush passed the Protect Act, legislation making it illegal for US
citizens to travel abroad and engage in sex with a minor.In his September 2003
UN address, President Bush asked that all countries pass laws against their
citizens traveling abroad to engage in the "underground of brutality" of sex
trafficking and warn tourists of this "humanitarian crisis. In the US, conviction
under the Protect Act could lead to a 30-year prison sentence.Because of the
veiled nature of sex tourism, it's impossible to calculate the number of
participants. But a survey by ECPAT reports that Americans make up 25 percent of
the world's global sex industry, which involves about 2 million children.
Americans represent about 80 percent of the sex tourists in Costa Rica, and
about 38 percent in Cambodia.Michael Lewis Clark was the first American
convicted under the child-sex tourism provision of the Protect Act. He recently
pleaded guilty in a Seattle federal district court to two counts of engaging in sex
with a minor. Clark was arrested in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after authorities there
learned he was paying young boys as little as $2 for sex. Clark may have molested
as many as 50 children during several years of traveling back and fourth to
Cambodia, according to the investigation conducted by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. Four other
Americans have also been charged under the act."These are horrendous crimes
that are devastating to the victims out there. Clearly having strong laws here will
be a deterrent," says Dean Boyd, spokesman for ICE, which has agents stationed
in areas where the sex industry regularly draws US customers.In places like
Thailand and Cambodia, where sex tourists can easily avoid detection and skirt
prosecution by bribing local police, ICE relies on tips from NGOs like World Vision.
World Vision recently received a $500,000 State Department grant to develop an
ad campaign in Thailand, Costa Rica, and Cambodia. Next month the first
billboards will appear along Cambodian roadsides and in airports warning: "Cost
of Child Sex Tourism: 30 years in Prison."But although laws and public-awareness
campaigns may deter "situational" offenders who act impulsively because they
are far from home and feel free of scrutiny, they are unlikely to dissuade the
pedophile who has traveled specifically to exploit children, says Arthur Kaye, a
clinical psychologist with the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice who has
treated sex offenders and pedophiles. These offenders are traveling for the
"excitement" and they are trying to feed an "addiction." They are not easily
deterred.Neither "the code" nor the Bush administration's Protect Act is a cure-
all, says Karin Landgren, chief of child protection for UNICEF. But, she adds, they
are an important beginning.