The sexual exploitation of children occurs everywhere, in every country and across all social groups.
In 2016, ECPAT International coordinated the Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism, which shed light on the latest trends and patterns of this crime worldwide. The report highlighted that there is no corner of the globe that is untouched by this crime and that the travel and tourism industry has a key role to play.
The Code was created to be a child protection tool used by the industry to specifically combat the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism. Often offenders actively travel to countries where access to vulnerable children is easier, where child sexual exploitation is more socially normalised or where governments lack the capacity to respond. In other cases, travellers and tourists are known to opportunistically engage with child sexual exploitation because they believe that this kind of behaviour is more acceptable in another country.
An estimated 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 years of age experience sexual exploitation or other forms of sexual violence according to the UN Global Study on Violence against Children. Every year, millions of children are bought and sold for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The International Labour Organisation estimates that approximately 5.5 million are being exploited in force labour, including forced sexual exploitation.
The Code encourages the practice of responsible, sustainable tourism by companies from around the world. By implementing effective child protection policies and procedures members of The Code are able to play an essential role in protecting children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism.
