Impact of Globalization on Child Prostitution in Many Countries

Impact of Globalization on the Child Prostitution Industry
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Impact of Globalization on the Child Prostitution Industry
Introduction
Child prostitution refers to the use of children (below the adult age depending on country) for sexual activities in exchange for money or any other form of retribution. The children are strategically placed in streets, brothels, night clubs, massage parlors or hotels where clients can easily find them. Child prostitution occurs among both boys and girls. There are many driving factors which influence children into prostitution including poverty, and cultural beliefs. For example, in some Asian countries, there is a myth that having sex with a young girl prevents one from contracting HIV/AIDS besides curing those already infected. Globalization has also had its part to play in child prostitution.
Globalization is one of the most prevalent trends in the contemporary business world. Through globalization, a certain trade develops international business networks and channels in an attempt to capture a larger customer-base across the globe (Beneria, Berik & Floro, 2015). Despite its many advantages, globalization does not always occur positively. This is because globalization can encourage illegal businesses such as child prostitution and human trafficking. Globalization of such illegal activities makes it very difficult to stop them because of a variety of reasons such as culture, law, as well as the complicated channels that enable these businesses to go on unpunished. With regards, to child prostitution, globalization has been integral in ensuring the illegal business continues despite being a banned practice in most countries. Globalization can occur in many aspects, i.e., globalization of economics, cultural practices, and many more (Beneria, Berik, & Floro, 2015). This paper assesses how and why globalization increased the statistics for child prostitution in the modern world by looking at the two major aspects of globalization that influence child prostitution, globalization of economics and globalization of cultures.
History of Child Prostitution
Child prostitution has been around since the antiquity days when prepubescent boys were employed as prostitutes in brothels in ancient Greece and Rome (National Geographic, 2016). During the ancient times, the most beautiful Egyptian maidens were forced into prostitution until their first menstruation. In China and India, children were sold by their parents into prostitution. Some Indian parents voluntarily dedicated their children to prostitution through a system called the devadasi system. Child prostitution in Europe thrived up until the latter part of the 17th century. Child prostitutes accounted for about 50% of the total prostitutes in Paris in the late 1800s (Kamruzzaman & Hakim, 2016). In the 19th century, a scandal in England forced the government to increase the age of consent from 13 to 16. The scandal was that of a 13-year old girl who had been sold for 5 British pounds and was taken to a midwife to verify her virginity. It was during this time when the term white slavery was coined to describe child prostitution; the term became widely used throughout Europe and the US. In...