Thread: Demand for child webcam sex in Mekong 'outstripping supply', U.N. says

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Demand for sex with children is an emerging cause of human trafficking in the Mekong region, the United Nations said on Thursday, as it pointed to a shift in child sex webcam centers from the Philippines to Thailand.

The problem had grown so much that demand for child webcam sex tourism is "outstripping the supply", Deanna Davy, senior research consultant at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said at the launch of a new trafficking report in Bangkok.

Thailand is a regional hub for the smuggling and trafficking of men, women, and children from poorer neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar.

Many are forced to work in Thailand's sex industry and in labor intensive sectors such as fishing, construction, and agriculture, where they are sometimes subject to abuse, according to investigations by rights groups and the media.

Around 4 million migrants live in Thailand, according to 2015 government data. The UNODC estimates that between 4 and 23 percent of migrants in Thailand are trafficking victims.

Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the UNODC, said recent intelligence showed a shift in child sex abuse webcam centers to Thailand from the Philippines, where authorities have tried to crack down on the illegal trade.

"It used to be the Philippines but through some of our interviews we've found that it's moving here and we're seeing some intelligence indicate that a move of people setting up operations in Thailand is happening," Douglas told Reuters.

He said the victims were children from Thailand and neighboring countries.

"When things operate in the shadows like that it's really hidden ... but this should be an issue of concern," he said.

A spokesman for the Thai government was not able to comment immediately on the UNODC findings.

The U.N. children's agency said in a 2016 report poor families in the Philippines were pushing their children into performing live sex online for pedophiles around the globe, calling it a form of "child slavery".

The UNODC pointed on Thursday to child sex abuse, along with trafficked migrant labor for illegal logging purposes, as emerging trafficking issues of concern in the region.

A Bangkok court convicted dozens of people, including police and politicians, last month for trafficking migrants in Thailand's biggest human trafficking trial.

In June, the U.S. State Department left Thailand on a Tier 2 Watchlist, just above the lowest ranking of Tier 3, in its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, because it said Thailand did not do enough to tackle human smuggling and trafficking.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-b...-idUSKBN1AQ1N6

Originally Posted by misskit

A Bangkok court convicted dozens of people, including police and politicians, last month for trafficking migrants in Thailand's biggest human trafficking trial.

Really? There was a big story of investigations and allegations, but then it went quiet.
(Or maybe I missed it while I was sick?). Good to read that there were convictions...and it all happened relatively quickly.

Originally Posted by misskit

recent intelligence showed a shift in child sex abuse webcam centers to Thailand from the Philippines, where authorities have tried to crack down on the illegal trade.

That'll be a result of those two Scandinavians being given huge jail terms.

With all the aspirations to be "Hub of Something Important", the basic facts are that LOS is still the epicentre of; people, wildlife, and child-sex trafficking in this region.

BBC radio 4 ran a story on "crossing continents " this week and the subject was the Romanian girls being the worlds leaders in web cam sex.
I couldn't have been botherd to listen to a BBC program where the girls earn more money than most, plus infatuated men send them sponsorship money to help them.