Brian Musomba Maweu, 52, who was extradited from Kenya to the United States in September 2014, pleaded guilty in April 2015 before U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. of the Western District of Louisiana to one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. In addition to serving the prison term, Maweu will be required to register as a sex offender.
3gp Pedo Child Sex
ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online at www.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp. Tips may be reported anonymously.
Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse.[1] The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years".[2] Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections (including HIV/AIDS), "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States.[1] Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world.[1][3][4][5] The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.[6][7][8]
Users of children for commercial and sexual purposes can be categorized by motive. Although pedophiles are popularly associated with child sex tourism, they are not the majority of users. There are two types of offenders: preferential abusers who specifically prefer children, because they seek to build a relationship with a child or because they perceive the risk of sexually transmitted infections to be lower; and situational users, which are abusers who do not actively seek out children but for whom the actual act is opportunistic. For situational users, there may be a lack of concern to check the age of a prostitute before engaging in sexual activity.[9]
Travelling child sex offenders can use the Internet to plan their trips by seeking out and trading information about opportunities for child sex tourism and where the most vulnerable children can be found, generally in areas of low income.[5] Multiple governments have enacted laws to allow prosecution of its citizens for child sexual abuse committed outside of their home country. However, while laws against child sex tourism may deter situational offenders who may act impulsively, pedophiles who travel specifically for the purpose of exploiting children are not easily deterred.[5]
Child sex tourism has been closely linked to poverty, armed conflicts, rapid industrialization, and exploding population growth.[10] In Latin America and Southeast Asia, for instance, street children often turn to prostitution as a last resort. Additionally, vulnerable children are easy targets for exploitation by traffickers.[10] South Africa,[11] United States,[12] Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil, and Mexico have been identified as leading hotspots of child sexual exploitation.[13] Also, child victim ages have been found in Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand to range from 6 to 11 years old, followed by 12 to 15 years old, and 15 to 17.[14]
In 2012, the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography reported: "Countries of origin of international child sex tourists vary depending on the regions, but the demand is usually recognized as coming from the industrialized countries, including the richer countries of Europe, North America, the Russian Federation, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Australians, for instance, have been identified as the largest group of sex tourists prosecuted in Thailand (31 percent of the total). Of the 146 cases investigated by Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) in Cambodia between 2003 and April 2012, 32 were American, 24 French and 20 Vietnamese. In the coastal regions of Kenya, for example, 30 percent were residents and 70 percent of the abusers were foreign: Italians (18 percent), Germans (14 percent), Swiss (12 percent), with tourists coming from Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania fifth and sixth on the list. In Costa Rica, according to available information, between the 1999 and 2005, the Child Exploitation Unit had arrested a total of 74 persons on suspicion of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Of those arrested, 56 were Costa Rican nationals and 18 foreign nationals".[15]
In Thailand, the exact number of child-prostitutes is not known, but Thailand's Health System Research Institute reports that children in prostitution make up 40% of prostitutes in Thailand.[16] In Cambodia, it has been estimated that about a third of all prostitutes are under 18.[17][18] In India, the federal police say that around 1.2 million children are believed to be involved in prostitution.[19] Up until recently, Brazil has been considered to have the worst child sex trafficking record after Thailand.[20] As per Chris Rogers report on BBC World[21] "Now Brazil is overtaking Thailand as the world's most popular sex-tourist destination". DLN reports that "Brazil at the moment is on a high trend of child sex tourism and is all geared to take up the first spot beating out Thailand."[22]
Sex tourism targeting children creates huge monetary incentives for traffickers. Human trafficking impacts an estimated 1.2 million child victims.[23][24] The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) recently stated that 79% of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation, which is one of the fastest growing criminal activities in the world.[24]
UNICEF notes that sexual activity is often seen as a private matter, making communities reluctant to act and intervene in cases of sexual exploitation.[24] These attitudes make children far more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Most exploitation of children takes place as a result of their absorption into the adult sex trade where they are exploited by local people and sex tourists.[24] The Internet provides an efficient global networking tool for individuals to share information on destinations and procurement.[24]
In cases involving children, the U.S. has relatively strict domestic laws that hold accountable any American citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. who travels abroad for the purpose of engaging in illicit conduct with a minor.[25] However, child pornography, sex tourism and human trafficking remain fast-growing industries.[25] Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. recently introduced H.R. 1623, the international Megan's Law. Similar to the domestic Megan's Law (named after Megan Kanka of New Jersey), which provides for community notification when a sex offender is living in the area, H.R. 1623 would alert officials abroad when U.S. sex offenders intend to travel, and likewise encourage other countries to keep sex offender lists and to notify the U.S. when a known sex offender may be coming to the United States for sex tourism.[25] While there are serious problems with the sex offender registries in the United States, human rights organizations such as ECPAT and UNICEF believe this would be a step in the right direction.[25]
One of the factors pushing Brazil to the top of this list of destination countries is the extensive use of the Sport Fishing industry in the Brazilian Amazon as a front. The 2008 U.S. State Department Report[26] states "At midyear Federal Police in Manaus began investigating allegations that a foreign-owned travel company arranged fishing expeditions to the Amazon region that were in reality sex tours for U.S. and European child predators. At year's end the investigation was continuing in coordination with foreign law enforcement officials." Another US State Department report states (page 85) "In a newer trend, some arranged fishing expeditions to the Amazon were organized for the purpose of child sex tourism for European and American exploiters."[27] Recent Reports on Fox Atlanta and ABC World News Tonight have helped shine the light on this.[28][29][30][31][32] ECPAT-USA has recently posted a Brazilian National News story with English subtitles.[33]
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimate, there are 750,000 predators online at any given time in 40,000 public chat rooms. Offers from 20,000 internet users to pay for webcam sex performances were found in a 10-week investigation conducted from a warehouse in Amsterdam, in the Terre des hommes Dutch action against WCST, using "Sweetie", a 3D computer model. Out of 21,000 perpetrators, 1,000 were identified from Australia, Canada, Germany, Ghana, India, Italy, Mauritius, the Netherlands, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and United States. 110 of the alleged online abusers were based in the UK and another 254 were traced to computers in the US.[34] Together with Avaaz.org, Terre des Hommes Netherlands has created an online petition to pressure governments to adopt proactive investigation policies in order to protect children against webcam child sex tourism.
In recent years[when?] there has been an increase in the prosecution of child sex tourism offenses. At least 38 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow their citizens to be prosecuted specifically for child sexual abuse crimes committed while abroad, and another 31 nations have more general extraterritorial laws that could be used to prosecute their citizens for crimes committed during child sex tourism trips.[1] As of May 2016, 173 countries have signed and ratified the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography which is "Deeply concerned at the widespread and continuing practice of sex tourism, to which children are especially vulnerable". It also obliges parties to pass laws within their own territories against these practices "punishable by appropriate penalties that take into account their grave nature".[35] In response to CST, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the tourism industry, and governments have begun to address the issue. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) established a task force to combat CST. The WTO, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and Nordic tour operators created a global Code of Conduct for the Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism in Travel and Tourism in 1996. As of April 2013, over 1200 travel companies from 40 countries had signed the code.[36] 2ff7e9595c
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