The Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism: A Critical Literature Review

• Published in: Child welfare 2023-07, Vol.101 (4), p.95-129
• Main Authors: Carles, Almudena Otegui, Brea, Jose Antonio Fraiz, Vila, Noelia Araujo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attention; Borders; Child Abuse; Child sexual abuse; Child welfare; Children; Children & youth; Childrens rights; Corruption in government; Dining Facilities; Enrollment; Exploitation; Families & family life; Forced labor; Gender Discrimination; Gravity; Human rights; Literature reviews; Patriarchy; Pornography; Pregnancy; Prevention programs; Prostitution; Public policy; Rehabilitation Programs; Sex industry; Sex tourism; Sexual behavior; Social conditions; Social Problems; Social science research; Substance Abuse; Supervision; Tourism; Travel; Trust (Psychology); Victims of Crime; Violence; World Problems
• ISSN: 0009-4021

A literature review was carried out after selecting 107 manuscripts published in or after 1993 to determine the state of academic research on the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism. The results highlighted the importance of addressing practical measures for prevention and child protection. Research should focus the attention on the individuals responsible for these actions, the patriarchal societies that facilitate such conduct, and those who do not fully comprehend the gravity of child sexual exploitation across international borders. The sexual exploitation of children is the dark side of the travel and tourism sector (Spurrier & Alpaslan, 2017; Wen et al., 2020), yet it is a topic that is poorly explored in academia. This avoidance probably is due to the dark nature of the topic-as if by refusing to acknowledge it, one can pretend that it does not exist. In 2021, it was reported that 3.31 million children are in situations of forced labor, and more than half of these children, between the ages of eight and 18, are targets of commercial sexual exploitation (Castilho et al., 2018; ILO, 2022). However, these numbers remain uncertain due to the difficulty of identifying such cases (Hulsbergen & Nooteboom, 2022; Simon et al., 2020) in a predatory sex industry that generates billions of U.S. dollars annually (Bah & Artaria, 2020). Despite this, childrens rights and human rights have received little academic attention in the context of tourism (Canosa et al., 2022). It was not until 1996 that the first World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held, and the commercial sexual exploitation of children began to be identified as a global social problem only in 1999 (Miller, 2011).