Top Five Countries with Highest Rates of Child Prostitution
Ludovica Iaccino By Ludovica Iaccino
Updated February 6, 2014 17:43 GMT

Thailand

Child prostitution in Thailand involved 800,000 children under the age of sixteen in 2004.

According to Ecpat, due to the hidden nature of child sexual abuse reliable figures are hard to compile and cases difficult to document. Available figures estimate that currently some 30,000 to 40,000 children, not including foreign children, are exploited as prostitutes.

Sexual exploitation of children in Thailand, as in many other countries, is tremendously influenced by tourism.

"In Pattaya [ Thailand], if there were fewer foreign people coming in to buy sex, then the problem would be easier to manage," Palissorn Noja, who runs Pattaya's Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Abuse Centre, told the Huffington Post.

"They [pedophiles] have an entire worldwide network of people looking for children through human trafficking. And sex tourism makes it harder to stop."

Make no mistake, I'm not being accusative. However, the fact remains that the exploitation of young girls and boys in Thailand would, as the article states, be made easier to manage without the hindrance of sex tourists. I recognize that this is simplifying the issue and that there are deeper (and darker) reasons why children fall into the nests of hornets, yet I know with certainty that given the slightest hint that I may be complicit in their exploitation due to my behavior, my behavior would change. On your part, perhaps a gesture such as donating the cost of one of your cherished watches to a charity of your choice that deals with such issues would be appropriate. Could be that would in some way offset whatever damage you may unknowingly cause by being a gentlemanly and innocent sex tourist.

I think the real problem however is the amount of pedophiles living in the native born
Chinese population.

A totally unsubstantiated and bigoted claim. You know nothing of the actual Chinese population. Furthermore, it begs the question as to how many pedophiles you met when you were in China. Where the hell were you hanging out? How many of them did you report? Or were there so many that your efforts would have been futile?

Your China bashing has reached a new low.

In some places like Pattaya pedophile activity has almost been wiped out over the past 10 to
12 years and that's a really good thing.

On that we can agree, sort of. There is much that goes on that is never seen.