The Battle Against Child Sexual Exploitation
July 30th is the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, established by the United Nations in 2014 to spread awareness of the cruelties of this type of abuse and its devastating effects on people. The UN theme for 2024, Leave No Child Behind in the Fight Against Human Trafficking, was specifically designed to stop this inhumane treatment against children. Ironically, that very day, there was a debate at the United Nations that showed the two opposing sides in the fight to protect children from sexual exploitation.
During the week of July 29th, U.N. member states negotiated a cybersecurity convention, and trafficking and sexual exploitation of children were brought up on multiple occasions.
The current draft of the convention has a provision outlining commitments to protect children from being sexually exploited online. The majority of the article was unanimously agreed upon, except for section4, which specify certain conditions that would render such sexual abuse material online not criminal.
Section four says,
“4) States Parties may take steps to exclude the criminalization of:
(a) Conduct by children for self-generated material depicting them as described in paragraph 2 of this article; or
(b) Conduct set forth in paragraph 1 of this article, relating to material described in paragraph 2 (a) to
(c) of this article, where such material is produced as part of a consensual sexual relationship, as determined by domestic law and consistent with applicable international obligations, and is maintained exclusively for the private and consensual use of the persons involved.”
While the paragraph would protect children from certain types of online sexual abuse and exploitation, it would allow for children to engage in sexting, and to make videos in which they perform sexual acts, even with adults. When discussing paragraph 4, members of the European Union took an extremely liberal stance. The Austrian representative said, “under our national law, children may as of the age of 14 and above have sexual intercourse. We understand that this age is low compared to other states but many countries have similar national legislation.” She continued saying that, “children may produce pictures in the course of sexual engagement and share it with each other. It is our conviction that pictures produced as part of the legal and voluntary relationship should not be criminalized.” The Italian representative backed up her Austrian counterpart, claiming that a 17 year old boy could share nude photos to his 19 year old girlfriend, because the two individuals shared the images consensually. The two representatives stated that criminalizing these types of incidents would result in “overcriminalization”, which would be unacceptable.
For many, it was incredibly disturbing to hear representatives advocating for pedophilia. More conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia take a stand. The Saudi representative stated that Article 14 was created to “protect children” and demanded that paragraph 4 be removed because it might allow children to be abused without punishment. He said that the paragraph, “sets a precedent in international law with regards to children’s rights and it may be taken advantage of to circumvent legal texts that prohibit the abuse or exploitation of children in a sexual context.” He continued by emphasizing the vague nature of the language, which he thought would create a loophole to allow for sexual crimes to be committed against children. As a result, the Saudi representative stated that he would reject any language or terminology, “that could undermine the rights of the child or the definition of child.” Additionally, the Syrian representative responded negatively to paragraph 4. He said, “We welcome the fact that provisions have been included related to protection of children through the convention, especially everything related to child sexual abuse.” However, he was “disquieted” by paragraph 4 and requested that it be omitted.
The majority of nations in the European Union are known for their liberal views on sexuality. Whether it be the infamous Red Light Districts of Amsterdam and Hamburg or primetime television shows that feature women stripping, Western Europe is an overly sexualized place. However, in the past it was always thought that it should be adults engaging in this behavior. Now it seems as though the E.U. wants to treat pedophilia as a sexual preference. This must be stopped at all costs. Instead, it is the duty for us adults to protect children from the evils of sexual exploitation and to ensure that those responsible for these crimes are punished.
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