Fighting child sex tourism in Peru

Last month, Peru’s The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) launched a national campaign for the protection of children and adolescents from sexual exploitation in tourism and travel.

The campaign seeks to increase awareness of the problem by urging businesses involved in the country’s booming tourist trade adhere to a code of conduct for the protection of minors. The effort, according to minister Mercedes Aráoz, is a response to a number of recent cases involving child sex tourism that have been uncovered by authorities.

Hard data on the industry is notoriously difficult to attain but the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reports that there are as many as 500,000 child victims of sexual exploitation and violence in the country. At one time, no less than four child prostitution rings were reported to be operating in the country’s main cities.

The northern jungle town of Iquitos has regularly been identified as both a site where children were recruited as well as a destination for sex tourists. One non-profit organization working with at-risk children in Iquitos, La Restinga, estimates that there are more than 1,000 minors in the city are involved in prostitution. The majority of clients are local residents, not foreign tourists, they say.

The Peruvian government has acknowledged the problem exists and has made headway combating it. Last year, laws against trafficking were strengthened and a computerized case tracking system was introduced to help law enforcement. National police raided more than 2,750 brothels last year and discovered approximately 400 minors being sexually exploited.

But technology and the internet is making things easier on the offenders, experts say. Web sites that boast tips and information penned by experienced child sex tourists are proliferating, according to ECPAT-USA, the U.S. branch of an international network that combats child sex tourism.

Peru is a prime example of the problem, according to the Peruvian Network Against Child Pornography (known by it’s Spanish acronym, RCPI – Peru). In a report released this month, the group says they have identified as many as 140 Spanish-language internet forums which participate in the exchange and distribution of child pornography. And on some as much as a third of the participants were Peruvian.

Of course, it might behoove these individuals to examine Peru's new laws concerning the exploitation of children. The penalty for using, promoting or commercializing pornography that exploits children is punishable by up to 8 years in prison. The penalty for promoting child sex tourism is up to six years while the penalties for engaging in child prostitution is no less than 25 years in prison.