Step aside, Thailand, and make room for Brazil, the fastest growing hotbed for child sex tourism. Sex-hungry tourists are flocking to South America in droves for the promise of cheap, young, and easily accessible prostitutes. Not only that, but they have their choice of young kids (cheaper than the price of an older girl, according to one taxi driver), teens, and transvestites, and all for under $5. Quite the deal, eh?
Many young girls and boys in the country’s growing sex industry are forced to sell their services by by pimps, and sometimes even their parents. The BBC’s Chris Rogers headed to Brazil to investigate, and found many young kids selling sex because of their parents’ demands and families’ needs. He encountered one 13-year-old girl, Pia, who was forced into prostitution to support her mother’s (and her own) crack cocaine addiction, and two other young boys — dressed as girls — who used their earnings to buy food for their hungry and impoverished families. And their stories are not uncommon; many desperate kids, teens, and young women from Brazil’s favelas are left with no choice but to enter the prostitution industry, and others are forced into it with the typical promises of money, a better life, and happiness.
According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 250,000 child prostitutes in Brazil, and that number is growing. Sex tourists from all over the world, particularly the United States and Africa, head to that country for the promise of cheap, pleasurable sex in the countless “love motels” that can be purchased by the hour. Classy.
I’ve spent the last few days in Boulder immersed in the world of the Unreasonable Institute. As I’ve been listening to some promising social ventures give their pitches, there have been a number of great articles about the changing nature of the venture space, innovation in global mobile money, some good news about conflict minerals, and more.
With the World Cup over, all that’s really left to do is resume the drudgery of waking up every day to try to make the world a better place. Bo-ring. If we have to do it though, may as well be as informed as possible. Start with these important reads from the last week.
There’s a rash of shark attacks happening throughout the world’s oceans. But here’s the real problem: It’s the sharks who are the victims.