Child sex tourism fuels demand for human trafficking, expert says – InForum

A former North Dakota lawmaker who pleaded guilty Thursday to a child sex tourism charge said he had not violated any local laws.

But under US law, that doesn’t matter, said the CEO of an organization that fights child sexual exploitation.

“It is a crime to buy the body of a child anywhere in the world,” said Lori Cohen, an attorney who leads the organization PACT, or Protect All Children from Trafficking. “And the U.S. law is very clear on this. There are no exceptions.”

Former Senator Ray Holmberg pleaded guilty to traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sex acts, specifically intending to purchase sex from minors under the age of 18. Prosecutors allege he made approximately 14 trips to Prague between 2011 and 2021 to pay for sex acts with boys.

Holmberg told the court on Thursday that he does not believe he violated Czech law.

It’s important for U.S. travelers to realize that the age of sexual consent in another country doesn’t matter under federal law, Cohen said. In the Czech Republic, the age of consent is 15.

“I think people rationalize it and think, ‘Oh, if the age of consent is 15, that means I can buy this child,’” Cohen said. “But in fact, the age of consent is a separate issue from the commercial sex industry.”

According to the organization ECPAT International, which previously stood for End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism, prostitution in the Czech Republic operates in a “legal vacuum.”

“The sale and purchase of sexual services by adult sex workers aged 18 and over are not criminalised, but pimping, human trafficking and running brothels are,” the organisation wrote in a 2019 report on the Czech Republic.

Tough measures by cities like Prague have pushed prostitution off the streets and into “erotic clubs” or private apartments, the report said. The report noted that online ads do not require age verification, making minors under 18 eligible for sex work.

The Czech Republic remains a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking, with children making up more than half of identified sex trafficking victims, the organization said. Identified sex trafficking victims most often came from the Czech Republic or Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

According to ECPAT International, cities including Prague are popular with tourists for their nightlife and “boy bars,” which are often owned by Czech porn companies and are locations for filming erotic videos.

“The existence of a growing market for young male sex workers poses a greater risk of SEC (child sexual exploitation), especially in light of the increase in trafficking of boys into the country,” the organization said.

ECPAT International warned that sexual exploitation of children through prostitution reached a new high in the Czech Republic in 2017.

The Czech Republic was also identified as a source of child abuse material. According to the 2019 report, the Czech Republic hosts the second largest number of URLs in the European Union disseminating such content.

According to Cohen, the number of child sex tourists declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now increasing again as people begin to travel more again.

Americans who purchase sex while abroad need to realize they are playing a role in facilitating human trafficking, she said.

“If American citizens were not traveling abroad for the purpose of purchasing young flesh, this child sex trafficking problem would not exist,” Cohen said. “We have a responsibility to stop the demand and shut down this market, because as long as it is profitable, traffickers will continue to sell children’s bodies.”

This story was originally posted on

NorthDakotaMonitor.com

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