Political requirements

No child should be subjected to paid sexual abuse. To prevent this and ensure protection and support for children who are victims, ChildX calls for the following:

1. Develop the identification and outreach of children exposed to commercial sexual exploitation. In order to identify more, it is necessary that the competent authorities are tasked with developing routine questions about commercial sexual exploitation for student health services, social services and child and adolescent psychiatry. The police authority should also be tasked with developing methodological support for its outreach work and broadening the outreach work to include more digital platforms.
2. Implement a national awareness raising on commercial sexual exploitation of children involving the professionals who deal with the target group. The awareness raising should include information on the rights of vulnerable children, how to deal with the target group, the causes and consequences of exploitation and the actions needed to prevent and stop exploitation.
3. All children up to the age of 18 must have the same criminal law protection against sexual violence. At present, the perpetrator’s liability is reduced when the child reaches the age of 15, which is not in line with the rights of the child. Legislation needs to be amended to harmonize all commercial sexual exploitation of children aged 15-17 with sexual offences against children under 15. Strict liability must also be introduced, placing the responsibility for verifying the age on the perpetrator, so that the child’s protection is not affected by the perpetrator’s perception of the child’s age.

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