Child Prostitution a Disgrace to our society.

Child prostitution; a disgrace to our society.

Universally in the World, children are seen as innocent and immaculate. Childhood is seen as a “golden age" full of innocence but also vulnerable to evils and in need of adult protection.

Worldwide, children often give the first indication that something has gone wrong in society. Child prostitutes in Uganda are a clear indication of a society in crisis, which urgently needs to be addressed.

Child prostitution is a breakdown in a society that doesn't give proper care and guidance to its children. Why do we still find young children hanging out in public places late in the hours of the night with nobody speaking out against it? Is this really responsible child upbringing? Why do we tolerate these things?

This attitude towards the children has led to increase in the number of girls below the ages of 18 years getting involved in the commercial sex industry. Uganda has of late become a haven for trafficking of children, mostly girls being sexual exploited or sold to forced labor.

Similarly, the girls are also trafficked within the country from rural villages to border towns and urban centers for commercial sexual exploitation. The girls brought to town to work as house girls end up being subjected to prostitution.

This has apparently led to an increase in the number of girls involved in prostitution with most of them participating in the practice at young ages between 15-17 years. This has been rampant in urban areas where children are getting involved in the commercial sex industry, particularly in Kampala.

The implication is that many adolescents are being bullied, sexually harassed and even raped by people who are old enough to be their parents. Never before in African society has there been such widespread hostility to young people.

So where is the innocence of our children! Is child prostitution and sexual exploitation morally justified? No!

The situation our children find themselves in is terrible and calls for urgent intervention on the part of parents, government and all stakeholders. There is need to come up with strong laws regarding to child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Though penalties relating to sex offences and crime against children are handled under the defilement laws, this hasn't helped in curbing this evil of child prostitution. Reasons being that, most of these children do consent to sex in exchange of money as they find this as the only means of survival.

This means that offenders easily go away with it by taking advantage of these young girls' being on street to sexually harass them. So in this case, where is the justice for these victims of sexual harassment?

Since prostitution is illegal and not acceptable in our society, then child prostitution is absolutely abominable and not be tolerated in our beloved country. Many young girls are prone to the vagaries of sexual abuse. The chances of these girls getting infected with HIV/AIDS are high if this evil of child prostitution goes unabated and yet these are the children on which our future lies.

The situation above calls for an urgent intervention on the part of government to protect children from being recruited into sexual abuse/prostitution since childhood is taken to be full of innocence.

It's also the responsibility of parents to ensure that the innocence of all children are protected. Beyond telling children to keep sex for marriage, the parents must seek to surround their children with a loving and healthy atmosphere to help children not fall prey to exploitation.

The Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Dr. Nsaba Buturo should also commit himself to end this unlawful recruitment and use of children in sexual exploitation. These children are being raped, physically and emotionally abused. It must stop!