Child sexual exploitation is a type of sexual abuse. Perpetrators exploit children and youth by giving them things like gifts, drugs, money, shelter, food, status and affection in exchange for performing sexual activities. According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, every person below the age of eighteen has the right to be protected against sexual abuse and sexual exploitation.
Common sense is often the best guide for recognizing sexual exploitation of a child. Trust your gut feeling when you see a situation you feel is inappropriate.
Good to know
- Sexual exploitation of children takes place in every country
- A child is any person below eighteen years
- Girls and boys can be victim of sexual exploitation
- The contact between the suspect and the minor is inappropriate, no matter the country or the culture
- Both men and women can be perpetrators
- Offenders can be convicted in the Netherlands for child abuse abroad
Suspicious situations
- An adult touches a child inappropriately at the pool, beach, restaurant, bar or club
- An adult isolates himself/herself with a child, e.g. in a hotel room or a (private) apartment
- A child is dancing (half) naked in front of adults
- Someone offers a child or young person for sexual services
- Someone is looking for sexual services from children or young people
- A hotel or organisation allows child sexual abuse on its premises or via the company
- An adult talks about his/her sexual experience with a child
- An adult takes many pictures of children, especially on the beach and at the pool
- An adult shows sexual abuse images to a child
Examples of testimonials
- “There were very young looking girls scantily dressed at a bar that gave massages.”
- “A man was touching a young girl in an obscene manner in a restaurant. She said: ‘you have to wait until we are hidden’.”
- “A tourist we met was totally insinuating the fact of having an affair with a child.”
- “At the exit of a hotel I saw two elderly men hand in hand with two young women who seemed minor.”
- “Young girls on the street who ask elderly Western men to take them out for dinner. It was street prostitution.”
- “There was a man with a very young girl in a restaurant. The girl barely spoke English and the man could not keep his hands of the girl.”
- “I saw a Western looking man with a relatively young woman at breakfast in a hotel. The girl was dressed very provocatively.”
Success stories
- In 2020, a 53-year-old man was arrested in Dronten. The man is said to have sexually assaulted at least 16 child victims in the Philippines over a period of more than 20 years.
- In 2019, a 70-year-old Dutch man from Rotterdam was arrested at Schiphol Airport for abuse of a minor in Nepal following a report to the hotline. After a search in his home, footage of child sexual abuse was found.
Other relevant hotlines
- Child abuse and exploitation in the Netherlands: Police
- Images of child sexual abuse: Hotline Online Abuse Images
- Hotlines in other countries: Dontlookaway.report
- Helpline for people with feelings of paedophilia: Stop it Now
