Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism South Africa

Abstract

The South African Tourist Authority makes use of the phrase 'a world in one country' to conjure up images of the many and diverse pleasures to be consumed by affluent visitors to the country. More sanguine observers describe the country as a mixture of 'first' and 'third' world, however, and this is pertinent to understanding the many and diverse ways in which children are sexually exploited in South Africa.

There is what might be described as a first world commercial sex 'trade' in South Africa and the individuals who are prostituted in this context are often below the age of 18 years. But this is not the only economic context in which children are sexually exploited.