Children lured into Thai sex industry

Pattaya, Thailand: Under the neon-lights of Pattaya, the Thai town renowned for its sex industry, boys and girls as young as seven try to sell flowers to western tourists. Some will end up selling their bodies. ''These kids start by selling sweets to tourists who aren't interested, so they use sexual tactics like holding arms or legs,'' said Sudjai Nakphain of World Vision, who works on a project for children in Pattaya. ''While some kind adults just give them money, others exploit those selling tactics and many kids, who have already been sexually abused by their families, end up selling sex,'' she said. Once a small fishing village until American servicemen started ''relaxing'' there early in the Vietnam war, Pattaya is now a ''paedophile paradise'', where anything goes. Even the government's Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is not embarrassed to boast about the town's sex industry. TAT says on its website (www.Tourismthailand.Org) the beach town, 180 km east of Bangkok, proclaims ''exotic erotic shows'' and ''sauna massage parlours'' alongside elephant rides, water and aerial sports as star attractions. Pattaya, it says, offers ''an incomparable array of possibilities to unwind during an exotic holiday beach vacation''. There has been a steep jump in the number of sex tourists and child prostitutes in Pattaya in recent years, social workers say. Two decades ago, the town had 500 bars. Now there are more than 20,000, mostly sidewalk bars with a few stools and scantily-clad, overly made-up girls -- many as young as 14. There are no official figures for the number of street children or child prostitutes in the town of 500,000 people, but one child welfare agency estimates 2,000 children wander the streets of Pattaya selling everything from sweets to sex. ''Pattaya has attracted children from all over the country both voluntarily and lured by traffickers,'' said Supagon Noja of the Pattaya-based Child Protection and Development Centre. ''Word of mouth from children in the industry always lures new faces to Pattaya,'' said Supagon. Bureau Report