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This form of trafficking is also extremely common outside of the United States. Many families from impoverished areas (India, Thailand, Philippines, etc.) find themselves in situations where debt or tradition calls for the selling of a loved one, most commonly female. In Thailand there is a tradition known as bhun kun, which establishes the youngest daughter as financially responsible for her parents as they grow old. Author Kara Siddharth interviewed a Thai victim who stated that, though she hated the men she was with, “she was proud to fulfill her duty to her parents in the form of tiny payments that the brothel owner sent to her father after her trafficking debts were repaid”. This is just one of the many countries whose lower class turn to this form of income. Many children are sold to repay debts, or merely to put food on the table for their family for a month.

Children do not need to be forced into sexual exploitation according to the Victims Protection Law to be considered victims of Sex Trafficking. Under this act a child is defined as anyone under the age of 18, however the exploitation of children under the age of 14 carries a harsher punishment, though this is rarely enforced. The Bureau of Justice Statistics states that 100,000 children who fall under the age of 18 are trafficked daily in the United States, and only 150 child trafficking cases have been brought to court. Many children who are trafficked are also at higher risk of turning to prostitution, a crime that many of them face criminal charges for, even under the age of 18.

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