72% of the service providers listed this as one risk factor to sexual exploitation. Genital touching is a common practice in many local communities in the Mekong region, and often involves a parent or older relative grabbing, pinching, or kissing a boy’s genitals. A Cultural Practice that Normalises Touching Boys Through this study, we found that welfare service providers and the youth themselves do not always share the same ideas or understanding of the issue. The causes, risk factors, consequences and needs of boys who are sexually exploited are many and complex.
21-year-old gay male, Kamphaeng Phet, Western Thailand Why are Boys Sexually Exploited?
When they were asked if they had a safety plan if someone tried to hurt them, most said they would do their best to survive – whether it be fighting back, running away or resigning themselves to the situation and hoping for the best. I wanted to save my life, so I let him do what he wanted to do to me. His friends did not even care about what happened to me. He did not even care that his friends were right there, and when I refused, he put his gun to my head. Then the customer changed his mind and wanted to have sex with me in front of his friends, but I refused. But he wanted me to stay, and he said he would not do anything to me. When I saw he had his friends inside the room, I asked if he could bring me back to the shop and told him he didn’t have to pay me. There is one customer who paid me to go out with him because he didn’t want to sleep with me at my workplace, and I went with him, but when he opened the room, his friends were inside the room. One ‘ladyboy’ told us about one client raping her while the client’s friends watched. We wanted them to share what they were comfortable telling us. Most of those we spoke to did not volunteer to say whether they had been sexually assaulted or raped - and for ethical reasons, we did not directly ask them. Some Boys Have ‘Safety Plans’ Due to Fear of Sexual Violence 24-year-old gay male, Udon Thani, Eastern Thailand …/ She is okay with it and I have to do this kind of job anyway. The few who told their families about their situation reported that they felt empowered, or that their families accepted the situation because they were sending money home.ĭoes your mom know where your income comes from? Most kept the fact that they exchanged sex a secret. He said, “It won’t take long, and I will give you money”. He parked his car and came to approach me. I was sitting there while the client drove past. Your first time was when you were 12, right? How did you feel? One ladyboy said she felt forced to sell sex because ladyboys are often discriminated in the job market. The youngest was 12 years old. Some were introduced by friends who were already doing it others felt it was their only way of making enough money to survive. This was especially the case for the ‘ladyboys’.Īlmost half were children when they first exchanged sex for money, goods, shelter, protection, or status. Several were verbally and emotionally abused or excluded because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Most young people grew up in poverty, and their relationships with their families ranged from violent and abusive to loving and accepting. The team at ECPAT also wanted to understand welfare service providers’ attitudes to working with boys and talked to 65 frontline workers in Chiang Mai, Bangkok and Pattaya. The majority had been exchanging sex for over a year and around half started doing so while still children. In this group, 11 young people identified their gender as male six called themselves ‘ladyboys’ two identified as trans women, and one as ‘gender of the alternative.’ They were between 15–24 years old, and the majority migrated to cities from rural provinces in Thailand. That is why ECPAT in 2020, carefully talked with 20 young people of ‘diverse SOGIE’ who are exchanging sex, to learn what their life is like. For those who identify with diverse sexual orientation or gender identity, things tend to be even worse. The little research that does exist indicates that boys are much more impacted than commonly thought in some situations. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that there is a gap in knowledge about the sexual exploitation of boys, as the research available tends to focus on girls.