Since 1999, Child Wise (an Australian non-government organisation) has worked with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States to implement activities to counter child-sex tourism in the region. The ASEAN Member States are Brunei Darussalam, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2008 and early 2009, Child Wise conducted research and consultations with stakeholders to understand national legal frameworks and identify national laws that could be used to prosecute travelling child-sex offenders and those who assist or facilitate child-sex tourism. While further research is required to comprehensively analyse the legal response and understand how laws interact and are being implemented, this publication provides an initial high-level summary. This publication is intended to assist national action and enable regional comparisons to enhance the legal response to child-sex tourism in South East Asia.

The purpose of the investigation was to gain more insight into the modus operandi of travelling sex offenders who sexually exploit children in Thailand, Cambodia and Burma; with particular emphasis being placed on the activities of Danish travelling sex offenders. The information gathered in this report will also be used to inform Save the Children Denmark’s work to combat the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism.

This report gives a description of the problem of child sex tourism. It illustrates several measures to eliminate child sex tourism in countries where child sex tourism occurs, such as Cambodia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

According to this report there is a large increase of children working in the sex tourism industry on the Kenyan coast. Of these child prostitutes many do not protect themselves against sicknesses such as aids.