Child Trafficking vs. Child Sexual Exploitation: Critical reflection on the UK media reports

Elena Krsmanovic

doi:10.14197/atr.201221165

Abstract

This article explores how UK media narratives construct sexual exploitation of British children as a phenomenon to be approached differently than sexual exploitation of trafficked minors who are non-British nationals. Qualitative analysis of media articles that frame infamous child sexual exploitation cases as occurrences of human trafficking shows that they bank on the motifs from the historical white slavery myth. Thereby, these articles endorse the stereotypes of white victim and foreign trafficker and obscure the diversity of trafficking victims, perpetrators, and experiences. Furthermore, comparison between media reports focusing on cases involving British minors, on the one hand, and minors from abroad, on the other hand, reveals that only the former problematise inadequate victim assistance and systemic failures in dealing with sexual exploitation of minors. This leaves structural causes of child trafficking unaddressed, promotes differential treatment of victims based on their nationality, and stigmatises whole communities as immoral and crime-prone.

Highlights

Qualitative analysis of media articles that frame infamous child sexual exploitation cases as occurrences of human trafficking shows that they bank on the motifs from the historical white slavery myth
Riding the wave of this disillusioning momentum, this article tracks discursive strategies employed by the UK media that construct trafficking of British minors for sexual exploitation as different to trafficking of foreign minors exploited in the UK sex industry
The media plays a significant role in supporting the efforts to address human trafficking: it can increase awareness and contribute to prevention as well as to the development of policies and responses to it.[48]

Summary

Introduction

In the first half of 2020, the year this article was first drafted, illusions of equality, universal rights, and social justice were powerfully challenged both by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on already disadvantaged populations, and by the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of Mr George. UK legislators determined that a child is sexually exploited ‘if on at least one occasion and whether or not compelled to do so, s/he offers or provides sexual services to another person in return for payment or a promise of payment to the child or a third person, or if an indecent image of the child is recorded.’[8] On the other hand, British legislation stipulates that human trafficking is committed if a person arranges or facilitates the travel of another person with a view to exploit that person.[9] In this sense, CSE is narrower than human trafficking, which can affect both children and adults and involve types of exploitation other than sexual Another difference is the travel aspect that is central in the legal definition of human trafficking in UK law, while it may but does not need to be part of the crime act of CSE.[10].

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