Commercial sexual exploitation seriously compromises a child's right to enjoy childhood and to lead a productive, rewarding and dignified life.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children can result in serious, lifelong, even life threatening consequences for the physical, psychological, spiritual, moral and social development of children.

The most immediate danger exploited children face is physical violence from those who exploit them, including the pimps or madams, traffickers and customers. There are many chilling accounts told by children of being slapped, kicked, beaten unconscious, burned with cigarettes, and raped for refusing to work.

Children are even more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases than adults, including HIV infection and AIDS, as their body tissues are more easily damaged. Children who are exploited are often not in a position to negotiate safe sex; furthermore, many lack access to education about AIDS and safe sex practices.

Tests conducted by officials reveal that the rate of HIV infection among prostituted Nigerian girls deported from Italy last year was in excess of 50%. According to one Cambodian non governmental organisation, as many as 70% of the girls rescued from brothels have been infected with HIV.

Psychological impacts of sexual exploitation are harder to measure, but no less painful for the child. Many children who have been exploited report feelings of shame, guilt and low self esteem. Some children do not believe they are worthy of rescue.
Others create a different reality and say that prostitution was their choice - that they want to help support their family or that their pimp is really their boyfriend who loves them.

Some suffer from stigmatization or the knowledge that they were betrayed by someone that they had trusted. Others suffer from nightmares, sleeplessness, hopelessness and depression - akin to the feelings exhibited in victims of torture. To cope, some children attempt suicide or turn to substance abuse.

Rehabilitation can be defined as restoration to a former state. It has been said that very few programmes of rehabilitation have shown even a glimmer of success.

If a programme is only successful when a child has been 'saved' from prostitution, is living with a happily reunited family and has returned to live a 'normal' life, there will be many disappointments.

Sadly, many children victimised by commercial sexual exploitation continue to work in the sex industry or return to it at a later stage.

While the goal always is to remove the child from the position of being commercially sexually exploited, and prevent them from returning to this in the future, it is sometimes more realistic to measure success in terms of the following:

• That the child is no longer taken advantage of financially by pimps or customers;
• That the child has more control in power relationships;
• That the child has a higher opinion of him/herself;
• That the child is less subject to physical ailments or has access to medical care;
• That the child is aware of and insisting on birth control, and ways of protecting him/herself from sexually transmitted diseases;
• That the child has a reduced dependency on substances and is taking steps to cut them out completely;
• That the child has plans and a clear goal to leave CSEC and has the resources and the internal strength to follow that plan.