Stop The Sexual Exploitation Of Children

Their Future Is In Our Hands
“The Body Shop Launches Its Latest Campaign; Stop The Sexual Exploitation Of Children And Young People In New Zealand And Around The World”

You may think that New Zealanders are not offenders in the child sex trade but looking at our sexual abuse statistics*, 76% of sexual crimes are committed against children 16 years and younger. 40% of these sexual crimes were against children 11 years and younger, indicating there is a high demand for child sex in New Zealand.

Today, The Body Shop and Child ALERT NZ will launch a campaign to ‘stop the sexual exploitation of children and young people in New Zealand and around the world’.

Inspired by their founder Anita Roddick and her commitment and passion for justice The Body Shop is proud to continue her fight against human trafficking, bringing awareness of this modern-day slave trade to world leaders and the global community. Working in partnership with ECPAT International this campaign aims to inspire long term change, to stop the unimaginable abuse that affects an estimated 1.8 million children and young people each year**. ECPAT International – which stands for End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes - is a global network made up of independent grassroots organisations, working in 74 countries worldwide to combat child exploitation.

As a member of the ECPAT global network, Child ALERT, The Body Shop New Zealand’s local campaign partner, works in many ways to ensure New Zealand’s children remain safe and secure wherever they may be. They believe in a world where children can enjoy their fundamental rights free and safe from all forms of sexual exploitation and seeks to provide information on NZ issues focusing on child pornography, child prostitution, child sex tourism and unsafe internet practice.

In line with this campaign, The Body Shop will launch a ‘Soft Hands, Kind Heart’ Hand-Cream RRP $15.00 with all profits ($10.00) from every purchase of the hand-cream being donated to Child ALERT (available in-store 3rd August).

Further to this, Child ALERT in conjunction with The Body Shop will launch a Child ALERT Hotline. The Hotline is for computer users to report illegal content on the Internet. By downloading a browser plug-in any user seeing offensive sites can simply click on the Child ALERT icon – the screen disappears and the details are captured. The details are encrypted and transmitted to Child ALERT who filter the material (to eradicate any hoax sites) and sends it to the Censorship Unit of the Department of Internal Affairs who in turn, inspects and blocks access to the illegal child sexual abuse sites. Just by downloading the Child ALERT Hotline software the public can play their part in the fight against sexual exploitation of children. The software will be available on disk and free of charge through The Body Shop stores or it can be downloaded from www.childalert.org.nz. For more information on how the Hotline works visit www.childalert.org.nz
• Human trafficking is the third largest*** and fastest growing criminal industry worldwide****
• 1.8 million children and young people are exploited in the global sex trade each year
• Human trafficking exists in every continent, region and country the world over from the poorest to the richest*****
• In regards to Child Trafficking, given its location within the Asia Pacific region New Zealand is primarily considered a ‘destination’ country.
• It is estimated that every day illegal child pornography sites receive 50,000 clicks from computer users within New Zealand.

ENDS

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