Child trafficking is a form of trafficking in person. Child trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of children for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation can take various forms, including but not limited to:

Sexual exploitation: Involving the use of children in commercial sex acts, including prostitution, pornography, and sexual tourism.

Forced labour: Involving children being forced to work in various industries, such as agriculture, manufacturing, domestic servitude, and construction, under exploitative conditions.

Forced begging or street vending: Involving children being coerced or forced into begging or selling goods on the streets.

Child soldiers: Involving the recruitment and use of children for armed conflict or other forms of violence, including as soldiers, spies, messengers, or in support roles.

Organ harvesting: Involving the removal of organs from children for illegal transplantation or other purposes.

Forced marriage: Involving children being forced into marriage against their will, often for financial or social gain.

Child trafficking involves the exploitation of children for the financial benefit of traffickers or other individuals or groups, and it often involves coercion, deception, or force. Human trafficking is distinct from ‘smuggling’ which may involve the clandestine entry of a child across national borders, but does not involve their exploitation.

For children, consent to exploitation is irrelevant. Child victims of trafficking are deemed not to have the legal capacity to ‘consent’ to their trafficking and so if they have been the victim of a relevant ‘action’ (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt) for the purpose of ‘exploitation’ then any apparent acceptance of this on the part of the child is irrelevant.

A child is a victim even if they haven’t been exploited yet: if, for example, a police raid takes place before the exploitation happens. The purpose is key, rather than whether or not exploitation has actually occurred.