The STOPLight

What a reporter — and dad — learned

During August and September of this year, The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) ran a nine-part series called "The Child Sex Trade: Battling a Scourge." Al Erickson, director of A-STOP, was quoted in two of the articles, and A-STOP was listed as one of the organizations working on the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Mark Clayton, a CSM staff reporter who was assigned to report on this problem in North America talks about doing the series.

In 1987 CSM did a series called "Children in Darkness." It covered a wide range of issues affecting children globally. One article in that series covered child prostitution in third world countries. This summer an editorial decision was made to pursue a global series focused solely on the issue of children being exploited sexually. There was a timely aspect of rising concern about it, taking the form of a world conference in Stockholm.

I was asked to write about this issue as it affected North America and was excited because I enjoy in-depth research projects. Before this assignment my impressions of prostitution were informed by what I had seen on TV or at the movies. I didn’t have much knowledge of how it works or who gets involved in it. Even now, I wouldn’t pretend to be an expert, but I know a little more than I did.

I am based in Toronto and traveled to Vancouver and Minneapolis. My research began by looking on the Internet for articles about child prostitution, child pornography and related child exploitation issues in North America. What I found was that child pornography funneled back to the prostituting of children. I also did phone interviews with people knowledgeable on the subject who filled me in on the breadth of the problem. This gave me an initial picture to work from.

Al Erickson’s name popped up in a story that appeared on the Internet. He seemed to have some interesting and useful things to say so I decided to interview him. Also, he seemed knowledgeable about Minneapolis where I had decided to visit for the articles.

As my research continued, one of the things I learned was the extent of the problem in North America. I was not previously aware that 100,000 to 300,000 children were involved in prostitution. I wasn’t aware of the degree to which there was a criminal element in recruiting. It became clear that the reason for this appears to be a demand among males for children in prostitution. And there is a black market to supply this demand.

My mission in writing my articles was to detail and expose the roots of the problem in a meaningful way that didn’t sensationalize the problem but would hint at or expose solutions to the problem. The idea was to not be superficial, but to probe as deeply as possible for what it is that’s really causing the problem. At CSM we look for mental causation to find out what attitudes, preconceptions, and societal tendencies are at work producing problems.

It was illuminating to learn that so many children who end up in prostitution have previously been abused at home. My opinion after finishing this is that when we look at the root causes of the problem and get back to this home dimension, it really shows we’ve got societal attitudes towards children and sexuality that are askew. This is not an opinion I expressed in the articles. I do my best not to include any sort of bias or opinion, but instead to lay out the facts as I see them.

It’s pretty obvious that the exploitation of children at home—which leads to them being on the street and further exploited—is the thing that has to change. It doesn’t take a child psychologist or a genius to know that a person’s attitude or society’s attitudes have to change first to stop producing the problem.

It seems to me that the preconditions for someone to enter prostitution occur long before the teenage years. The key thing is raising a child properly, with the proper set of values, proper self-esteem, and the knowledge of their own self-worth. That is their primary protection. If they know who they are and what they are, they are a lot less vulnerable to the suggestions of the criminal element or to society’s more subtle sexualization of children.

As the father of a four-year-old girl, naturally I am very concerned about this issue. Looking into the problem has made me more sensitive and con­cerned about it. Personally, I believe in the power of prayer. I know that prayer is effective so I pray about the issue in regard to my daughter.

I think it is important—I’m speaking as a parent now, not as a reporter—to have frank discussions with your children about sexual issues, growing up, family relations, marital relations, and what is and what is not appropri­ate behavior. These days I think you probably have to tell them frankly what they might find on the playground. I found that even a lot of kids from “good” homes where the parents cared about their children somehow got involved. Alertness on the part of parents is key, knowing where their children are at mentally and emotionally.

But that’s nothing revolutionary. It’s just a part of being a parent. Still I think there is a need, in these days and times of more rampant sexualization of children, for some instruction from adults who care about them on just what’s out there and to warn them. I’m not sure that kids should be “scared straight” or made to be frightened; I think it’s more a matter of informing them. They are intelligent and the only difference between them and adults is that adults have more experience and are more aware of a variety of forces and elements in the world.

Al was the first person to mention to me that a lot of what’s occurring could be viewed as the perpetrators’ “manhood” being victimized. Alongside the cultiva­tion of women and girls as victims, there’s a societal cultivation of men as victimizers and perpetrators. This is an assault on who they are as men. Again I’m speaking not as a reporter, but as someone who has observed this. We do need to go farther and deeper as a society to see the real causes. One of the causes is a void in the education of young men as to what manhood really is. I think this education must start very early—before they become teenagers— and continue their whole lives. I’m not speaking as an advocate one way or another. That’s just my opinion as a parent.

Ideally, the articles would get the sort of attention among higher levels of gov­ernment or among thought leaders that would highlight the issue, fire up public opinion and awareness about the prob­lem and push for solutions. For me it was satisfying enough to feel that we were informing a large group of thoughtful people of this problem. That’s the beginning of understanding and action in a more grassroots way. I think a lot of important things are happening at a grassroots level so if readers are better informed and are clear on the problem from now on, that’s a big step forward.

from an interview with Mark Clayton, staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor

In 2002 our organization changed its name to Adults Saving Kids. Prior to that we were called A-STOP (Alliance for Speaking Truths On Prostitution), STOP (Speaking Truths On Prostitution), or Grassroots Ministry Alliance.