Ms June Tinsley:

I will jump in at the point at which I had referred to the scale of child prostitution and how the use of technologies could make the exposure of child prostitution even harder, as mobile phone numbers are swapped, while still keeping control over the young person. From the statistics available to us, we know that at least half of women involved in prostitution first became involved when they were under 18 years of age. It was evident from the "Prime Time Investigates" programme that the women concerned certainly were under 18 years when they first became involved in prostitution. That programme also highlighted the fact that this issue no longer was just occurring in urban areas but was taking place throughout the country and that children were being moved around to meet demand.

As for the experience of Barnardos, members are aware that it is Ireland's largest children's charity and has 42 projects nationwide. Through our guardian ad litem service which helps to present the best interests of children in court proceedings, we have worked with children who have been taken into special care because they have been sexually exploited and with others who have engaged in prostitution as a means to feed an alcohol and drug problem. We have also come across instances of children from the Roma community being pimped out. In addition, through our teen parent support programme, we have worked with children who have been trafficked and are trying to escape from their trafficker.

Mr. Geoffrey Shannon, the special rapporteur on child protection, agreed in his fourth report that children who were leaving the care system were particularly vulnerable to becoming engaged in prostitution, as are those who have experienced homelessness, suffer from alcohol or drug addictions or both, as well as separated and trafficked children. Child trafficking does not simply equate to children being brought into the country from outside Ireland but is also linked with internal trafficking. The anti-human trafficking unit's annual report for Ireland for 2010 found that six of the 19 children who were alleged victims of trafficking were Irish.

Barnardos UK and Barnardos Northern Ireland have worked for a number of years with children who were sexually exploited through prostitution. In their experience, reporting rates of child prostitution will always remain an underestimate because many of the children do not view themselves as victims or do not believe they are even being exploited. Moreover, the phenomenon of so-called lover boys is growing, which sees young adult males becoming the boyfriends of vulnerable teenage girls, usually aged around 13 or 14 years, and making them sleep with other men. The girl is terrified that the lover boy will break up with her and so will oblige, after which the boyfriend tells her that he is proud of her and consequently she feels happy that she has made him happy. However, the girl quickly becomes scared and emotionally dependent on the boyfriend because he threatens her and states he is the only one who can protect her, yet he is also there to confuse her because occasionally he can be affectionate and consequently she thinks he genuinely cares about her. As a result, the girls can feel completely trapped and confused. As we heard, according to the research, young people aged 12 to 15 years are those most at risk of experiencing sexual exploitation. Those leaving the care system and certainly those in residential care as opposed to those in foster placements are particularly at risk.

As for current legal protections, while a number of laws are in place for children who have been abused, they do not explicitly deal with prostitution and its organised nature. The three main laws that deal with the exploitation of children through prostitution are the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) (Amendment) Act 2007, the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 and the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998. Both Barnardos and our partners in the Turn Off the Red Light campaign believe that fundamentally the most effective way to tackle the issue of prostitution is to introduce criminal sanctions against the buyers of sex as a way to discourage the demand for prostitution. While the introduction of legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex would be a fundamental step as it would benefit all those exploited through prostitution, Barnardos also believes there are other legislative measures that could reduce child exploitation. For instance, I refer to introducing the offence of grooming which is still outstanding and has been sought for a number of years. This offence would reduce the chances of children being exposed and lured into situations which could result in abuse and exploitation. Moreover, as children leaving the care system are particularly vulnerable, having an automatic guarantee of after-care services could certainly help such vulnerable young people and reduce their vulnerability to being involved in child prostitution.