With its 240 million population, Indonesia has its share of problems with regards to human trafficking and sex-tourism. The U.N. International Labor Organization estimates that between 40,000 to 70,000 Indonesian children become victims of sexual exploitation annually.
The shocking news is that children are involved as both prostitutes and pimps!
Some teens turn to prostitution because they are desperate for money to have something like a smart phone!
First child prostitutes and now child pimps too?
Two years ago it was only adults who worked behind the scenes as pimps, however now children as young as 11 are being pimped by children barely older than themselves. The National Commission for Child Protection says 21 girls between 14 and 16 have been caught working as ‘mamis’ so far this year.
17-year-old self-professed ‘pimp’ Chimoy got into the business when she was only 14. Source: news.com.au
This is a new and fast-growing trend in Indonesia. A self-confessed pimp, 17-year-old Chimoy says that her established pimping operation earns her almost S$3600 a month – a small fortune to her.
She says as a kid, she rarely saw her father as he was always gone taking care of his other 4 wives. Chimoy recalls with a smile that she was always at the top of her class and that she excelled in business and cooking. She was so enterprising that once she even opened up a small shop to sell traditional spicy crackers.
How did a smart girl with a bright future end up being a pimp?
By grade 9 she had already got into bad company and was drinking and using drugs. Then she was approached by her boyfriend’s sister to become a prostitute. Instead she recruited a friend. Since then business grew and she became a ‘mami’ to 30 girls and even bought herself a car and a house with her earnings.
However her ravenous drug addition escalated too. She became hooked on to crystal methamphetamine, known in Indonesia as shabu shabu. She has now moved into a small room since she lost almost everything to her addiction.
How child pimps operate
Chimoy gained experience at first by selling herself at karoake bars and night clubs. She used this experience to build a database of potential clients.
After recruiting her first child prostitute, Chimoy saw that the demand was great from both locals and foreigners. She then recruited more girls, most being teenagers between 14-17. There were a few girls in their 20’s too. They then rented a house and lived together. Chimoy said it made handing out jobs easier. she says. ‘It makes life easier to yell out: “Who wants this job?”‘
Child pimps such as Chimoy use social media, email and sms to book clients and advertise. Facebook was used to display photos of the girls though Chimoy says no services were directly offered online.
Using social media makes it so much easier for such transactions to be done without having to be scantily-clad and parade around a dark corner. As a result many of the children turning to this are as young as 11 and 12!
Many girls who work for Chimoy praise her by saying she is only concerned about their safety and not the money. However Chimoy receives a portion of the girls’ earnings. Photo credit -www.dailymail.co.uk
Many of the kids working for Chimoy praise her ‘work ethic’ and say that she doesn’t demand money from them instead is only concerned about their safety. They get to decide how much of their earnings they want to give her.
Once a client had offered around S$2500, a motorbike and a blackberry in exchange for a virgin. Chimoy pocketed S$600 from that deal.
Is there help for Child prostitutes and child pimps?
Anjan Bose a member of End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) international said “Both child prostitutes and child pimps need help to leave the business. A child cannot consent to prostitution, It’s an exploitative situation where they are serving the needs of the customers. We have to look at them as being victims”
Foundations like Yayasan Bahtera in Indonesia offer skills and counseling to kids that have gone astray. Chimoy has given up drugs and wants to give up pimping and has been working with this foundation for two years. The foundation does not judge these children or turn them away even if they chose to continue their way of life.
Chimoy who is raising her two kids with the help of her mother, claims she wants to move away from pimping and even advises the other girls that prostitution is a dangerous and risky way of life. However when money runs low finds herself turning to this as a relief. Her ‘recruits’ are down to 5 now, who also have been at Yayasan Bahtera trying to reform their lives.
However its their life that chases after them – even as Chimoy sat for this interview talking about her dreams of being a pastry chef, she received many calls and text from potential clients – wanting to make a booking.
How do we save our children from going astray
These stories are especially shocking to parents. After-all the ‘prostitutes’ and ‘pimps’ we are talking about here are still children, many under the age of 15. Since many kids carry their own phones and have their own computers this ugly ‘world’ is just a click away.
Anjan Bose of ECPAT International says “Well before smartphones and social media, school girls in Japan, often from middle-class families, left their numbers at phone booths near train stations for men to call”.
Way before social media, children used to leave their phone numbers in phone booths and expect calls from men.
He also adds that In Thailand and the Philippines, teens go online and strip or perform sex acts in front of webcams, often for customers in Western countries.
How do we keep our children safe?
1. Build a trusting, open relationship with your children from the time they are toddlers and encourage them to talk openly about their feelings.
2. Get to know your kid’s friends and if possible their parents.
3. Keep a close eye on changes in behavior and temperament and talk to them if they seem pre-occupied.
4. Monitoring your kids online activity is good parenting not an invasion of privacy. Note if any suspicious websites have been visited. Install age-appropriate filtering software like Net Nanny.
5. Educate them about situations like the above and the dangers these kids are facing.
6. Shower you kids with attention and love and they won’t seek attention from strangers online. Many of the kids that turn to internet sex are often starved for attention.
RELATED: 10 internet safety tips
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Source of Chimoy’s story: news.com.au