Program targets child-sex tourism

By Marion Baillot
October 13, 2004

"I am not a tourist attraction. It's a crime to make me one," says one message in a campaign against child abuse announced yesterday by the private aid group, World Vision, and the State Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The program is intended to deter U.S. citizens from participating in child-sex tourism by warning potential offenders that they will be exposed and prosecuted, and face up to 30 years in prison," said World Vision's Joseph Mettimano, director of its Child Sex Tourism Prevention Project.

Mr. Mettimano and U.S. officials announced the effort at the National Press Club yesterday.

To dissuade pedophiles at each step of their activity, the three organizations will advertise their message in Cambodia, Costa Rica, Thailand and the United States.

The campaign will include billboards, posters and brochures at and near airports, advertisements in tourist magazines and guidebooks and on videos on the CNN airport-television network and on CNN International.

It has been estimated that 25 percent of international travelers who obtain sex from child prostitutes — defined as boys and girls under 18 years old — are from the United States. Estimates go to as high as 80 percent in some Latin American countries.

"We have to deter [pedophile travelers] from thinking they can escape prosecution by crossing borders," John P. Clark, the new deputy assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said yesterday.

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