News

THE Government is poised to launch a national advertising campaign highlighting child sex tourism - in direct response to Travel Weekly’s campaign on the issue.

A Home Office working party has been set up to discover how best consumers could be made aware of the sexual exploitation of children in tourist spots around the world.

Travel Weekly has been invited to sit on the panel, along with representatives from the National Criminal Intelligence Service, Crimestoppers, ABTA, the Travel Foundation, the Federation of Tour Operators and campaign group ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking). The first meeting will take place at the end of next month.

Consumer research funded by the Home Office is planned for the summer with the aim of finding out what messages holidaymakers are most likely to respond to. The results will be fed back to the advisory group, with its recommendations likely to shape the tone of the advertising.

ECPAT UK campaign co-ordinator Helen Veitch said: “There’s been a lot of talk about child sex tourism in the past, but that’s all it’s been.

“The Home Office decision to fund research and set up an advisory group shows it is taking the issue seriously.”

Veitch said the ultimate aim would be for the Home Office to raise awareness of child sex tourism with a campaign similar to the current adverts warning about paedophiles posing as young people in Internet chatrooms. The hard-hitting ads are being screened on TV and in cinemas.

According to UNICEF, more than one million children worldwide enter the sex trade each year.