Sex Online: Startling statistics



When it comes to sex tourism, most people would link it to Thailand, Cambodia or the Philippines. Even countries like the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica are making a name for themselves as Americans look for exploitation opportunities closer to home. Despite past negative publicity, Sri Lanka has a cleaner international image in this regard these days, or has it? Adam Roth uncovers some startling statistics that indicate Sri Lanka has already name for itself in the sex tourism industry; especially in the area of child sex tourism.

Tool of choice

The internet hosts a variety of tools to research what are the most commonly searched phrases in search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo. It was during my research into the most commonly searched phrases including the words Sri Lanka that I discovered the unusually high search volume for Sri Lanka Child Prostatution, averaging 41 exact searches per day. There were another 24 searches for the correct spelling of the term as well, Sri Lanka Child Prostitution.

The following graph shows the 15 highest searches with minor variations such as the spelling combined.


Position Search Result Number of Searches (per day)

1 Sri Lanka Jobs 319
2 Sri Lanka Guestbook 163
3 Sri Lanka Map 119
4 Sri Lanka Latest 114
5 Sri Lanka Real Estate/House/Land 108
6 Sri Lanka Hotels 106
7 Sri Lanka News 125
8 Sri Lanka Airline/Airways/Travel 93
9 Sri Lanka Phone Card/Calling Card 83
10 Sri Lanka Child Prostitution 65
11 Sri Lanka Flag 56
12 Sri Lanka Language 39
13 Sri Lanka Currency 37
14 Sri Lanka Boy/Boy Photo 36
15 Injustices Happened in Sri Lanka 34


In addition to the high search volume for child prostitution, searches for boys in Sri Lanka are also very high ranking 14th in the overall category scale. Over the years there has been plenty of local press coverage on the topic of young boys being solicited for sex by local Sri Lankans as well as from overseas sexual perverts. The evidence shows that the internet is a tool of choice for those seeking to exploit children for sex.

Keyword Discovery is another commonly used keyword research tool. It features a different calculation algorithm to the Wordpot tool. Although the results are limited and only contained eight words in addition to the words Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Sex was listed as the second highest searched term, behind Sri Lanka News.

Many people may just put the reason for these searches being conducted down to the sick and perverted minds of people in western countries, who are raised there on a diet of lust and desires. But are the Sri Lankans any different?

Alexa is a well known internet statistical company who maintain a list called the Sri Lankan Top 100. It is compiled from internet traffic data from within Sri Lanka and displays the 100 most popularly accessed websites.

News sites and social sites such as Facebook and Myspace feature prominently in this list, but astonishingly sites such as lankasexclips.com and lankasextalk.com are listed at the top end of the 100 sites. Overall, sex and sex searching related websites compromise a total of 21 percent of the most popular websites in Sri Lanka.

Child prostitution

The child prostitution situation in Sri Lanka had escalated to the point where, with UNICEF support, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board recently introduced an action plan to combat the problem. They estimate that every year, thousands of Sri Lankan children are drawn into child prostitution, with up to 80 percent of them being boys. Media and NGO’s have estimated the total number of children involved to be in the vicinity of 100,000.

The Factbook for Global Sexual Exploitation lists some alarming quotes from newspaper articles and television stations in its pages on Sri Lanka, such as:

The Indian Express – “Sri Lanka is one of the favoured destinations of paedophile sex tourists from Europe and the United States.”

London Telegraph – “Sri Lanka is a principal source of child pornography for the United States and Europe.”

BBC – “600 advertisements for Sri Lankan children, most boys, appeared on the Internet in October 1997. Child care experts in Sri Lanka warned that child prostitution was being promoted to foreigners on the Internet, making it one of the worst countries for child abuse. Local middlemen, mostly from Europe are used to find children of the required age for paedophiles, who then travel to Sri Lanka.”


Personal experiences

Being a westerner in Sri Lanka, I am sad to say that my own personal experiences in this country have confirmed that the sex industry here is rife. I have been approached by prostitutes (both male and female) when travelling around Colombo. This has happened in numerous locations including major shopping centres, supermarkets, popular restaurants, and even walking in the street. Staff members at leading hotels have even offered their services to me on many occasions.

I would dare to say that every single three-wheeler I have caught from the surrounds of the 5-star hotels within Colombo has at some point during the ride offered to either take me to a brothel or find some girls for me. Prostitutes are even being imported from some of the poorer European countries to work in Sri Lanka. The word on the street is that they marry local Sri Lankans in the business, who then put them to work in their brothels.

A quite humorous encounter led me to stumble upon this fact. After starting a journey in a three-wheeler, the driver asked me “Do you want Rushing?” I replied that I wasn’t in a hurry. He said “No, no, not that. Do you want Rushing?” Once again, I said its fine and he can drive at any speed he wants. Only after repeatedly asking me did I click that he was asking me if I wanted a “Russian Girl”.

Conclusion

The Sri Lankan government has seemingly taken steps towards the eradication of the child sex tourism industry, such as increasing the minimum age for sexual activity and tightening laws on the exploitation of children, including making paedophilia a non-bailable offence. A national help desk for child abuse has also been setup.

However anti-paedophilia campaigners have criticised these moves as only being “cosmetic”. They claim that there is still heavy police and government corruption that allow the continued exploitation of children, with the offenders remaining uncharged due to the large bribes that they are able to pay.


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