It should come as no surprise that there are so many people in Romania and all over the world who aren’t aware that what they refer to as “webcam chatting,” or more commonly, “webcam modeling,” is actually a deceptive and modern form of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. That’s a major aspect of the important mission driving the 9 Months In Romania project forward, teaching the facts. Over the course of this series, Debunking The Myths, we will present you with some of the most common myths surrounding this human rights atrocity and then debunk them by providing you with the facts. So, please, come along with us on this journey toward the truth!
Reality Check: It Is Sexual Exploitation
In this weeks installment of Debunking The Myths, we’re going to mix things up a bit and start with the conclusion first. Perhaps, doing it this way will be more convenient for you individuals out there who are so busy that you might not have the time to read the entire article in order to get to the conclusion. If the section title didn’t already loudly proclaim the conclusion of this article, allow us to repeat it again: webcam sex chatting is, in fact, a form of sexual exploitation!
If that’s all the time you can give to us, thank you, and enjoy the rest of your day/night. However, for the rest of you, we’ll now go on to explain what sexual exploitation is, not according to our own definition, of course, but according to the one that is internationally recognized and used for legal reasons.
The Definition Of “Sexual Exploitation”
Again, we are not interested in sharing some definition that we’ve manipulated in order to suit our specific needs, but are rather content with just helping you all understand the facts. As we’ve done in the past, we’re going to defer to sources considered more authoritative than we are on this matter, at this point in time (We get it, we’re still largely unknown and we’ve got to establish credibility. No sweat!).
So we’ve already established what human trafficking is, and we already know that sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking, and based on that we were able to conclude that webcam sex chatting is human trafficking. If you missed our article in which we shared the internationally recognized and legal definition of human trafficking, you can read it here. Knowing the aforementioned facts, we should be able to easily demonstrate that webcam sex chatting is also sexual exploitation.
The following definition is taken directly from an October 2003 Secretary-General’s Bulletin, “The term “sexual exploitation” means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another.” If you’d like to read the full text of that bulletin, it can be found here.
Sexual Exploitation And Sex Trafficking Go Hand-In-Hand
Sexual exploitation is the primary motivation behind the trafficking of women and girls. This comes directly from a report published by the UN in December of 2018, Global Report On Trafficking In Persons (2018). If you want to check that report out, you can access it here. According to the report (on page 10):
The few national studies that have been carried out in European countries to estimate the total number of trafficking victims and their profiles have revealed that trafficking for sexual exploitation is the most prevalent form of trafficking.
Source: United Nations. Global Report On Trafficking In Persons (2018).
Then again, on page 29, the report clearly concludes that trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is globally the primary motivation behind trafficking:
Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is the most detected form of trafficking globally.
Source: United Nations. Global Report On Trafficking In Persons (2018).
This same report also points out the prevalence of the sexual exploitation of women in the eastern European region, which is of particular interest to our team, as Romania is the primary focus of the 9 Months In Romania human rights project and fundraiser. Overall, we’ve demonstrated what sexual exploitation is generally understood to be and how it directly ties in with human trafficking, and sex trafficking more specifically. If webcam sex chatting is trafficking, and we’ve clearly demonstrated that it is, then it must also be sexual exploitation by it’s very nature. This is why the 9 Months In Romania human rights project and fundraiser is so vital for Romania, because the project seeks to expose the webcam sex chatting industry and, particularly, the studios operating throughout Romania for what they really are, and it also seeks to provide aid and education to those who have been most impacted by it, though many do not even realize that they are victims of this horrendous human rights violation.
Up Next…
In the next installment of Debunking The Myths, we’ll consider the claim that webcam sex chatting is a viable means of earning a great income. Thank you for indulging us with your time and attention, and we’ll see you next time!
