In 1834 Slavery was abolished...
But in 2012, 1.2 million children and young people will be sold, traded, raped, beaten and abused. Several million children will be forced into sex work to meet the growing demand. Child sex and sex trafficking will be one of the top 3 black markets, internationally grossing 27 billion US dollars every year.
In New Zealand, one in four girls will be sexually exploited by the age of 16. Approximately two hundred child prostitutes will continue to work alongside countless others in an invisible sex industry, and child pornography websites will receive 50,000 clicks a day from New Zealand - that's 18 million clicks a year supporting an industry that trades in selling children as a commodity.
On the surface these are just statistics, but if you look a little closer, it could affect you, your children, your little brothers and sisters, your friends or your neighbors.
In 2012, unless we start to talk about it, this will all happen silently and unimpeded.
We can no longer sweep it under the rug!