A/HRC/28/56 3. Sale of children 34. Article 3, paragraph 1 (a), of the Optional Protocol requires that States criminalize the sale of children, in particular, the offering, delivering or accepting of a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation, transfer of organs or the engagement of a child in forced labour, and improperly inducing consent for the illegal adoption of a child. New technologies have a significant impact on the different forms of the sale of children. It is estimated that up to 10 million children are victims of child sexual exploitation. Forty-three per cent of victims of trafficking are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, which is an illegal activity estimated to be worth between US$7 and US$19 billion a year.23 35. The Internet has led the expansion of the sale and trafficking of children for the purposes of illegal adoption, partly because it allows the creation of websites which offer children as commodities across borders. People in one country may seek to give a child a better life without knowing the truth about the origin of the child.24 With prospective parents being prepared to pay up to $70,000 per child in adoption fees, illegal activities around adoption can be a lucrative business. 36. The Internet facilitates the sale of children in numerous ways. The trade in organs is a global phenomenon25 worth US$75 million per year.26 New technologies facilitate the secrecy in that illegal trade, making it difficult to identify the number of cases, including cases of sale of children for the purpose of transfer of organs. In cases of sale for the purposes of child labour, the Internet may be used to identify job opportunities or facilitate communication between traffickers. Deceit through advertising jobs is also a concern in cases of sale for sexual exploitation, where job opportunities in hospitality or domestic service may constitute covers for forced servitude, including sexual servitude.27 37. Trafficking and sale of children are gendered crimes which generate significantly more female than male victims.28 Statistically, there is a significant number of female perpetrators, but there continues to be more male perpetrators than female. 29 Solicitation of children or “grooming” 4. 38. A form of exploitation and abuse that is not expressly mentioned by the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography is the solicitation of children, also known as “grooming”. That is not a new form of exploitation since the grooming of a child — which involves conditioning the child to ensure he or she acquiesces to sexual contact — is an inherent part of the process of abusing a child. The Internet allows for that process to be quickened, partly because offenders can pretend to be children initially.30 The grooming is the “wooing” of a child and persuading them that they are in a 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 10 See World Vision, “Factsheet: Trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation”. Available from www.worldvision.com.au/Libraries/DTL_fact_sheets/Factsheet_Sexual_exploitation.pdf. See United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe, “Illegal adoption”. Available from www.unric.org/en/human-trafficking/27450-illegal-adoption. Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of organ removal in the OSCE region (2013), p. 18. Havocscope, “Organ Trafficking”. Available from www.havocscope.com/tag/organ-trafficking/ (accessed on 15 December 2014). See World Vision, “Factsheet”. See ibid. In Europe, a higher proportion of female perpetrators are convicted of trafficking offences than for other crimes. UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014 (New York), p. 10. Anne-Marie McAlinden, “Grooming” and the Sexual Abuse of Children (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2012).