A/HRC/43/40/Add.1 reportedly subjected to forced labour across Europe, in agriculture, construction and the service sector. While trafficking for the sexual exploitation of boys is a hidden phenomenon, victim caseloads in Bulgaria reveal that boys make up a fifth of victims trafficked for sexual exploitation. 10 This phenomenon is largely latent and difficult to identify because victims hesitate to come forward because of fear of reprisal or stigma. 21. Internal trafficking and sexual exploitation in the context of tourism, whereby children are moved around for the purposes of sexual exploitation between popular Bulgarian resorts, also remains a serious problem. Although a checklist for the identification of potential victims is used by the border police, this method is not consistently applied and therefore not effective. Those forced into prostitution in the streets and near motorways are believed to be from impoverished families predominantly from several larger towns near the motorways. 22. In 2018, 23 cases of child victims of trafficking were referred to the State Agency for Child Protection, of whom 15 were girls and 8 were boys. In 2016, there were 28 cases of child victims of trafficking for labour or sexual exploitation. According to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office of Cassation, meanwhile, the number of underage female victims trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation increased from 32 cases in 2017 to 48 in 2018, while no boys were reported. During the same period, out of 68 convictions for human trafficking, 58 were acquitted, although it is unclear how many were in relation to crimes against children. 2. Child sexual abuse material 23. Bulgaria has one of the highest and cheapest household broadband penetration rates in Europe, with one of the highest proportions of active Internet users among children as young as 7 years old.11 There is limited data available on the prevalence of child sexual exploitation facilitated by or committed through the Internet and no disaggregated statistics on investigations and convictions related to child sexual abuse material. In 2018, five men were detained in Bulgaria for distributing child sexual abuse material. During the first quarter of 2019, 70 investigations were launched, of which half were reportedly related to child abuse material while the rest were related to “sextortion”. C. Root causes and risk factors 24. Poverty (E/C.12/BGR/CO/6, para. 33), discrimination, segregation and social exclusion create unequal access to social services and education for children in the most marginalized communities. Roma children, children living in poor and non-regulated settings at risk of eviction, children living or working in the streets, children of migrant or refugee families, unaccompanied or separated children, children in residential care or Staterun institutions and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex teenagers are particularly exposed to the worst forms of sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation, including by caregivers (CRC/C/BGR/CO/3-5, para. 27 (a)).12 The overwhelming majority of children whom the Special Rapporteur met in crisis centres and institutions were of Roma origin. The deplorable housing and lack of sanitation and infrastructure that the Special Rapporteur witnessed in the Roma neighbourhood in Sliven expose children in the most precarious situations to the worst forms of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation. The newly built kindergarten in the neighbourhood in Sliven remains inaccessible to most children who live in illegal settlements and do not have a permanent address, required for registration and for access to basic social services. 10 11 12 6 Center for the Study of Democracy, Child Trafficking among Vulnerable Roma Communities: Results of Country Studies in Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia (Sofia, 2015), p. 7. See UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World (New York, 2017). See also UNICEF, Breaking the Cycle of Exclusion: Roma Children in South East Europe (Belgrade, 2013).