**2.1 Defining a child**

The United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child Article 1, states that a child is a person below the age of 18 unless the age of majority is attained earlier under the national law applicable to the child [6]. Convention on the Right of the Child (1990) Article 1, states that a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years unless under the law applicable to the child.1 The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Person, Especially women and children Supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) Article 3 (d) states that a child shall mean any person under eighteen years of age [7]. Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Form of Child Labour (2000) Article 2 (ILO. No.182.) says the term child shall apply to all persons under the age of 18 [8]. Article 260 of the Kenyan Constitution provides an "adult" means an individual who has attained the age of eighteen years and "a child" means an individual who has not attained the age of eighteen years [9].

<sup>1</sup> Ibid.

### **2.2 Child sex trafficking**

Child trafficking is referred to as child recruitment, transportation, transferring, harboring, or receipt of a child using force or threat in any form of coercion, any abuse of power over the vulnerability of a child, or giving or receiving of payment or benefit to achieve permission from any person to control the child, for exploitation. The declaration and agenda for Action against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of children define the sexual exploitation of children as" a fundamental violation of children's rights. it comprises sexual abuse by adults and remuneration in cash or kind to the child or a third person. The child is treated as a sexual object and as a commercial object, which constitutes a form of coercion and violence against children and amounts to forced labour and a modern form of slavery [10]. While child sex in travel and tourism involves persons who travel from one place to another and engage in sexual acts with children.2 Sex represents an important tourist attraction in many countries, as in the case of Thailand and a number of Asian and African countries. For most people travel and sex are frequently linked, even among those traveling in their own countries. This is truer for the holidaymakers;

*"Sex is widely understood to be part of the tourist experience, and whether with other tourists, with local 'holiday romances', or with sex workers, many people expect to have more sex whilst on vacation," (human sexuality class discussion, September 6, 2022).*
