Australia's Channel Seven investigates the sex industry in Thailand

[ironbark]

I have worked and travelled in the region for 10 years and heard lots of stories about these underage sex workers and seen lots of money spent by foreign aid agencies on the "problem" but have never actually seen significant evidence. Either the agencies are being very effective or the problem is not as big as the sex obsessed media would have us believe.

I think western agencies would do better spending money on improving working conditions for immigrant labourers that are mercilessly exploited particularly in the garment and construction industries.

[bim]

I understand that many underage girls are involved in prostitution in Thailand but very few foreign men are actually involved with child prostitution here. Ninety-nine percent of it is completely within the Thai culture in the villages. It seems Australian journos like to pull this sensationalist story out every couple of years, brush it off, and present it again. This time may be more legitimate as they're focusing on a crusading family, and I admire these people for taking up a worthy cause, but they're not going to put any dent at all in the real problem as they won't be able to get to the real source of it in those thousands of villages foreigners will never get to. It's only the Thais themselves that can do anything about it if they want to.

I totally agree. The guys heart is in the right place but it is up to Thais to sort this out. We have a guy in our town who must be in his 70s married a 13 year old girl. I was appalled by this and asked why didnt anyone report this to the Police? Well turns out it is all agreed with the girls family and money changed hands. Western logic does not work her im afraid. I wonder if some of these underage kids families have a similar deal in place. It is all very sad. The damage to these kids is so very heartbreaking.

[whatproblem]

The families care more for money than their daughters ,they are encouraged to work bar and shamed into sending the money home so dad and brother can drink and sleep all day .the home is where changed needs to take place ,if parents refused to take the money ,my mum would not take money from my sister if she did this no matter how much she neede money.thais love money more than they love their children.

[Broken Record]

A few negative comments on here today, but at least he's trying something....this foundation has been operative for 15 years and has reported many kids saved.....so it's not a bad thing.

Yes..Kids globally are drawn/sold into the sex industry....but at least in western countries, there are somewhat efficient police forces.....here, the police are the problem!

So shouldn't channel 7 be investigating the Police instead ?

[Tom Cahill]

Good luck with that one buddy

From the OP:

Destiny Rescue has been around for about 15 years and has saved more than 1300 girls from bars and brothels.

2 + 2 = "saved"

Specifics please.

1. What do you mean by saved?

2. How do you know he's / they've met this criteria, you've elaborated on in point 1

[samsensam]

Mr Kirwan was on holiday in Thailand when his friend was offered sex with an underage girl.

what kind of holiday was Mr Kirwan on? what type of people was he mixing with on his holiday? where was he hanging out on his holiday?

in all the holidays i've taken all over the world i've never been offered sex with an under age girl. in all my years in thailand i have never come into any kind of situation where sex with under age girls has ever been mentioned.

[PixelPac]

Another opinion piece by Channel 7. Rivetting, not!!! I want to know where this guy moved to in South East Asia. If it's Thailand, what sort of visa is he on, to move here, with his family? It won't be long before they throw him out when the Gov finds out he's making doco's here.

[whaleboneman]

Let me guess....he lives ONLY in pattaya, BKK, and phuket...

this horrible stuff happens in possibly every big city in the world...and in one-year living in Thailand I never saw it...but i know it happens.

i'm not sure why he didn't go to Cambodia...isn't it worse there? or japan? or other places? i bet he saw Thailand in the top-10 and said, "well, it is nice there."

Why do you berate a man who has dedicated his life to helping young girls?

[jalansanitwong]

The families care more for money than their daughters ,they are encouraged to work bar and shamed into sending the money home so dad and brother can drink and sleep all day .the home is where changed needs to take place ,if parents refused to take the money ,my mum would not take money from my sister if she did this no matter how much she neede money.thais love money more than they love their children.

Its the same with most foreign men married to a thai girl . Farang has to support her family including any gambling debts or NPL's. Thousands of farangs living in Europe have no idea where their money is really going because they never lived in LOS.

In Thailand economic realities always outweigh any moral concerns which includes pimping out their daughters to brothels and foreign men looking for a wife.

[Broken Record]

90% of the sex trade here is Thai only.There are still quite a few places that have underage Lao, Cambodian and Burmese girls working in them and a westerner would almost never even know about them.

However, I even know of a western bar owner smack dab in the middle of a farang area who supplies underage girls to his bar cusromers and has been doing it for years.

If that's true, you know this Farangs nationality, get in touch with his embassy.

[jacky54]

in all the holidays i've taken all over the world i've never been offered sex with an under age girl. in all my years in thailand i have never come into any kind of situation where sex with under age girls has ever been mentioned.

Rather like saying i've never had a heart attack so doubt they occur.

[duckmandon]

This is the type of diet that Australians are fed on a minute by minute basis.

They are a nice enough people but are mushrooms.

When questioned about the authenticity of anything whatsoever, the first thing they will say is............"it must be true because I saw it on TV."

So sad.

This guy is trying for his 15 minutes of fame.

You must be very nieave to think Australians are mushrooms. By the way how do you get your daily intake of news? Like your post, you are full of it.

[opalred]

hope its not another money making scheme to stay in los

as i have seen over past years up north thai cambodia laos

i saw one in cambodia driving new fancy 4*4 wagon charity sign on wagon

parked in front of most expensive dress shop in the country waiting for his young gf go shopping

good luck if you are rea lwould be one in hundred

[Mbaki]

This is the type of diet that Australians are fed on a minute by minute basis.

They are a nice enough people but are mushrooms.

When questioned about the authenticity of anything whatsoever, the first thing they will say is............"it must be true because I saw it on TV."

So sad.

This guy is trying for his 15 minutes of fame.

Your comment shows you know nothing about Australian society, don't generalise all by the actions of a few.

[Broken Record]

As far as Pattaya goes most of the Beer Bars are staffed by overweight, disinterested, cellphone obsessed, boring, poorly dressed older women, this guy is 30 years too late

[joboss]

Yeah.. big story.. Thailand has prostitutions problems with young girls, Duh....

this is a sensationalism piece of journalism,

must be very quit in channel 7 to wake up now to Thailand prostitution issues,

Oh yeah.. and don't forget to do another big expose on corruptions in Thailand too....

"Where have they been for the last 40 years?"

Don't you mean 4000 years?

[Dustdevil]

Some feel the need for speed. Guess this guy feels the need to bear the white man's burden. It's all kind of fluid and relative. Why not go find a job in Saudi Arabia and save the women who are one of four wives to the same hubby. Or take a time machine back 180 years when Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old first cousin. Well--who's to say Thailand or even Saudi Arabia have to be the equivalent of 2015 Australia?

Edited November 16, 2015 by Dustdevil

[Nomyai]

As far as Pattaya goes most of the Beer Bars are staffed by overweight, disinterested, cellphone obsessed, boring, poorly dressed older women, this guy is 30 years too late

And these are the good ones......................hahahaha.

[Nomyai]

As far as Pattaya goes most of the Beer Bars are staffed by overweight, disinterested, cellphone obsessed, boring, poorly dressed older women, this guy is 30 years too late

And these are the good ones......................hahahaha.

For goodie 2 shoew- there does seem to be less girls working bar than even a year ago.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Nomyai

[spermwhale]

I understand that many underage girls are involved in prostitution in Thailand but very few foreign men are actually involved with child prostitution here. Ninety-nine percent of it is completely within the Thai culture in the villages. It seems Australian journos like to pull this sensationalist story out every couple of years, brush it off, and present it again. This time may be more legitimate as they're focusing on a crusading family, and I admire these people for taking up a worthy cause, but they're not going to put any dent at all in the real problem as they won't be able to get to the real source of it in those thousands of villages foreigners will never get to. It's only the Thais themselves that can do anything about it if they want to.

Really? Where do you get your statistics? Show us the source. There are plenty of pedophiles that come here specifically for that purpose. The problem is local and also international. Unbelievable all the naysayers on this thread that have likely never done anything to help any people in their adopted country. Armchair critics.

[Dustdevil]

Why was it not a Thai TV station (instead of a foreign one)?

Good point. In Thailand prostitution is illegal so Thais deny there is any problem. Pattaya probably has the highest concentration per sqm of prostituttes in Asia but Thais will say its a' tourist town' or even laughably a beach resort.

Its commendable what the aussie and other farangs do here with children but its not going to change anything until the government erradicates poverty. (never)

Channel 7 or 9 in Australia will run a go-go bar story about Thailand every 12 months or so. theyve been doing it since the 1970's. ........poor farm girls forced to work as hookers for the pleasure of drunk middleaged western men blah blah blah. Its all true but its really about man bashing. Ive never seen a story on TV about ugly fat western women paying for sex and buying teen husbands in Kenya.

Good point. At least a German director made a move about German fat hags who sought love in Kenya.

[orientalsf]

So even though Mr Kirwan has been to Thailand in the past, all of a sudden him and a friend visit an establishment that sells younger girls, and he decides to move him and his entire family to Thailand to stop this. Sounds a little fishy to me. To make such a big move with him and his family just doesn't work for me. I know we'll probably never hear anything more on this story, unless they find there is something fishy about M. Kirwan. Yes I am probably whatever the word is for being doubtful.

[slippery snake]

I read about another do gooder farang, that had a shoe factory closed down because it employed underage girls,

Then they had to work as prostitutes because they no longer had a job,, wonder if these are the same girls ?????

Bloody do gooders do more harm than good.... a lot of families live on what these girls make !!!!!

[Strangebrew]

Maybe you do better by keeping your mates there in OZ since a lot of child porn comes from OZ .

[SOTIRIOS]

....going it alone....seems a little foolhardy....

...this is rampant and has been going on for years I guess....

...and putting your children and family in harm's way.....

...dunno buddy......

....also 'to save the world'.....'the world has to want to be saved'......

[Dustdevil]

Reminds me of the last Australian who didn't know his bum from his elbow, the one that came to do an audit on a sugar mill in Nakhon nowhere...... I believe he didn't even reach the hotel before he was drilled......... All very well and good, with good intentions........ But hey boys, take some advice, "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet"..... Fiver he's back on a plane home in three years with an Isaan bunny ............

What do you mean "he was drilled"? With all very well and good...intentions? Your post is interesting but unclear. I wish you would write it in plain English rather than cryptic puzzle-speak so it's accessible.

[connda]

The underaged sex industry starts in Thai homes. Poverty is not an excuse to send your underage child to the city to engage in sex when they should be enjoying school, and friendship with peers of their own age, and the innocence of youth. Start the blame with the parents who should be jailed, then the girl's trafficker who should be jailed, the handler/pimp who should be jailed, the cops who get their cut to allow this travesty should be jailed, and the pedophiles SOBs who should know the difference between a 13 year old adolescent and an 18 to 20+ year old 'adult' but choose the underage girl should be jailed, then sent back to their own countries to serve their time in a system that looks down on pedophiles, and a jail system where pedophiles are the bottom rung of the inmate ladder - and get to be on the receiving end of some of that sex they were handing out in the first place.

When I was single my 'acid test' for age was simple: "If she looks too young, then she's too young." Which is probably why I've always tended to associate and date women in their thirties.

I applaud the efforts of those attempting to get these young girls off the streets. As far as enforcing laws regarding underaged escorts for sex, remember, This is Thailand. Everyone is involved from the parents to the pimps to the cops. Big business at the expense of the lifes of a young girl or boy.

However, with that said, the sex trade between consenting adults is just a fact of life here in Thailand and has nothing to do with "sex-crazed" Aussies. If your going to say that, than throw all testosterone ladened males of the human species in the same bucket. That's our nature. Our more puritanical societies make it difficult as hell to simply indulge in what is one of the most natural acts in nature. So once Western men leave the confines of their overly-moralistic societies, many men (and some women) over-compensate. However, live in a place like SE Asia or Thailand long enough, you understand the nature of it. People may go overboard when they first arrive, but eventually settle into a sense of normalcy, hook up with girl-friends, maybe eventually become monogamous, and even marry. The overly moralistic folks will never understand it as they indulge in their own fantasies and perversions while condemning Thailand as the 'Sin Capital of the World'. These are just hypocrites and are best ignored. But sex with underage children: there is no excuse!

Edited November 16, 2015 by connda

[Just1Voice]

A few years ago, on one my my bike trips in the north, I stopped in a small village near Den Chai for some lunch at a small Thai restaurant. As I was starting to eat, the owner of the place came and sat down at the table across from me. All smiles and a wai. He was looking at my relatively new CBR 250, the riding kit I was wearing, and the expensive helmet on the table. He told me: "Me speak Angrit." Okay, I replied with a smile. He asked where I was from, what I did for a living, and other harmless questions for about 5 minutes, then called out to the main area of the restaurant, and an attractive, but young girl came out to stand by the table with her hands clasped in front of her, and looking down at the ground.

The man proudly told me this was his daughter, she was 13, and she was still a virgin, and then told me I could buy her for 15,000 baht and take her home with me. I nearly choked on my food. I told him thanks, but that I was married, and my wife wouldn't like that, then paid up and got the hell out of there. Two days later when I got home, I told my wife about it. She surprised me by calmly telling me I should have "bought" the girl and brought her home, where we could have given her an education and a better life. I asked her why she wasn't surprised by this. She just laughed and told me that it happens every day, in every village, and it's no big deal.

[leighd7]

Does anyone have a download or torrent for this video ?

[NickJ]

Shawn0001........You must be a newbie. Protection here, When it comes from Big powerful BIB.....No Thanks. People have tried.