COMMENT | Girls have the right to be safe from child exploitation

COMMENT | We do not deserve to be treated this way. Every day, child exploitation is increasing and this causes unnecessary phobia and fear in young girls. Girls who have been exploited live their lives in pain but sadly they are not allowed to voice out nor speak about what has been done to them. Child exploitation is bad and it is definitely not safe for young girls such as myself. We girls should not have to suffer for another person’s benefit and gain.

I am aware that there are girls out there who are around my age or even younger who are having to work for a living. Child labour, a form of child exploitation, refers to situations where young girls are coerced to work for little or no remuneration, often under threat of punishment, such as being forced using violence or based on accumulated debt that cannot be settled.

I disagree with child labour because we should let young girls decide their own future and let them do what they love. We should not force them to work in jobs they do not wish to pursue because they are still learning how to face the world and are yet to make a decision on their career path. At my age, I personally do not think I could work for any industry because I am still at the learning stage. Girls my age have not learnt enough skills and will not know yet how to manage working life, thus we are not ready to work or get a job. It is sad to see young children who are forced to work to get money to survive due to either parental or other external pressures.

Besides labour exploitation of children, child grooming and child marriage is also a form of child exploitation, and it affects young and teenage girls especially. Child grooming is when a person builds a relationship based on trust and emotional connection with a child, however, the person does not actually care for the child but instead wishes to manipulate and abuse them. This is an act I vehemently disagree with because I don’t understand how people have the audacity to manipulate a child’s trust into something abusive.

The people who groom children can be their family members such as their fathers or uncles, close family friends, kidnappers, or other adults who have ill-intentions to use them for their own ...