Mary Frances Hill

Child Abuse

Fry joins fight against global
child sex trade

"I've seen a lot of kids who were in group homes, and nearly always these kids have run away from abusive homes," Fry said in an interview from Stockholm, Sweden.

Years later, as Canada's secretary of state for the status of women and multiculturalism, the Vancouver Centre MP's experiences echoed through the Stolkhom conference halls, where she was a delegate at the first World Congress Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.

Delegates at the conference hear of the attitudes of men who pay for sexual relations -- they either ignore the possibility the girl may be underage, or seek out young girls, because they think the younger the girl, the less chance she has a disease, says Fry.

Fry says the federal government is working to ensure people who violate underage prostitutes abroad be prosecuted under Canadian law. Regardless of any global plans, the responsibility of safeguarding children begins within communities and the family, she says.

"We should recognize the child in the world is the future of the world. We can have economic policies till the cows come home. If we don't have young people who are well adjusted and who are cared for, what are we passing out world on to?"