Child Wise child sex seminar in Brisbane

Some of you may remember reading a TravelMole feature late last year about the Child Wise seminar in Sydney and how disappointing it was to see so few people turn up to hear about this critical travel industry issue.

Child Wise have recently announced a seminar in Brisbane – so Brisbane, this is your chance show the rest of Australia that you really care!

The details are: –

Date: 22 March 2006

Location: Sofitel Brisbane, 249 Turbot St Brisbane

Beer, wine and nibbles provided at all forums, courtesy of Sofitel Hotels.

Time – 5.30 – 7.30

Speakers – Australian Federal Police, Intrepid Travel and Child Wise

Why are we doing this?

Being at the coal face, the tourism industry has a vital role in promoting the safety of children in all countries in  the world.

The forums publicise the issues affecting children in our region in tourism and the importance of preventing it.  The forums will help:

§         Increase understanding of the relationship between tourism and the sexual exploitation of children.

§         Identify incidences of child sex tourism and how the travel industry can respond to concerns. 

§         Increase understanding of the Australian child sex tourism law and the travel industries legal requirements under the law.

To register pls email – [email protected] or phone: (03) 9645 8911

More information availabel on http://www.childwise.net

Backgound on why The Mole is is passionate about ChildWise : –

When The Mole attend one of these free seminars in Sydney last year on the horrendous world of child sex tourism, The Mole thought that this great industry of ours would show its support and the Sofitel in Sydney would be packed.   

The Mole was really embarrassed, felt really ashamed and had to apologise to the Child Wise organisers that only about a dozen members of the industry turned up. 

You may not know, but at that time, the response in Brisbane was so low that Brisbane was cancelled and Melbourne had about the same pathetic attendance as Sydney

Perhaps The Mole is becoming cynical, but if Child Wise had been giving away Business Class tickets to exotic destinations, providing a four course meal and lots of booze, it might have been packed, but not even the meagre 35 responses they had received even bothered turning up. 

Where were the industry leaders, the movers and shakers of the hotel industry, the travel agencies, the airlines, the wholesalers, the tour operators, etc, etc?? 

Some niche operators do a great job in supporting Child Wise, including Intrepid Travel, Gecko and Peregrine, but where were the people in positions of power with the high volume, major operators that can make the real difference to child sex tourism?  For certain they were not at the Sofitel at the Child Wise seminar! 

Well done though to Accor who have sponsored the seminar series and are utilising the training programmes with their hotel staff through out Asia.  Also well done to the Myer Foundation for also funding the whole programme – The Mole has to say though that I think that the programme should be funded by the tourism industry. 

So Brisbane, get there and show your support this despicable indictment of our industry – Flight Centre, Virgin Blue – please show your support!!

So, what is child sex tourism all about?  

Well, so that you have no illusions, The Mole will not be as delicate about it as the excellent presenters at the seminar. 

It is quite simply about a number extremely perverted and The Mole believes very sick Australians (and others from other developed countries) who get their kicks and sexual gratification from travelling to other countries, in our case mainly in Asia, to sexually exploit and have sex with young and often very young children – boys or girls – they are the ultimate evil predators and most frequently they are men. 

In case you are having problems getting the real horror of this activity, close your eyes for a few seconds and visualise how really disgusting this is.  If you have children, nieces, or friends who have children, imagine this happening to your or your friends’ young son or daughter.  Yes, it is disgusting and frightening that these perverts get away with it – well not quite – the Australian Federal Police is right on their trail.  Read on: – 

There are increasing numbers of people who travel from their own country as tourists or business people to sexually abuse children in another, usually poor and underdeveloped country.  This practice is called child sex tourism.

Some facts and figures:

§         22 Australians have been charged with child sex tourism offences under Australian law

§         Australians have been the first people charged with child sex offences in Thailand, the Philippines, Fiji, Samoa, Sierra Leone, East Timor and Papua New Guinea

§         It is reported that thousands of Australians are travelling overseas every year to abuse children

§         Australian child sex offenders have been reported in over 25 countries.

Leading Australian child protection agency Child Wise is running a tourism information session for the Brisbane tourism industry which will provide tourism professionals with up to date information on child sex tourism to help their clients who may be concerned about the safety of children

Report by The Mole