"The National Commission for the Society of Information and Knowledge (CNSIC) and the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel) today began the works to establish a national strategy that guarantees 'a healthy and ethical use of the Internet in the Dominican Republic.' "

0000

In other words, the elimination of Inernet publication is tantamount to actual elimination of child slavery and sexual exploitation.

"For God's sake, keep it off the computer. Then we won't have a problem."

Filthy bourgeois morality.

what really has to happen is the firming up of the laws against sexual abuse of minors. the law has to be insuperable. i am aware of cases in the DR wherein perverts, accused of sexual congress with minors, offer a payment to the parents of the victims to drop the cases. these accords are ratified and signed by attorneys, and the issue goes away. we have to have a situation in which the victims have no say in the conduct of jurisprudence. the police should have no choice but to make arrests, and the district attorneys ( the fiscales in this case) should have no discretion in bringing the case to court. minimum mandatory sentences should be the standard. that is the only method by which this malaise is going to be remedied, or at least brought under control. far too many lowlife types come to this country to exploit underage girls, knowing that in their countries they would not be put in jail, but under the jail!

well said dreadlocks

This is good news. Children must be protected!

Edward, there you go again: the bearer of good tidings! how does this initiative alter the situation on the ground?

Children grow up to quickly in the DR, young girls age 11 on up, sometimes younger, believe they are women and can elope (Casarse) which is cultural but also societal mental manipulation. You see a lot of this in los campos. Part of it is boredom, no money or disposable income, and more emphasis on forming a family (or having kids) than delaying this entrapment in favor of education. Lots of AIDS in the DR, its a large yet hidden (kept quite) epidemic. A girl's worth is her sex rather than her brains.

I think the government should do more to prevent underage girls who are forced into prostitution. I support the legalization of it, but children must be protected from harm. If DR had Bunny Ranches there would be fewer girls working as prostitutes on the streets!

Edward, one of the reasons why there are such lax strictures against abuses of minor women is that the society, like many other Latin American societies, is very paternalistic, and women are seen as a few rungs below men on the human ladder. it is part of the catholic ethos, borne out by the fact that women were not considered priest material, and the leader of the religion is the Holy FATHER. this ingrained differentiation relegates women to the status of property. this is why men in brazil are allowed to kill their wives for breaching their "HONOR". women are not valued to the degree that men are, which explains why the countries with the greatest rates of femicide, with a few african examples, are all latin american. secondly, since so many wealthy and connected members of high society like a little dalliance now and then with a young chica, the laws are not going to expose some aristocrat with a hyphenated surname to years in jail for congress with a campesina, for whom society

has scant regard. we have not evolved to the level of human civilisation that a country such as the USA has. the reality of the US is that the more powerful come under greater scrutiny, because of the 24 hour news cycle. if word gets out that a senator was seen with a minor exiting a motel, once CNN gets word of it, he is done! it plays over and over every half hour, and his ass is grass!!
there is no way he can buy his way out of the mess, because exposure is too great. it is not like here, where the newscasters are afraid of the powerful. in the USA, people like chopping down the biggest trees!!!

"I think the government should do more to prevent underage girls who are forced into prostitution."

oooo

It's possible that the exploitation and sell of underage boys in the DR is worst than the problem with girls. And there 's a tendency to misclassify, as "Haitian," Dominican children who, along with others, fall victim to the slave and sex trade in the domestic market and in international operations.

The DR section of US State Department 2007 Report on Human Smuggling, as well as the Reports for earlier years, stress that DR is a transhipment point for young labor and sex slaves from all over Latin America and Caribbean to centers of exploitation all over the world, especially Western Europe.

Is is not just criminal enterprise of low-life lumpens, but rather the slave and sex trade of kids and and adults is something in which the righest and most "honorable" families ... the real low-lifes ... of the Dominican Republic are involved at the top of the racketeering.

Staveras, unfortunately I have to agree with you... Not to mention that harassment starts even at school, a lot of times by their teachers.

Edward, owning a business is legal and I still see many people selling stuff on the streets by their own. Business in the street is also cultural in the DR and prostitution is no exception.

Believe it or not, Trujillo regulated prostitution by making it legal within the confines of brothels. The Sanitation Department (Public Health at that time) would examine and treat the prostitutes for sexually transmitted diseases. Prostitutes with diseases would not be allowed to work but when treated and cured would be given a clean bill of health to work again. On the other hand, Trujillo was renowned for being a child molester, although my 80 year old aunt disagrees with this portrayal of Trujillo. Sex trafficking is big business all over the world. I saw it in Vietnam, France, Thailand, Southern Africa and a few other places. Its real bad in Cambodia.