PIP: Child and juvenile prostitution in Brazil has reached such proportions that a parliamentary commission launched an inquiry. This type of prostitution flourishes in poor urban areas and in the North and Central-East. Not only girls become prostitutes; in Rio de Janeiro, boys cater to tourists from the industrialized world.
In many cases their families tolerate their homosexual encounters because of the extra income received. In the interior of the state of Rio, girls aged years are enticed to cities as domestics and end up in prostitution. In Niteroi there is a prostitution network specializing in year-old girls. Although there are 30, prostitutes in the state of Rio, the distribution of condoms among them has caused negative reactions among conservatives and Catholics claiming that it would increase licentiousness.
The Brazilian Center for the Defense of the Rights of Children and Adolescents countered that condoms help prevent the spread of diseases. In Para, Acre, and Rondonia, , , and year-old girls sell their bodies in order to survive. In Sao Paulo and in the neighborhoods of Bras and Belem, girls as young as 10 years of age become prostitutes under the protection of corrupt police who exact sexual favors or a share of receipts.
The prostitution of children and adolescents in Brazil is connected to the destruction of the family and is the result of misery and hunger.
