CHILDREN-ECUADOR: CHILD PROSTITUTION IS GROWTH INDUSTRY

QUITO, Poverty, homelessness, family violence, and, most importantly, an emerging market, are fueling the growth of child prostitution in Ecuador, according sociologists here.
Some 6,000 boys and girls between 10 and 15 years old, are now engaged in prostitution in "date houses," bars, massage parlors, and discos in Quito and Guayaquil, they said. "This is not a problem concerning a certain sector of the
population, nor a gender problem...rather, it is a growing phenomenon, like poverty, and it is sustained by a large market which demands child sex.