In this respect, the legal consequences for a child who has committed an offence under the law applicable to her him as a direct result of the practices prohibited under the Optional Protocol

Regulatory controls on Internet users have been strengthened and greater publicity and education devoted to children's rights and interests so as to heighten public consciousness of the law and the protection due to children.

Children between the ages of 14 and 18 who commit offences prohibited under the Optional Protocol may be given lighter or mitigated punishments compared to adults found guilty of the same offences.

They also indicate that, by the end of 2004, seizures of pornographic material nationwide (including publications and audio visual products) yielded some 12.06 million items and another 213.08 million pirated articles of a general nature.

But that's not the only purpose that human beings are sold for.

Some 18,697 cases involving the abduction and sale of women or children were tried, resulting in 28,027 convictions 404 cases involving the purchase of an abducted woman or child were tried, and 559 convictions obtained.

In the Jiangsu cities of Nanjing and Xuzhou, similar sweeps yielded more than 7,500 pornographic pocketbooks and harmful comic books, and 135 optical disks containing pornographic computer games.

You have even the middle class sometimes getting trafficked.

They are sold in the name of adoption.

From 24 to 26 May 2004, to heighten awareness in government units and departments of the protection of children's rights and interests, the Ministry of Public Security organized a training session for cadres of its affiliated agencies on the Optional Protocol.

Under the Criminal Procedure Law, it is the responsibility of the public security organs to open and investigate cases of trafficking in children, child pornography and child prostitution, after which a people's procuratorate may, after due review, refer cases to a people's court for prosecution.

In June, public security organs deployed in the border regions of the Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangxi Province, launched a special campaign to crack down on the kidnapping, abduction and sale of Vietnamese women and children.

In recent years, under the leadership of the relevant State Council departments, annual nationwide or regional law and order campaigns have been mounted to strengthen oversight of entertainment venues and crack down on prostitution and related offences.

Available figures indicate that, across the country, some 37,720,000 pornographic publications were seized.

Beijing led the way with its Emergency one week campaign against harmful comic books, pornographic pocketbooks and other obscene materials, confiscating 50,000 optical disks and 132,000 books and also closing down a number of illegal gaming operations.

The definition of a child as used in the offences abduction and traffic in women and children and purchase of an abducted woman or child in the Criminal Code is generally held by judicial authorities, referring to valid judicial interpretations, to be any person under the age of 18.

A campaign to clamp down on pocketbook pornography , harmful comic books and computer games on 24 May 2004, the Press and Publication Administration and the National Anti Pornography, Anti Piracy Working Group issued notification of a nationwide campaign against pornographic pocketbooks , harmful comic books and violent computer games, which ran from 25 May to 30 June 2004.

This group of scientists will also be able to offer its services to women victims who are accommodated to other hostel refuges.

A second measure is the clear delineation of the responsibilities of the various levels of government, bringing the protection of children into the ambit of overall national development planning.

In Beijing, a one month sweep of markets yielded 28,700 illegal pocketbook publications and 36,500 illegal optical disks.

We also face the trafficking of human beings, which is, as we know, a modern form of slavery.

The law makes it clear that trafficking in children under the cloak of adoption will be pursued as a criminal offence.

The Family Support Centre, since 2001, accommodates, at Stegi Miteras (Mothers' Shelter) women victims of trafficking.

The legal definitions of offences such as pimping, procuring and trafficking in persons are inadequate to the scope of the problem of commercial sexual exploitation, especially of children and young persons.

The Criminal Code also stipulates that when the offence of abduction and trafficking in women and children is aggravated by the deception or coercion of its victims to engage in prostitution, these aggravating circumstances will be taken into account and an appropriate penalty ordered.

You're seeing here images of three years, four year olds, and five year old children who have been trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation.

In this country, and across the globe, hundreds and thousands of children, as young as three, as young as four, are sold into sexual slavery.

The International Organization for Migration (I.O.M.

With respect to children who directly engage in activity prohibited under the Optional Protocol, China's Criminal Code provides for differing degrees of criminal responsibility according to age.

Efforts are being made to clean up the online environment and develop a healthy Internet culture so as to curb or put an end to the use of the Internet to disseminate pornography.

Likewise, the law penalizes only the recruitment or hiring of individuals, not the promotion or facilitation of trafficking in persons.

The Penal Code, in force since 1974, penalizes the sexual exploitation of women and the traffic in persons.

If the person named in an extradition request disagrees with the decision by a high people's court that the conditions for extradition are satisfied, he or she and his her legal representative in China may apply to a people's court within 10 days of being notified of the said decision to register a response with the Supreme People's Court.

There is no strong sense of the rule of law, and as these women and children are not well equipped to defend themselves, they are vulnerable to enticement, deception and abduction by criminal elements who compel them to work in prostitution or sell them as wives.

Young children may also be victims of producers of pornography this is covered by the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography of 2002

Even though trafficking in persons is defined as an offence under criminal law, it is penalized only when the victim is recruited for the purpose of prostitution the law does not cover other criminal situations such as sexual servitude.

With respect to applications by children for legal aid, please refer to paragraph 25 of this report.

In 2001, the Government launched the China Children's Development Programme (2001 2010), which set out strategic goals for children's development over the following 10 years and mobilized social, legislative and judicial resources in a concerted effort to combat violence and other offences against children.

Cases involving the abduction and sale of children 1,125 cases involving 2,698 persons were referred to investigating authorities by public security organs requesting arrest warrants after review, warrants were issued in 985 cases for a total of 2,291 suspects, including 1 child. Eleven cases involving 31 persons related to the purchase of an abducted child, and warrants were issued in 8 cases for the arrest of 21 suspects.

The Province of Shanxi issued notification of the seizure of audio visual recordings of vulgar songs , and seized some 4,113 tape recordings and 10,984 DVDs featuring compilations of these songs.

During the campaign, the Press and Publication Administration and the Working Group collaborated with market supervisory authorities to confiscate obscene and harmful material, vulgar songs and the like at book markets.

I have hundreds and thousands of stories of very very well to do families, and children from well to do families, who are getting trafficked.

A detailed, reliable review within the province of the status of children put up for adoption is instrumental in ensuring that no child victim of abduction or trafficking is put up for adoption abroad.

When a case of this type reaching a people's court involves the private affairs of a child victim, the court may decide to hold proceedings in camera.

In addition to trafficking in persons and prostitution, related offences, such as corruption of a minor (under the age of 16) with a view to inducing him or her to engage in or witness sexual acts, are also punishable under criminal law.