Child Sex Industry Thriving In Pattaya

It is a certainy that things like this go on in Pattaya, but this article is misleading in describing pedophilia's scope and especially its visibility.

There is no doubt that if you have an interest in underage fornication, you could find it in Pattaya, but I would imagine it is like trying to find heroin: You better know where to look and who to ask, and making a mistake anywhere in the process would cost you dearly.

There has been a steep jump in the number of sex tourists and child prostitutes in Pattaya in recent years, social workers say. [Sex tourists, yes... child prostitutes... nobody knows exactly, although based on the number of arrests of pedophiles, you could assume that the number is higher, though it's probably due more to police efforts than the actual number of underage prostitutes.]

Two decades ago, the town had 500 bars. Now there are more than 20,000, mostly sidewalk bars with a few stools and scantily-clad, overly made-up girls -- many as young as 14. [20,000? Wrong. 2,000 is more like it. Probably a typo. "Many as young as 14"... No... never... unless they look older and have their older sister's ID to prove it. Police can make huge amounts of money by finding an underage girl in a bar. Bar owners know it, and never let underage girls work anymore.]

There are no official figures for the numbers of street children or child prostitutes in the town of 500,000 people, but one child welfare agency estimates 2,000 children wander the streets of Pattaya selling everything from sweets to sex. [Most of them are with their parents and are selling chewing gum, and shining shoes, and helping in the family business of street selling trinkets to tourists. Not selling sex... at least not out on the street.]

"Pattaya has attracted children from all over the country both voluntarily and lured by traffickers," said Supagon Noja of the Pattaya-based Child Protection and Development Center. [Yes... to places where they won't be seen by police. Not in bars or on the street, but in apartments hidden away, and usually the children are obtained by meeting with an adult or by a phone call. Never in person.]

"Word of mouth from children in the industry always lures new faces to Pattaya," said Supagon. [Unfortunately, Thai people are very nonchalant about sex. To them, it's a biological function, or something as casual as a massage. That's why Pattaya's gay gogo bars are filled with straight Thai guys waiting for gay sex. You actually expect the young boys to behave differently than their older brothers?]

Some boys aged between 10 and 15 can earn 10,000 baht ($280) a night having sex with a foreigner, more than a college-educated civil servant makes in a month in Thailand. [Actually, that's way wrong. From the news articles of arrests I have read, the boys make a whole lot less than adults. Nobody would pay that kind of money in Pattaya... until/unless they are blackmailed.]

Some pimps set up arcade games in shops to lure boys into prostitution. Young boys become addicted to the computer games but soon run out of money, said Supagon. [I don't doubt it. Thai boys are addicted to computer games like crack cocaine.]

So they pay upstairs by having sex with western tourists, said Supagon, who has led police on raids of brothels to arrest pedophiles. [Not true. There are no "on-site" places to have sex with minors in Pattaya that I have ever heard of. I have never seen a report on police busting up a pedophile brothel in Pattaya. Every pedophile that I have ever seen arrested had the children visit his hotel room or home.]

At any time, there may be as 200 Western men hanging out at bars on one strip, waiting for boys to be delivered by brokers. Police turn a blind eye, he said. [Bullshit. Where? I know Pattaya inside and out, and have never heard of such a thing. Sunee Plaza? This is a complete fabrication because Police can get huge bribes for nabbing a pedophile in the act. 200 pedophiles sitting around? Cops ignoring it? Anybody with a brain knows that's ridiculous.]

"They (my customers) took me out to McDonalds," said Yo, 17, a former male prostitute, now being rehabilitated in a government boys home in the nearby town of Rayong. "After I got money, I spent it on computer games," he said. [No doubt. Robberies and purse/gold snatchings are also common ways to feed video game addiction here in Pattaya.]

This was a terrible article designed to give Pattaya a bad reputation. Why bother? Pattaya already is the Asian capitol of prostitution, crime, gangs, and (along with Cambodia) pedophila. Why would the author make up facts about the truth here? It's bad enough already. There is no need to lie about it: Pedophila is an invisible, small, but undeniable evil underside of Pattaya. It's not out in the open, it's not easy to find, it's not being ignored by the police. An honest news story would have told you exactly that.

Terrible reporting from a piss-poor journalist.