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Child Sex Trade Subject of Washington Heights Forum and Film Screening

By Carla Zanoni | March 22, 2011 1:40pm

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — City streets may no longer show obvious signs of prostitution, but the practice remains rampant in Manhattan, with the incidence of youth prostitution higher here than anywhere else in the city, according to state statistics.

Of the 2,253 children between the ages of 13 - 18 who were commercially exploited for sex in New York City in 2007, 42 percent of them were abused in Manhattan, compared to just 34 percent in Brooklyn and 18 percent in Queens, according to the New York State Office of Children and Family Services.

The troubling trend sparked an upcoming community forum in Washington Heights on Thursday, March 24 called "From Playgrounds to Pimps: A Call to Action." The event, which includes film screenings and panel discussions, is being organized by the anti-sex trade and trafficking advocacy group Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) and the Washington Heights-based outreach group United Nile

Organizers chose to target the Upper Manhattan community in response to the state's data, compiled by research group WESTAT, which found that the majority of commercially sexually exploited children under the age of 18 were female, with 67 percent of those self-identifying as Black or African American and nearly 20 percent as Hispanic.

The event will feature the screening of "Very Young Girls," a documentary that takes a look at the sex trade throughout the U.S. and is billed as an "exposé of the commercial sexual exploitation of girls in New York City as they are sold on the streets by pimps, and treated as adult criminals by police."

The film follows pimps and young girls to document "their struggles and triumphs as they seek to exit the commercial sex industry," according to the film’s creators.

The screening is to be followed by a panel discussion including field experts, activists and women who have been involved in the sex trade and is part of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center's Women's Month Programming.

Thursday, March 24, 7 p.m., the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, 3940 Broadway, between 165th and 166th streets, 212- 568-1341. Entry is pay-as-you-wish with proceeds going to support GEMS and the Shabazz Center "to help with their work among high-risk youth."