 Though campaigns against prostitution of children originated in the 1800s , the first mass protests against the practice occurred in the 1990s in the United States , led largely by ECPAT ( End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism ) . The group , which historian Junius P. Rodriguez describes as " the most significant of the campaigning groups against child prostitution " , originally focused on the issue of children being exploited in Southeast Asia by Western tourists . Women 's rights groups and anti @-@ tourism groups joined to protest the practice of sex tourism in Bangkok , Thailand . The opposition to sex tourism was spurred on by an image of a Thai youth in prostitution , published in Time and by the publication of a dictionary in the United Kingdom describing Bangkok as " a place where there are a lot of prostitutes " . Cultural anthropologists Susan Dewey and Patty Kelly write that though they were unable to inhibit sex tourism and rates of prostitution of children continued to rise , the groups " galvanized public opinion nationally and internationally " and succeeded in getting the media to cover the topic extensively for the first time . ECPAT later expanded its focus to protest child prostitution globally . 
