Child sexual exploitation

Rate of child sexual exploitation in Pacific 'appalling'

The survey by the child protection agency ECPAT International shows perpetrators are most likely to be family members or a close family friend.

It was a small study but showed children were being abused for profit at an appalling rate, according to the director of ECPAT International New Zealand, Eleanor Parkes.

"We saw again and again in this research that more often it's not a "stranger-danger" situation.

"More often it is coming from someone that is known to the child so a family member or a close family friend," she said.