A report on child labour in Papua New Guinea has sparked a call for controls on birth rates.
The International Labour Organisation last week launched the report based on a rapid assessment conducted last year in Port Moresby on commercial sexual exploitation of children and children working on the streets.
Almost half of the 400 children involved were doing sex work and almost half of those had entered the sex industry before the age of 15.
The Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee's national co-ordinator, Ume Wainetti, says poverty is responsible and the government needs to look seriously at controlling the number of children being born.
"Because a lot of the children who are suffering like this are children whose parents cannot even afford to put food on the table. And so a lot of education on family planning needs to be done. You know, you're now looking at children having children."
The Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee's national co-ordinator, Ume Wainetti.
