TOURIST brochures that one can pick up in Irish agencies speak of resorts in Thailand bedecked with what are coyly termed "girlie" bars. The shy traveller is recommended to seek accommodation in alternative parts of the resort if the sight of such lewd goings-on would offend his sensibilities.
This is rubbish. Sex tourism is everywhere in many parts of Asia, and if you wanted to avoid it a blindfold would probably be the only way. But, as the professionals gathered in Stockholm say, a "sex tourist" doesn't have to accept that those offering services to pander to his urges are mere children.
Tourism is one of the world's biggest industries. In Ireland we are well aware of its economic importance. But internationally it is massive, the world's biggest employer.
Nowhere is the money earned from tourism more important than in developing "Third World" countries where the failure of traditional subsistence systems and a lack of industry have eroded the support base for the society.
The poorer countries have leapt on the tourism bandwagon with enthusiasm in the second half of the 20th century. But some of the attractions provided in long-haul destinations are storing up massive social and economic problems for the future.
Julia O'Connell Davidson, a sociologist at Leicester University, is one of Europe's leading researchers into sex tourism, particularly as it affects children. With her colleague, Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, she is presenting her findings to the Stockholm conference this week.
Ms O'Connell Davidson has travelled to Thailand, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and a number of Latin American countries to investigate sex tourism. She says sex tourists are businessmen, sports club members, soldiers, lone travellers, sailors. And yes, Irishmen have been among the "users" she met.
"They are all such very ordinary people, but at the same time quite nasty," she says. "You have to adopt a non-judgmental attitude when you are talking to them or they would end the conversation. But it does leave you feeling very unpleasant afterwards."
"We must get rid of the idea that it is just a few paedophiles, very different types of people, who are using child prostitutes. They come from a cross-section of society, they are everyone."
"And they are not unattractive, although some will tell you they have difficulty forming relationships where they come from, in Europe or North America. But I don't believe that has anything to do with sex tourism these people just enjoy that type of power."
And the power is virtually absolute, apart from the fact that the prices are much cheaper than in the men's home countries (women are a negligible percentage of sex tourists). For one thing, the children cannot speak English, so they are unable to insist on any limits to what they will do. For another, they have only limited transactional abilities.
"One of the reasons that the men like prostitute use in these countries is that it isn't a contractual arrangement as it is in the West. It's not X amount for X service. And the girls are so inexperienced that they do things most Western prostitutes would refuse, like kissing the customer on the mouth. This in turn allows the customer to tell himself she is enjoying this, she likes me, says Ms O'Connell Davidson.
The common rationalisation that sexual activity is naturally so much freer in countries like Thailand or Cuba is a canard that enrages her.
It makes me incredibly angry when I hear people saying this sort of crap, because sex abusers use that kind of cognitive distortion to justify what they are doing. You hear "it's part of their culture, it is different for them". Men have even said to me "look at tropical plants, how fast they grow. It's the same with the girls."
She does not accept that countries such as Thailand or Cuba are traditionally any less careful with women's sexuality than we are. "There are many sad stories of Thai girls, after, they have escaped from prostitution in towns and gone back to their villages, being ostracised by everyone, including their families. They end up dying alone."
"And in Latin America, in the strongly Catholic societies women feel incredibly stigmatised after being prostitutes. I have had girls say to me that they will carry their shame all their lives and their children will carry their shame. They hope to marry a respectable man to "cleanse them, but it is very unlikely they would be accepted."
She tells of one girl, identified as Anna-Bel, who was enlisted by a cousin to work as a prostitute in Varedero, a major Cuban beach resort.
O'Connell Davidson's report describes Anna-Bel, at the age of 14, as "physically very immature, about 4ft 10in, with hands and feet the size of a child much younger. She dresses in a childlike manner and her mannerisms are those of a little girl rather than a teenager. She is thus ideal fodder for men with a specific interest in just pre-pubertal girls".
Anna-Bel's pimp, who took $10 out of every $20 she earned, eventually beat her so badly that she contacted her family, who had no idea of her whereabouts, in their village, and her father came to take her home. But not all families forgive disgraced daughters, even if they have sold them into a thinly disguised sex trade.
"Talking to these girls, you realise that people are really the same everywhere," Ms O'Connell Davidson says. "Just because you live in poverty doesn't mean that you don't aspire to the same level of dignity as people in other parts of the world."