The study has revealed disturbing levels of prostitution by children, some as young as ten-years-old, in six of the country's 14 parishes.

Originally conducted in 2000 but with its results having been subsequently analysed and submitted with specific recommendations, the ILO has urged the Jamaica Government to strengthen its child care protection legislation of 1999 to classify as a criminal offence the use of children in prostitution.

The researchers have also suggested, according to a report in yesterday's "Jamaica Observer", the formation of a national machinery to work in collaboration with child labour elimination programmes in order to "eradicate the worst forms of child labour".

Such a machinery should include representatives of working children, government agencies, non-governmental organisations working with street children, trade unions, private sector groups and international development agencies.

The ILO study has listed nine categories of children engaging in sex for gain and said they were pushed into the practice by lack of economic support, love and affection.

Among the categories are: Children living and working on the streets, mostly boys between 12 and 18 years; children in formal prostitution and treated as adults; children between 15 and 18 years in seasonal prostitution, usually seeking to earn money to meet their "wants" as opposed to "basic needs".

Other categories identified are: "go-go-dancers", mostly between 13 and 18 years old; massage parlour workers, all females, usually with secondary education and aged between 15-18; so-called "sugar daddy" girls, some below 12 years, who were pressured into sexual relations with adult males and "chapses"---teenaged boys.