Culturally entrenched worldwide, child sexual abuse is an extremely complex problem and a broad cross-cultural perspective is needed to investigate what is actually occurring. Child sexual abuse is characterized by many variations, such as incest, child pornography, organized child sex rings, and child prostitution, and should be conceptualized collectively. For the United Nations and other children's defense organizations to remedy the global problem of child sexual abuse, addressing all nuances of child sexual abuse using a single conceptual framework is critical. The identification of all groups of vulnerable children is also important. The international commercialization of child prostitution through sexual tourism, in the wake of the HIV pandemic, and the more recent proliferation of highly explicit child pornography on the Internet clearly demonstrate these forms of child sexual abuse are significant. More research is needed on the dynamics of child prostitution and child pornography, especially with regard to the motivations and behaviors of pornography consumers and prostitution clients. 78 references