The US city of Atlanta, Georgia is emerging as a central hub in the child prostitution industry, according to Reuters.

More than 300,000 children are being sexually exploited in the United States, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania.

Many of them end up in Atlanta, which authorities say has become a hub for prostitution in part because its busy airport makes it a destination for men seeking sex.

Where in the past pimps advertised the girls who worked for them on the walls of men’s rest rooms or on street corners, these days they use online bulletin boards like craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org/).

Customers set up liaisons after seeing girls on the sites, and then pay the girl or the pimp directly on the street, according to the Atlanta Police Vice Department.