Stakeholders in population and family planning are worried about increasing prostitution along coastal communities in the Central Region. Some children and parents are said to exchange sex for money and fish, a situation the experts say has dire consequences on the population, sexually transmitted diseases and standard of living. The stakeholders fear the region's population will explode if the practice is not checked. Joy News’ Central regional correspondent, Richard Kojo Nyarko, says children as young as 11 are engaged in the sex trade. “Some of these children are bread winners, and their parents demand money from them,” he said. He said the parents of such children appear unconcerned because they are also guilty of exchanging sex for fish. The Regional Population Officer Dramani Mahama said the practice is worrying and requires attention from all the stakeholders. He said the poverty situation in the coastal communities is a contributing factor. “Teenage pregnancy is very high in the Central Region, transactional sex in some communities especially Cape Coast and Elmina, which seems to be contributing factors to the high teenage child bearing in the Region.” He said in 2000 the population was 1.5 million, but according to the provisional result for the 2010 Census, the population now stands at 2.1 million. Play the attached audio for Richard Kojo Nyarko’s report