Do you know who are the biggest group of peadophiles in Thailand by far? - Thai men - Thai school teachers, Thai relatives & neighbors of the young victims, even the monks. The Thai newspapers like Thai Raht are full of stories of sex crimes against children. There are countless daily cases of Thai men having sexual relations with under-aged partners and the majority don't even get investigated. But if a foreigner is involved they are screaming blue murder. I'm not condoning anything here but let's just get the picture into perspective. Until the international community became outraged about the situation in the late 1980s the brothels of Thailand were stacked with under-aged sexual slaves captured from the Northern hills, and these places were not frequented by foreigners or tourists, they existed purely 100% for Thai men, who have a penchant for very young fair-skinned girls.
By the way, not all the "young Thai Lady" you see with foreign men are that young, many just look young due to small stature and teenage clothing. You will find that more are in their 30s and have 3 or 4 rugrats from previous Thai husbands.
And "prostituion in Thailand became more prevailent with the influx of American soldiers on leave,prior to this Thailand didn't have a sex industry" Not correct, prior to the VietNam War the Thais blamed the Japs in WWII for setting up the sex industry. I have no idea who they blamed prior to WWII.

__________________
The Truly Wise Man Never Plays Leapfrog With A Unicorn