Child Trafficking is the recruitment, smuggling, transporting, harboring, buying or selling of a child through force, threats, fraud, deception, or coercion for the purposes of exploitation, prostitution, pornography, migrant work, sweat shops, domestic servitude, forced labor, bondage, peonage or involuntary servitude.
Trafficking children into the sex industry is done because there is a demand. Predators seek out vulnerable victims and lure them under false pretenses into situations they cannot escape from. No matter the reason, children have become sexual commodities to be bought and sold for the pleasure of exploiters. These children are scarred for life and need help – our help.
Take action by visiting Stop Child Trafficking Now.
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If you know of Human Trafficking Crimes in Your Area:
For questions, referrals, resources or to report a tip in your area, please contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or email us at NHTRC@PolarisProject.org.
Statistics:
- 300,000 children in the U.S. are at risk every year for commercial sexual exploitation. -U.S. Department of Justice
- 600,000 – 800,000 people are bought and sold across international borders each year; 50% are children, most are female. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade. – U.S. Department of State, 2004, Trafficking in Persons Report, Washington, D.C.
- An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year. The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry. – U.S Department of Justice Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons
- An estimated 2.5 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry – UNICEF
- The average age of an underage sex worker is 14 years old, but the FBI states children as young as 9 have been rescued. In the U.S., the average age of entry into sexual exploitation is 12 years old
