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Child trafficking is a crime – and represents the tragic end of childhood

Child trafficking refers to the exploitation of girls and boys, primarily for forced labor and sexual exploitation. Children account for 27% of all the human trafficking victims worldwide, and two out of every three child victims are girls. Sometimes sold by a family member or an acquaintance, sometimes lured by false promises of education and a "better" life — the reality is that these trafficked and exploited children are held in slave-like conditions without enough food, shelter or clothing, and are often severely abused and cut off from all contact with their families.

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 The Misconceptions of Child Trafficking

Child trafficking includes both sex trafficking and forced labor and frequently occurs around the world in sectors such as agriculture, domestic work, construction, fishing, manufacturing, and in competitive sports. In addition, children have been forced to work in begging/peddling, street vending, door-to-door sales, and forced criminality, including drug trafficking. Child trafficking can also include some forms of child marriage, child soldiering, and be present in illegal adoptions for the purpose of exploitation. Of course, children are also exploited in sex trafficking.

Articles of Interest

Child Trafficking – Every 2 Minutes a Child is Sold

Every 2 minutes a child is sold into trafficking. 4.8 Million people are victims of sex trafficking today. 300,000 American children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation each year. The Average age of entry into the commercial sex market is 12 years old. The average victim is held captive for 23.4 months before escaping, dying, or being set free. In the U.S., 1 in 6 reported endangered runaways are believed to be victims of child sex trafficking.

Child Trafficking: Myth vs. Fact

Boys and men are just as likely to be victims of human trafficking as girls and women. However, they are less likely to be identified and reported. Girls and boys are often subject to different types of trafficking, for instance, girls may be trafficked for forced marriage and sexual exploitation, while boys may be trafficked for forced labor or recruitment into armed groups.

Explainer: Understanding Child Trafficking

Child trafficking thrives in environments of family dysfunction, lack of parental care, poverty, inequality and inadequate child protection. Traffickers often target children from extremely poor households or those who have been abandoned. Conflict, economic challenges and environmental disasters make children, especially unaccompanied and separated migrant children, increasingly vulnerable to trafficking. While many traffickers have obvious criminal backgrounds, others include business owners, intimate partners and even family members.

How trafficked children are being hidden behind a focus on modern slavery

Child trafficking is not a migration or immigration issue – and the motive for dealing with it should not be economic or prosecution focused. Children need help from adults to stop abuse and exploitation. Their protection should be the priority above all other matters.

I Was Trafficked as a Teen. Here’s What I Want People to Understand

When I talk about being trafficked as a teenager, people ask two questions: How did it happen, and how did nobody know it happened? For most of my life, these conversations happened with the few friends, and then recently it happened more frequently after the release of my novel, The Lookback Window, which is about recovering from sex trafficking and pursuing justice in the wake of New York’s Child Victims Act. Sex trafficking isn’t dinner conversation, and the instances where it makes the news often revolve around paranoid fantasies of the alt-right.

Know the signs of child labor trafficking and child sex trafficking

Child trafficking, which includes child labor trafficking and child sex trafficking, is child abuse, and all children, regardless of their age, race, gender, socioeconomic background, nationality or place of birth can be vulnerable. Children can be paid the least, exploited the most, and, because of their legal incapacity and invisibility as minors, often have no access to resources. Red flags and indicators of child sex and labor trafficking can overlap and identifying instances of trafficking can be complicated...

Misperceptions Can Make It Harder to Prevent Child Trafficking and Help Survivors

Child trafficking is a horrific crime. Traffickers can target children due to their age and vulnerability and exploit them sexually, force them to work, or both. Some may think of child trafficking as situations involving strangers kidnapping children off the street. But trafficking happens in many different places, by many different means. For example, traffickers often connect with kids online. Children may also be trafficked in their homes or by trusted adults, including family members or caregivers.

One Woman’s Journey to Save Child Slaves

Former child prostitute Somaly Mam has made it her mission to rescue victims of sex slavery throughout the world

Sound of Freedom: Join the Fight Against Child Trafficking

If you’ve seen Sound of Freedom, you’re probably wondering: How can I join the fight to end child trafficking? Just as Tim Ballard—the man who inspired the film—passed the baton to Sound of Freedom filmmaker Alejandro Monteverde, and Monteverde passed the baton to Angel Studios, we are now passing the baton to YOU. Watching Sound of Freedom the film is the first step in spreading awareness about child trafficking. What you do next is up to you.

The Forgotten Children Born Of Human Trafficking

Human trafficking leaves scars not only on its direct victims but also on the children born from exploitation. Around the world, thousands of children are conceived through forced sexual encounters between trafficking victims and buyers. Many of these children end up in orphanages, caught in a cycle of stigma, abandonment, and vulnerability.

The Prevalence of Sex Trafficking of Children and Adolescents in the United States: A Scoping Review

Little research has estimated the prevalence of minor sex trafficking in the United States. The existing studies examine different areas and populations and use different categories to estimate the problem. The estimates reviewed here should be cited cautiously. Future research is needed on this important topic, including methodologies to produce more representative estimates of this hard-to-reach population.

This Anti-Trafficking Group Uses Art and Fashion to Take Down Child Slavery

“Raising awareness” is a slippery phrase. It can connote empty shows of solidarity rather than actual work, like performatively changing a profile pic after a tragedy. There’s a good amount of reasonable critique to the effect that, say, breast cancer does not benefit from all this extra awareness, at least in the absence of any accompanying action. People know about breast cancer. But slavery, for those fortunate enough to have no experience of it, is often something people associate with the past.

We hope this story horrifies you

‘Stolen Lives’ is National Geographic’s investigation of a human rights tragedy: the sexual enslavement of children for profit in India and Bangladesh. A multibillion-dollar industry, sex trafficking of minors spans the globe and ensnares millions of children—most fleeing grinding poverty, illiteracy, and an utter lack of opportunity. Most of its victims are girls.

What is needed to combat child trafficking?

Child trafficking remains a grave and pervasive issue worldwide, impacting children from diverse backgrounds and regions. No age, gender, or nationality is immune to this exploitative crime. This underscores the urgent need for tailored interventions and comprehensive protection strategies for child victims of trafficking.

Why child trafficking spikes after natural disasters – and what we can do about it

It’s easy to see how a natural disaster can amplify the conditions that enable and attract traffickers. The immediate disruption of state and civil society institutions, particularly schools, means the usual child protection systems aren’t in place. Regulatory mechanisms and border controls are also in chaos. Under the cover of rescue efforts, traffickers (often women) can pose as religious leaders, relief workers or representatives of government-accredited employment agencies promising jobs. Sometimes these tricks are mere opportunism, but sometimes they are the well-organised work of national and transnational criminal groups.

Resources

Children of the Night

Children of the Night is a privately funded non-profit organization established in 1979 with the specific purpose to provide intervention in the lives of children who are sexually exploited and vulnerable to or involved in prostitution and pornography.

Emmaus

EMMAUS is a Christian non-profit working to prevent exploitation and empower male survivors of the sex trade to rebuild their lives.

Forgotten Children Worldwide

Although millions of children worldwide are vulnerable to extreme poverty and human trafficking, we are encouraged. Thanks to our generous partners and sponsors, together we can bring hope and transformation so they have a chance for a meaningful & self-sufficient future.

Freedom 4/24

Freedom 4/24 exists to prevent human trafficking and exploitation, pursuing protection, dignity, and restoration for individuals and communities.

Love146

Love146’s vision is the end of child trafficking and exploitation. Nothing less. We believe this is only possible through a bold, broad vision that cannot be achieved by only one person, organization, perspective, or approach. The movement of people who agree that no child should be trafficked encompasses a broad base of stakeholders and supporters — people who disagree about a myriad of issues, but who all share the vision of the end of child trafficking.

Our Rescue

We are on a mission to end sex trafficking and child exploitation while empowering survivors to reclaim their lives.

Project Protect Our Children

Project Protect Our Children is the nation’s first nonprofit to organize middle and high school student clubs that Engage, Educate, and Empower the very youth traffickers target. Our free training and education materials provide students, educators, parents, and employers what they need to prevent child trafficking before it happens.

Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT)

We protect every child’s right to grow up free from child sexual exploitation and trafficking through education, legislative advocacy and partnerships.

Safe House Project

Safe House Project is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to combatting human trafficking. Our mission is to raise the identification rate of survivors beyond one percent through education, provide emergency services to survivors, and ensure that every survivor has access to safe housing and holistic care.

Street Grace

Pioneering solutions to disrupt and prevent the sexual exploitation of children

The Exodus Road

We have a vision for a world where no human is bought, sold, or exploited We partner with law enforcement to find and free trafficked people, train and educate officers and everyday citizens to protect their communities, and empower survivors with restorative care on their journey into freedom.

Tim Tebow Foundation

We won’t gain ground on the fight against the exploitation of children or human trafficking until they know there is an army of people standing against them.

Thorn

Child sexual abuse is a global public health crisis. But it doesn’t have to be. Thorn is on a mission to create a world where every child can simply be a kid.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. NCMEC works with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement, and the public to assist with preventing child abductions, recovering missing children, and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitation.