American Children at Risk of Being Sold into the Commercial Sex Industry

It's a staggering statistic. 300,000 American children are at-risk of being sold into the commercial sex industry in the U.S. every year. Shared Hope International, a group leading the worldwide effort to stop sex trafficking, is making available a ground-breaking new video on the problem of child sex trafficking in the United States. The mission of Shared Hope International is "Leading a worldwide effort to eradicate the marketplaces of sexual slavery...one life at a time."

Apparently the sexual slavery marketplace is alive and well in the United States, however difficult that may be to believe in this day and age and in our free and democratic society. "The best data suggests that at least 100,000 American kids a year are victimized through the practice of child prostitution," Ernie Allen, President and CEO of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says. "These kids literally become 21st century slaves." Children are recruited and coerced into prostitution at an average age of 12 years old. Some victims of sex trafficking have reported to law enforcement that they were forced to service 10 to 15 buyers nightly.

Why do these sex traffickers prey on children? Linda Smith, founder and President of Shared Hope International says, ""To a trafficker, a child is low-risk, high-profit and easy to move about".

The video "Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: How to Identify America's Trafficked Youth" is based on extensive undercover research in a dark world where the most innocent are preyed upon by adult predators. The video includes surprising on-camera interviews with pimps and the survivors of sex trafficking. Interviews with members of law enforcement and social service providers give an in-depth look at the war being waged against domestic minor sex trafficking. The content is definitely unsettling, but the video's in-depth look at the "buying and selling of America's children" may well help law enforcement and others put an end to the sexual slavery of minor children in the United States.

What constitutes sexual slavery in the United States? It's very well-defined with no gray areas per the 2005 Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The TVPA identifies all minors under the age of 18 and who are participating in commercial sex acts like prostitution and pornography to be sex trafficking victims. Shared Hope International partners with the U.S. Department of Justice and ten newly funded Human Trafficking Task Forces nationwide to fight the illegal sex trafficking of children and save them from the degradation of being used in prostitution and pornography.

To combat sex trafficking of minors, Shared Hope International is making their new video and other educational materials available to first responders including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) task forces as well as social service providers and juvenile justice facilities.

Shared Hope International's goal in distributing the video on the sex trafficking of minors and other educational materials is to provide information and enhance knowledge of the first responders. Shared Hope International hopes to provide "a baseline understanding of domestic minor sex trafficking, redefine 'child prostitutes' as trafficking victims, improve prosecution of traffickers, and increase victim identification and access to protective and restorative services".

Learn more about Shared Hope International and download these materials at www.sharedhope.org.

Shared Hope International Launches Public Awareness Effort to Combat Sex Trafficking of Minors in America: Ground-Breaking New Video and Educational Materials Available, Christian NewsWire, July 19, 2007, http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/36493694.html