About Child Sex Trafficking
National Child Traumatic Stress Network
“Child Sex Trafficking is a severe form of child sexual abuse that is illegal in all 50 states. According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the sex trafficking of minors is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or solicitation of a person under the age of 18 for the purposes of a commercial sex act, defined as any sex act for which anything of value is given to or received by any person. In simple terms, it is the exchanging of something of value for sex with a child/minor. While proof of force, fraud, or coercion is required for adult sex trafficking victims, these elements are NOT required when the victim is a minor, nor is it a requirement that a 3rd party benefit from or facilitate the exchange. That is, the youth does not have to have an identified trafficker to be a victim of trafficking.”