Child Trafficking

The worldwide trafficking of children for commercial sex and forced labor is rising rapidly, despite more than a century of laws, treaties and protocols banning the practice. Some 10 million children are trafficked each year, the majority of them girls forced into the underground sex trade. Poverty, natural disasters and now the COVID-19 pandemic have left destitute families and their children vulnerable to traffickers. The use of the internet to sell images of child sex abuse to pedophiles around the world has exploded. Law enforcement officials say they do not have the resources to stop the traffickers, who net some $150 billion a year — second in profit only to the drug trade. A new U.S. law enables states to prosecute internet platforms that knowingly facilitate such trafficking, but critics have challenged the law in court, arguing it restricts free speech. Some experts say the best way to defeat trafficking is to align government policy with a sweeping United Nations sustainable development agenda that will add untapped resources to the battle.