Human Trafficking – Minors

According to Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2020), labor trafficking occurs when a person knowingly recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means, including, but not limited to, through the use of force, abduction, coercion, fraud, deception, blackmail, or causing or threatening to cause financial harm, another person for forced labor or services. A person also commits trafficking of persons if he or she benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in such activities.

Federal and most State definitions of labor trafficking do not distinguish between minors and adults, so some element of force, fraud, coercion, or deception must be present for children to be defined as victims of labor trafficking.

Signs of child labor trafficking are not as visible or obvious as those of other types of human trafficking, so we must have our eyes and ears open in order to detect it happening, As with any other type of human trafficking, please report any suspicion you may have about a child being forced to work involuntarily.

Child labor trafficking may include situations where youth are compelled to work in agriculture, restaurants, family businesses, or to sell products through traveling sales crews.

Many States have expanded their civil child protection definitions to include trafficking of children. The inclusion of trafficking within the definitions enables child protective agencies to respond to reports of trafficking as child abuse—regardless of whether the perpetrator of the trafficking is a parent or other caregiver—and to provide services to victims of trafficking. In approximately 20 States, the crime of human trafficking, including labor trafficking, involuntary servitude, or trafficking of minors, is included in the definition of physical child abuse.

Sex trafficking

Sex trafficking of a minor is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (22 USC § 7102).

All States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands have laws prohibiting trafficking of persons for the purpose of commercial sexual activity. The term “sex trafficking” refers to criminal activity whereby one or more persons are subjected to engaging in commercial sexual activity through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, except that if the trafficked person is younger than age 18, the commercial sexual activity need not involve force, fraud, or coercion. In fact, according to the Federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, any child younger than age 18 who is induced to engage in commercial sexual activity is a victim of sex trafficking.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Child Sex Trafficking is prohibited by 18 U.S.C. § 1591 called “Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion.” This statute makes it a federal offense to knowingly recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, or maintain a minor (defined as someone under 18 years of age) knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the victim is a minor and would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act. Section 1591 applies equally to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals.

In addition, 18 U.S.C. §§ 2421 – 2423 make it a crime to transport an individual or a minor across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or any other illegal sexual activity, and Section 2422(b) makes it a federal crime for an adult to use the mail, a chat room, email, or text messages to persuade a child to meet him or her to engage that child in prostitution or other illegal sexual activity. Finally, 18 U.S.C § 2425 makes it illegal for any person to use the mail, telephones, or the Internet, to knowingly transmit the name, address, telephone number, social security number, or email address of a child under the age of 16 with intent to entice, encourage, offer, or solicit any person to engage in criminal sexual activity.

You may be able to help a child escape the atrocities of minor humand trafficking for sex, by staying alert and keeping in mind the following red flags, as well as following the indications to report it.

The office of the Attorney General of Texas provides the following list of red flags for sex trafficking:

Person seems overly fearful, submissive, tense, or paranoid.
Person is deferring to another person before giving information.
Person has physical injuries or branding such as name tattoos on face or chest, tattoos about money and sex, or pimp phrases.
Clothing is inappropriately sexual or inappropriate for weather.
Minor is unaccompanied at night or falters in giving an explanation of who they are with and what they are doing.
Identification documents are held by another.
Person works long or excessive hours or is always available “on demand.”
Overly sexual for age or situation.
Multiple phones or social media accounts.
Signs of unusual wealth without explanation—new jewelry, shoes, phones without any known form of income.
Person lives in a “massage” business or is not free to come and go.

Remember, for your own and the victim’s safety, once it is safe for you to do so, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH), call 1-888-373-7888 or text HELP or INFO to BeFree (233733), a national, toll-free hotline available to answer calls from anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. The NHTH is not a law enforcement or immigration authority and is operated by a nongovernmental organization funded by the Federal government.

By identifying victims and reporting tips, you are doing your part to help law enforcement rescue victims, and you might save a life.