We Must End Sex Trafficking in the United States

By Congressman Leonard Lance

Human trafficking – especially sex trafficking – is the ultimate violation of human rights and akin to modern day slavery.  The International Labor Organization estimates that there are nearly 21 million victims of human trafficking around the world – and it is a $150 billion industry worldwide.

Here in the United States more than 105,000 children in America are victims of sex trafficking.  Seventy-perfect of these American victims were traded, bought, sold and advertised online.

Unfortunately, the Internet has provided predators with the heinous tools to advertise and solicit sex trafficking causing this horrific practice to spread like a cancer across our country and in our communities.  The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported an 846 percent increase in reports of child sex trafficking to its “CyberTipline” from 2010 to 2015.  The center found this increase to be, “directly correlated to the increased use of the internet to sell children for sex.”

We must put an end to online sex trafficking in the United States and help victims seeking justice.

To this end, the House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 1864, the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA).”  This important measure enhances criminal penalties for websites that facilitate illegal prostitution or sex trafficking to help law enforcement and victims’ families shut down these online marketplaces and hold their enablers accountable.

This House-passed legislation will help bring an end to the scourge of sex trafficking that too freely operates in the darkest corners of the Internet.  And this Congress will continue the long fight to end human trafficking and support the victims of this monstrous crime and their families.

I urge my Senate colleagues to act swiftly so we can provide justice for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been impacted by sex trafficking.