OPINION:
At nearly 250 years old, our nation has had to confront a lot of challenges, one of which was slavery. Today’s slavery is one of the most brutal forms of abuse in the world: child sex trafficking.
In 2024, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received more than 27,800 reports of suspected child sex trafficking. Traffickers frequently target vulnerable youths, such as foster children, runaways and homeless minors. Some estimates suggest that 60% to 70% of trafficked children have been involved in the child welfare system.
Meaningful action requires honesty, especially about the money fueling this crisis and the powerful interests blocking reform.
Sex trafficking is profitable for traffickers, child pornographers, crime syndicates and even Big Tech.
Globally, human trafficking generates hundreds of billions of dollars each year, with commercial sexual exploitation accounting for most profits. Unlike those involved with drugs or weapons, human traffickers can exploit the same victim repeatedly, turning children into renewable commodities for criminal enterprises.
For a quarter of a century, the U.S. has been a global leader in fighting human trafficking. In December, Congress passed the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act to strengthen our efforts against trafficking. Yet human trafficking continues to thrive, and the sex trafficking of America’s children continues to be a growing scourge we must fight vigorously.
The financial reality explains why traffickers aggressively adapt to new technology and why the digital world — specifically, social media and gaming platforms — has become one of their most effective tools.
Big Tech platforms have made trafficking more efficient, scalable and anonymous. Predators can reach thousands of children instantly, groom them privately and move them into exploitation with little fear of detection. The result is a low-risk, high-reward business model that thrives online.
The widespread consumption of extreme violent pornography and child sexual abuse material drives the demand for sex trafficking, as victims are exploited to meet the insatiable market appetite of consumers who act out their fantasies on real victims. Images of the abuse reinforce the cycle, as traffickers and producers profit by cross-marketing pornography, child sexual abuse material and trafficked victims.
A Maryland man reportedly coerced more than 100 children worldwide, some as young as 5, to send him explicit videos through Snapchat, Instagram, Skype, Discord and even Roblox. A Rhode Island man was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of communicating with a minor female on several social media platforms, enticing her to send him photographs of herself and meeting with her to “engage in illicit sexual activity.”
In Southern California, 265 alleged child predators were arrested on charges of using online platforms to lure young victims. Stories of such crimes against children are reported daily.
The children whose sexual abuse is depicted suffer revictimization and trauma each time the image is viewed online. Lasting psychological damage — including disruptions in sexual development, self-image and relationship forming — may result.
Although the multibillion-dollar criminal enterprises making up the sex trafficking, child sexual abuse material and pornography industries reap massive profits, Big Tech spends hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress in an effort to protect itself. In 2023, Meta, TikTok, X, Snap and Discord spent a combined $30 million on lobbying to fight legislation aimed at holding them accountable for abuses on their platforms.
Major tech companies deploy armies of lobbyists to weaken, delay or kill bipartisan legislation aimed at strengthening online child safety, increasing platform accountability or limiting legal immunity when companies facilitate exploitation. When lawmakers attempt to close loopholes that traffickers exploit, Big Tech cries “free speech,” “innovation” or “unintended consequences.”
Parents are told to be vigilant. Children are told to be responsible. Meanwhile, the companies that design addictive platforms for children — and profit from keeping them online — spend more money lobbying Washington than many entire industries.
The U.S. is serious about protecting children in the evolving digital world, but it must push back against Big Tech’s lobbying machine, which puts massive profits over youth safety. Congress must pass legislative solutions such as the Kids Online Safety Act (the stronger Senate version), which requires social media companies to provide safeguards and enable, by default, the strongest safety settings.
Congress also must pass the Sunset Section 230 Act to repeal Big Tech’s liability shield.
Sex trafficking thrives on money, technology and silence. Big Tech has provided all three.
Our elected leaders can continue to shield powerful corporations, or they can confront a system that allows children to be bought and sold online. During Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the moral choice should be obvious.
• Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of Enough Is Enough, is an internationally known internet safety expert, author, speaker, media commentator, producer and host of the Emmy-winning PBS “Internet Safety 101” series. She is also the host of the podcast “Internet Safety, with Donna Rice Hughes.
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