Child Sex Trafficking is Happening Before Your Eyes
Be Part of the Solution.
Recognize the tactics and report traffickers.
Children's lives depend on it.
Any child can become a victim of sex trafficking. Potential victims can be saved by members of the community who recognize the warning signs and report.
You will be guided towards concrete solutions that members of the community can take part in–to help combat child sex trafficking.
Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar business. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (“NCMEC”), 1 in 7 missing children in the U.S. are likely a victim of sex trafficking. Also, NCMEC reports that the average age of the victims in their 2025 cases dealing with sex trafficking is between 12 and 14 years old–meaning middle school-aged children. And disturbingly, but important to know, “in 2025, NCMEC received more than 113,500 reports of possible child sex trafficking, a 323% increase from 2024.” For more information, click here.
“Human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise, valued to be an estimate $32 billion-a year global industry. … Sex trafficking can and does take place in EVERY COMMUNITY, no matter the cultural make up, the affluence, or the location of a community.”
United States Attorney’s Office – District of Rhode Island
To end the sale of children, community members need to partner with law enforcement through vigilance & reporting.
WHAT IS CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING?
Under U.S. Code §1591, any person under the age of 18 who engages in commercial sex is considered a victim of trafficking.
Federal law prohibits sex trafficking of a child (meaning, any individual under the age of 18)—which covers:
Enticing, recruiting, harboring (providing shelter), advertising, patronizing, transporting, providing, obtaining, maintaining, or soliciting by any means to cause a minor to engage in a commercial sex act or benefiting (financially or by receiving anything of value) from participating in the actions listed, regardless of whether coercion, means of force, threats of force, fraud, or a combination was used to have caused a minor or will cause a minor to engage in a commercial sex act. 18. U.S. Code §1591.
- Commercial Sex Act: “ANY SEX ACT on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person.” 18 U.S.C. §1591(e)(3).
- Receiving Anything of Value: Under case law, it has been established that “‘the thing of value’ need not have a monetary or financial component.” United States v. Raniere, 55 F.4th 354, 362 (2d Cir 2022). Therefore, a sexual/nude picture or video of a minor can constitute “the thing of value” as well as intangible things that have subjective value to the person receiving it.
Reporting may be done anonymously.
National Human Trafficking Hotline (24-hours a day): Call 888-373-7888 or text 233733
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (24 hours a day): Call 1-800-843-5678
If you see an inappropriate conversation online involving a minor, report it.
Minors cannot legally consent to engage in sex trafficking,
regardless of what they have done or said.
Remember, the victim might be threatened into denying the abuse.
WAYS TO REPORT & AVAILABLE HELP
If you think a child is in immediate danger, or you work in a hotel/motel and suspect a crime will be committed against a child, CALL 911.
To be guided by experts or to report pieces of information, contact:
Hear from the survivors themselves speak about how they were children who were surrounded by people– teachers, coaches, and other students– yet no one cared enough to persist in offering help, even though the signs were there. https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2024/child-sex-trafficking-know-the-signs
Save the numbers. Report. Save a life.
According to the Department of Homeland Security’s “Blue Campaign: One Voice. One Mission. End Human Trafficking,” one should ask the following questions to be able to identify and report human trafficking:
- Does the minor appear disconnected from family, friends, community, or houses of worship?
- Does the minor show sudden or dramatic changes in behavior, such as unexplained absences from school, a drop in school performance, or lack of interest in age-appropriate activities?
- Does the person suddenly have more material possessions (e.g., jewelry, purses, clothing, cell phones, or large sums of cash)?
- Has the minor run away from home or lack stable housing?
- Is a juvenile engaged in commercial sex acts?
- Is the person disoriented or confused, or showing signs of mental or physical abuse (e.g., bruises)?
- Does the minor have bruises in various stages of healing?
- Does the minor show signs of having been denied food, water, sleep or medical care?
- Is the minor often in the company of someone who seems to be in control of the situation, e.g., where they go or who they talk to?
- Does the minor appear to be coached on what to say?
- Does the minor act fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or nervous/paranoid, or dissociated/”checked out”?
- Does the minor have tattoos or scars that would indicate branding by a trafficker?
- Does the minor have a “romantic partner” who is noticeably older?
- Does the minor seem to engage in high-risk behaviors even at the apparent expense of safety and or consequences?
- Does the minor seem restricted from contacting their family, legal guardian, or friends?
- Has the minor stopped attending or showing interest in the youth activities or extracurriculars they normally attended?
- Has the minor stopped showing interest in future plans (e.g., no longer having a desire to attend college)?
- Does the minor claim to be completely financially covered and independent at a young age?
- Does the minor appear not to have the freedom to quit their job?
For more information from DHS about the ins and outs of human trafficking, click here.
WAYS TRAFFICKERS GET TO CHILDREN
VIDEO GAMES & SOCIAL MEDIA APPS
Traffickers have easy access to children through VIDEO GAMES and SOCIAL MEDIA APPS.
Take a look at the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Blue Campaign videos, called Carter’s Story, highlighting how a middle-school boy in a two-parent household with apparent stability can go from innocently playing video games to becoming a victim of sex trafficking.
- To view Carter’s Story–Part I, click here.
- To view Cater’s Story–Part II, click here.
- FBI warns parents about child predators using video games in a KAT3 top news report: To view, click here.
Problem:
Traffickers are using video games, social media apps, and any online chat opportunity as well as taking advantage of the lack of surveillance (in the name of “privacy”) by those responsible for minors, to groom and extract information from children.
Traffickers coerce children online into thinking they are “a friend who listens.” The information the child gives them about their school, other locations, fights with parents, and eventually indecent pictures is all gathered to be used against the child at some point through blackmail or threats of violence to the child’s family members in exchange for sexual acts, including more intimate photos.
Take a look at the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign videos, called Mia’s Story, showing how an American teenager can get trapped in sex trafficking after engaging in an interaction she thought was “innocent” and “genuine” through a social media app. The animation videos also address the common misconceptions about child sex trafficking.
- To view Mia’s Story–Part I, click here.
- To view Mia’s Story (The Teacher)–Part II, click here.
- To view Mia’s Story (The Parent)–Part III, click here.
- To view Mia’s Story (The Friends)–Part IV, click here.
Minors using social media become targets of traffickers who pretend to be romantically interested in them, with the ultimate goal of using them for sex commerce. These traffickers, who pretend to be potential romantic partners, are called “Romeos” or “Lover Boy Traffickers.”
The dangers of online chatting with strangers are highlighted in a FRONTLINE PBS documentary that shows the investigation into the abduction of an American teenager named Kat, who was sex trafficked by a man she met online. To view the documentary, click here.
Potential Solutions:
- Becoming attentive to the activities a child engages in, online or through video games.
- Installing parental control software to monitor and log activities of phones (app usage, location tracking, web browsing, and call/text logs).
- Beware of features on smartphones that allow hiding apps. For example, some smartphones have a hide apps option, and unless the child’s parent specifically clicks on “show hidden apps,” the prohibited/hidden apps on the child’s phone will not show.
- Beware of minors using vault apps to hide apps. These vault apps hide pictures, conversations, and unauthorized social media apps. Check for duplicate apps installed on the child’s phone, e.g., two calculator apps. A parent or guardian can go to the App Store of the minor’s phone and type “hide photos,” “vault app,” or “secret app.” When you do that search, if you see a button labeled “open” next to a specific app, then that means the minor already has the app. If you tap on the button “open,” it will take you to the app itself.
- Beware of the company of minors, since their “acquaintances/friends” can encourage interactions with dangerous people or grant them access to the technology/apps their parents/guardians have prohibited. This scenario is highlighted in the story of Mary McDowell, a survivor of child sex trafficking, who shares how a combination of a lack of parental surveillance and the bad influence of a “friend” led her to trust and communicate with someone who would later become her trafficker. To view her story, click here.
- Educate minors on (1) the common tactics of traffickers so they recognize what is happening when they become a target, (2) the available help, such as NCMEC and the National Human Trafficking Hotline, and (3) the lies traffickers tell child victims, such as getting in trouble for “consenting” to engage in sexual acts, when in reality the law addresses this problem by highlighting that minors cannot legally consent to engage in a commercial sex act. Minors might be more forthcoming about disclosing abuse if they understand that the law protects them and addresses psychological coercion. Trying to prevent a picture or embarrassing information from being shared, preventing potential physical or economic harm to family members, or protecting a sibling from sexual abuse—are just some of the ways psychological coercion is used against children who seem to the community to be “free from harm” and “safe.” To see these scenarios play out, watch this under four-minute video from the Blue Campaign of DHS. To view the video, click here.
- Be a safe adult the child can confide in—whether they are experiencing abuse, facing threats, or are aware of minors being harmed. As a trusted adult, you can help protect a child by reporting the information you receive to the appropriate authorities.
- Become informed and inform others about the common signs of a child victim: unexplained large amounts of cash, prepaid cards, hotel keys, multiple cell phones, the child is not in possession of his or her ID, signs of having a coached response to your questions, tattoos or branding the child does not want to speak about, children who abruptly disconnect from their family and friends, many unexplained school absences, or have a close association with an overly controlling adult. For more information, click here to watch the “Child Sex Trafficking Indicators” video by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
or texting 233733.
FAMILIAL SEX TRAFFICKING
Although it’s important to make minors aware of the danger of a stranger approaching them, children are more likely to be trafficked by someone they trust than by strangers.
The video by The Office of the Attorney General of Texas, titled Be the One in the Fight Against Human Trafficking, showcases the many different ways human sex trafficking occurs in the United States, including the following real-life stories:
- a high school student from an upper-middle-class neighborhood who was saved from familial sex trafficking because of an administrator’s reporting
- the grooming of a 12-year-old girl into prostitution by a 33-year-old woman who was running a brothel in a quiet neighborhood—and to whom the child was introduced by her mother
- the story of a woman who was sold at the age of 13 to her trafficker by her mother and, after ten years, was rescued by her caring neighbor who insisted on offering help
- some of the tactics teens use to hide social media apps in their phones
To get informed about what’s happening in the U.S. and view the video, click here.
Many traffickers get away with continuing the abuse because people in the community do not reach out to the victim or give up after offering help a couple of times.
Children as young as kindergarten age are trafficked by their own family members.
According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2021 fact sheet named “Navigating the Unique Complexities in Familial Trafficking,” by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, “… familial trafficking, which is unique and just beginning to be understood in the field, is difficult to identify because it takes place within family networks and victimizes children, many of whom are under 12 years of age, who may not realize they are victims. Because of this, the indicators for familial trafficking are different than indicators for other types of trafficking. In these cases, the trafficker may begin grooming the victim at an early age, using their close proximity to take advantage of the child’s developmental stage and inability to verbally express concerns or safety issues. One study estimates that the trafficker is a family member in about 31 percent of child sex trafficking cases. In these cases, the child’s inherent loyalty to and reliance on the family structure make familial trafficking difficult to identify and challenging to prosecute.”
As Jennisue Jessen, a survivor of familial trafficking by her grandfather, discloses in the informational video by the U.S. Department of Education called “Session 1: What Schools Can Look For and Need to Know About Human Trafficking,” people unsuspected her trafficker/grandfather could be abusive because she came from a middle-class, well-respected family in her community. Her testimony highlights the importance of erasing the myths we have about sex trafficking because they can make community members miss signs of child trafficking. In her situation, the adults in Jennisue’s life, such as her teachers, overlooked that it was uncommon for such a young girl in her community to have a diamond ring and fur coats. Jennisue explains the importance of building dialogue and connection with a child who is potentially a victim of trafficking because it gives the child the opportunity to disclose private information to a trusted adult. Through reporting, experts in trafficking would have been able to analyze her case, investigate whether she was a child-victim of trafficking, and potentially offer her help. Click here to see the video and Jennisue’s testimony at 20:30.
Most traffickers happen to be people the child victim knows, making it more difficult for the child to believe people will come to their rescue or have good intent when asking questions. They have been coached to lie or be punished through rape, physical beatings, or have their own family members suffer the consequences of not obeying.
DHS’s Blue Campaign video, “Familial Trafficking May be Happening Right Outside Your Door: Full PSA,” demonstrates how an athletic teenage boy from a “safe neighborhood” could be trafficked by a family member. To access the video, click here.
Be especially alert during the FIFA World Cup season, since many children could be sold by family members to incoming tourists. The danger of men and women traffickers, including familial traffickers, is discussed in a KHOU11 2026 news report. The report includes the testimony of a survivor of familial child sex trafficking at the age of 10. To view the KHOU11 human trafficking warning report and Houston’s mayor’s 2026 message to traffickers, click here.
Student Recruiters
DHS: “Teachers, coaches, and other school staff must always be vigilant of any suspicious activities they may see at their schools, including those from both students and other adults. Peer-to-peer recruitment is just one example. This is when traffickers coerce or force their victims or other students into recruiting their peers with potential promises of payment or reward (i.e., a ‘finder’s fee’), better status or position, or less abuse and better treatment.” Blue Campaign’s 2025 Human Trafficking Response Guide for School Resource Officers, p. 5.
Student-recruiters could also be working with adult traffickers as members of a criminal association to lure future sex trafficking victims by pretending to be their “friends” or potential “romantic partners.” These “Romeos” use many tactics, but a common one is to use explicit pictures of the victim against them for exploitation.
If you are a minor and just realized that your friend is likely a victim of sex trafficking, report the abuse to a trusted adult and contact the professionals ready to help at the National Human Trafficking Hotline:
Call 888-373-7888 or text 233733 to report (anonymously, if preferred) and speak with experts who can guide you through the process.
WAYS TO HELP VICTIMS AND COMBAT CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING
- Educate minors and adults on trafficking tactics and indicators: Keep the community alert by combating the assumption that children who live in “safe neighborhoods” could not be victims of sex trafficking, especially by a family member.
- Make yourself an available and safe adult that a child can come to and disclose if they have ever been hurt by someone. Let the child know that you want to help. Due to psychological and age factors, the child might have a bond with the abuser. It’s important to be careful with words so that the abused child feels comfortable disclosing information, which can then be relayed to law enforcement.
- Beware and make others in the community aware that many traffickers know the child victim and their family, often portraying themselves as harmless and trustworthy members of the community. They may later introduce sexual topics to the child, which can progress to sexual contact or explicit photography.
- Beware of excessive traffic going to a private residence. It could be a sign of trafficking, as shown in the PSA and training video “Be the One in the Fight Against Human Trafficking,” produced by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. To view it, click here.
- Truckers or anyone frequenting truck stops could be of great help. Take a look at the Department of Homeland Security’s “Human Trafficking Truck Stop Animated Video“ to see how community members can be heroes for children who are trafficked by reporting the signs/indicators. Click the embedded link in the title to watch it.
- Be watchful in hotels and motels: some hotel/motel staff partake in these horrible crimes. As a member of the community, you can help end sex trafficking of children by refusing to stay in hotels that do not (1) require annual training for their staff on the red flags of human trafficking or (2) have a system in place for staff to report suspected human trafficking.
- You can help law enforcement by downloading the TraffickCam app, which was created to aid law enforcement in tracking the places where sex-trafficked children have been advertised. The only thing you need to do is take detailed pictures of all the hotel rooms you use when you travel. Your personal information is not requested, only pictures and details of the hotel and room. These pictures are shared with law enforcement, who may then compare them with images connected to missing children and trafficking investigations. Detailed pictures of the walls, floors, lamps, pillows, and other identifiable items of the room may assist professionals in locating children, aid with prosecutorial evidence, and highlight the location of a crime. And yes, traffickers do use the expensive hotels you would not imagine are involved. Click here, to watch this important Alliance to End Human Trafficking YouTube video featuring Kimberly Ritter, one of the individuals involved in the creation of TraffickCam, giving testimony about her experience bringing up this crime to hotels, as well as the value of community unity against human trafficking.
- Try to encourage the hotels/motels in your city to have a local law enforcement contact who specifically focuses on human trafficking, whom the hotel staff may reach out to and report indicators.
- As highlighted in the Alliance to End Human Trafficking YouTube video featuring Kimberly Ritter, this pivotal technology, TraffickCam, was created after community members—such as the Catholic Religious Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston—refused to spend their money at any hotel that would not support efforts to end sex trafficking. After the Sisters made Kimberly Ritter aware of this horrific crime happening in the United States, her team became more involved in encouraging hotels to sign and implement the Tourism Child Protection Code of Conduct (“The Code”), from the then-named ECPAT-USA, now known as PACT (Protect All Children from Trafficking). This initiative ensured that hotel staff received training on the red flags of sex trafficking, which later led to the right people coming together to create a technological weapon, a.k.a. TraffickCam, to combat human trafficking with the help of travelers. One righteous act can encourage others to become a helping hand, as shown by the stance of the Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston.
- To download the TraffickCam app, click here.
- To view the Alliance to End Human Trafficking video featuring Kimberly Ritter, in which she explains her work with hotels and getting them on board to train their staff on the sex trafficking indicators, the obstacles, and how the idea of the TraffickCam app came together, click here.
- To go to PACT’s website and learn about The Code, click here. Encourage the hotels you visit to sign The Code and train their staff.
- To watch the awareness campaign video of child sex trafficking in hotels called “#DoesYourHotelKnow?” by PACT, click here.
Make a difference in your community!
Be that concerned citizen who becomes a hero by contacting the managers of every hotel in your city to make sure that their staff: (1) receive annual training on the red flags of child sex trafficking, and (2) have a system in place for reporting patrons/customers or other staff potentially involved in this crime.
8. As members of the community, we are not requested to play cop, judge, and jury. However, we have the option to be a helping hand to a potential victim by: a) staying alert to drastic changes in the behavior of the children we encounter, b) reporting the signs/indicators that seem concerning and allowing law enforcement to do their job, c) informing minors of the available help and what trafficking looks like, and d) keeping in mind, when trying to offer help, that the victim might not want to get the trafficker in trouble, especially if he or she is a family member.
9. Get informed and become part of changing the foster care system in the USA so that traffickers are not able to use its weaknesses against vulnerable children.
PROBLEM: CHILDREN IN THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM BECOME EASY TARGETS FOR TRAFFICKERS BECAUSE FOSTER PARENTS DO NOT FACE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES FOR NOT REPORTING A MISSING CHILD, AND THEREFORE THEY CONTINUE NOT TO REPORT MISSING CHILDREN, PREVENTING LAW ENFORCEMENT FROM BEING ABLE TO HELP THESE AMERICAN CHILDREN.
Under the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (2014), federal law requires state child welfare agencies to implement protocols for reporting missing children in the foster care system.
“The State shall develop and implement protocols for— (i) expeditiously locating any child missing from foster care; (ii) determining the primary factors that contributed to the child’s running away or otherwise being absent from care, and to the extent possible and appropriate, responding to those factors in current and subsequent placements; (iii) determining the child’s experiences while absent from care, including screening the child to determine if the child is a POSSIBLE SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIM …” 42 U.S.C. §671(a)(35).
The Department of Health and Human Services–Office of Inspector General states in their 2023 report, State Agencies Did Not Always Ensure that Children Missing from Foster Care were Reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Accordance with Federal Requirements:
“These children who go missing from their approved placements are at higher risk of experiencing harm, substance use, and trafficking.” (p.3).
According to their report, an estimated 47% of children who go missing from foster care, totaling over 34,000 cases in their 18-month audit, are never reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Id. at 5. Furthermore, 22% of these cases are reported late, often due to inadequate state agency systems for tracking and reporting promptly, which places children at higher risk of harm. Id.
The problem is that even if states improve their systems for reporting missing children in the foster care system, foster parents do not face legal consequences for failing to report, thereby lacking the incentive to do so.
As important as it is to require state agencies to report a missing child, that requirement is ineffective if the missing child is not reported by foster parents.
Law enforcement cannot use its resources to help a child who has been kidnapped and trapped by force, threats, or psychological coercion if they do not know the child is in danger.
Many dangerous situations occur to children in the care of the state when foster parents do not report missing children to the state:
- law enforcement cannot use its resources to find the child;
- with time, potential evidence of a crime starts fading away;
- the child cannot be protected from sex trafficking or any other type of abuse; and
- law enforcement cannot properly evaluate the reason the child keeps running away, such as potential abuse by the foster parents or their family members.
Failing to report a missing child is an act of egregious neglect by foster parents that warrants criminal liability, especially given the consequences for a vulnerable minor.
Since traffickers exploit loopholes in the system that facilitate the abuse of children—such as failures in reporting and the absence of legal consequences for foster parents—children in the foster care system will likely remain targets for sexual exploitation until the gaps in the system are closed.
Law enforcement and judges are restricted by current statutes, but legislators can enact or amend laws to better protect the vulnerable American children in the care of the state.
You can help change the foster care system into a safer environment for children by letting legislators, as in your representatives, know that this issue matters to you and you want them to make it a priority.
If the community does not become a voice for these children, who will?
Take a look at this KHOU11 video reporting on the valuable advocacy work any community member can do on behalf of human trafficking victims. To view it, click here. Contact your elected officials; be part of the change.
10. Advocate for changes in problematic and ineffective police protocol: Take a look at how ineffective police tactics and advice to parents can make it easier for traffickers to use, abuse, and sell American teenagers for commercial sex acts without immediate consequences. CBS News–Texas highlights this systemic flaw by showcasing the case of an American 15-year-old girl named Natalee, who became a victim of child sex trafficking after going to a basketball game with her dad at the American Airlines Center (“Center”) in Dallas, Texas. In the news report, Natalee’s dad discloses that he panicked when his daughter did not return from the bathroom and that he immediately requested help from the Center’s security staff and an off-duty Dallas police officer. Natalee’s dad was given instructions to report his missing daughter as a “runaway” in the city the family lives in, not in Dallas, Texas, where she actually disappeared. Keep in mind that Texas has a high volume of human trafficking cases. When asked “Why?” by the CBS News Texas investigative team, Dallas police responded, “That is standard operating procedure for parents to report runaways to their home jurisdiction.” The problem is that while Natalee’s dad was being told to follow ineffective procedures that delayed the rescue of his daughter, Natalee, the child-victim, was being sex trafficked by the men caught on the Center’s security camera speaking to her minutes after she left her dad to go to the bathroom. But as Natalee’s dad points out in the news report, the traffickers were not in his home city; they were in Dallas. Natalee later discloses that, while with her traffickers, she was sexually abused several times. Natalee was eventually taken to Oklahoma City and was advertised online by her traffickers to potential sex buyers as a 21-year-old from Dallas looking “for some company.” This whole time, over a week had passed since her disappearance, and Dallas police had not taken a report, as reported by Natalee’s dad. When she was finally found after enduring over a week of rapes, she said to her father, “Daddy, they hurt me.” To view this crucial reporting exposing how problematic police protocols benefit traffickers but potentially add days of torture for children used in commercial sex, click here.
When watching this story, did you think about how many fewer rapes 15-year-old Natalee would have had to endure if Dallas police had treated her case differently—issued a missing child report in the city of Dallas, alerted the community to identify potential witnesses, taken a statement from Natalee’s dad, and treated her case as a potential sex trafficking case?
If ineffective protocols and procedures are not addressed and changed, traffickers will continue to view the sex trafficking of children as a profitable business.
Think about how emboldened and untouchable traffickers feel with the current systems in place: they do not even appear to care about the consequences of being caught on camera engaging with the child they later drugged, raped, and used for commercial sex, even though they knew Natalee had parents who would advocate for her. When traffickers operate with that level of audacity and comfort in targeting children without concern that they will be caught, existing protocols and systems must be reevaluated.
11. Report the buyers of commercial sex: If you know of someone who is contributing to this crime, help victims and law enforcement by reporting what you know.
Remember, but for these buyers, children in our communities would be safe.
Inform your representatives that criminalization of buyers of sex trafficking, as a form of crime deterrence and protection of children, matters to you.
12. Inform the community about available resources in the USA:
- For minors whose explicit pictures or videos have been uploaded online, there is help available at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org. Take It Down by NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) is a confidential service designed to help minors (individuals under the age of 18) remove or prevent the online sharing of an explicit photo or video.
- The following links include valuable information for people helping minors whose private images have been compromised: 1)https://www.missingkids.org/theissues/sextortion; 2)https://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/isyourexplicitcontentoutthere
- Are you an adult (18+) or do you know of an adult who has been threatened by someone with sharing their intimate images? There is help available at 1) https://stopncii.org and 2) https://cybercivilrights.org/ccri-crisis-helpline/
- Take It Down Act. The Take It Down Act was signed into law in 2025 and is a federal law that criminalizes the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images (“NCII”), which includes AI-generated deepfakes. It requires platforms, such as social media apps, to remove the content within 48 hours of a victim’s request. Within this federal law, 7 categories of offenses are established, including threats to share intimate images of adults and minors that are authentic or digitally altered. Beware that this federal law clarifies that consent to create an image DOES NOT EQUATE TO CONSENT FOR ITS PUBLICATION. The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) oversees the enforcement of the takedown provisions.
- To report criminal sexual exploitation or threats online, go to https://tips.fbi.gov/home.
- If the crime or threat involves a child, contact NCMEC: https://report.cybertip.org.
- If you or anyone is in immediate danger, call 911.
- For more resources, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline: Call 1-888-373-7877 or text 233-733.
- Children of the Night: A privately funded non-profit that will take the call of any minor from anywhere in the USA and offer to rescue them from any truck stop or hotel/motel. Their 24/7 hotline call number to reach a skilled caseworker is (800) 551-1300. Click the link to access their site: https://www.childrenofthenight.org/mission
- To reach the mental health crisis hotline in the USA–for resources or emotional support–call or text 988. Free and confidential emotional support conversations, resources, and help for people in emotional distress or suicidal crisis.
- For the Department of Justice–The Office for Victims of Crime, go to https://ovc.ojp.gov/.
- For the Department of Justice’s National Sex Offender Public Website, which allows users to search sex offender registries for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. Territories, and Indian Country, click here.
13. Promote and encourage leaders, businesses, and organizations in your community to place human trafficking awareness posters in high-traffic public spaces, including stadiums, churches, schools, airports, campuses, courthouses, movie theaters, and entertainment spots. Also, acquire authorization to place posters in private spaces, such as behind bathroom stall doors, to provide individuals with a safe space to report if needed.
Download the printable poster and share it:
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