Child Trafficking

Child trafficking includes labor and/or sex trafficking. In the United States, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), defines adult and minor victims of labor trafficking as anyone subjected to "the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery" (22 USC § 7102(9)).  A minor of sex trafficking is someone subjected to "the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purposes of a commercial sex act, in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age" (22 USC § 7102 (9-10)).  See the Federal Laws page for more detailed definitions.

Child trafficking may be distinguished from other forms of exploitation or abuse by applying the Action + Means + Purpose Model. Child labor trafficking occurs when a trafficker takes any one of the enumerated actions, and then employs the means of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of compelling the victim to provide labor or services. At a minimum, one element from each column must be present to establish a potential situation of labor trafficking involving minors. Child sex trafficking does not require the presence of force, fraud or coercion.