Myths Info/Facts

COMMON MYTHS

MYTH: CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING ISN’T HAPPENING IN THE UNITED STATES.

FACTS:


• Domestic Minor sex trafficking, which is the commercial sexual exploitation of children through buying, selling, or trading their sexual services, IS happening within our borders. Forms of domestic minor sex trafficking include prostitution, pornography, stripping, and other sexual acts.¹
• At least 100,000 American children are being used for porn or prostitution every year.²
• Most prostituted children have a pimp.³
• Investigative research by Shared Hope International reveals pimps commonly sell minor girls for $400.00 an hour on America’s streets.
• Human rights investigations by Shared Hope International discovered minors were sold an average of 10-15 times a day, 6 days a week, totaling between 9,360 and 14,040 sex acts a year. The girls kept none of the money.

MYTH: ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE LOOK AT CHILD PORNOGRAPHY OR PRUCHASE KIDS FOR SALE.

FACTS:


• 12 is the average age of entry into porn and prostitution, but their ages are often mislabeled.⁴
• 1 out of 5 pornographic images is of a child.⁵
• The sale of child pornography has become a 3 billion dollar annual industry.⁶
• Over 100,000 websites offer child pornography.⁷
• 55% of internet child pornography comes from the U.S.⁸

MYTH: PORNOGRAPHY ISN’T HARMFUL TO ME OR ANYONE ELSE.

FACTS:


• Many women in porn admit they’ve experienced sexual, Physical, and verbal Abuse and neglect by parents, which ultimately led them to the porn industry. ⁹
• In a study of 932 sex addicts, 90% of the men and 77% of the women indicted that looking at pornography, “played a significant role in their addiction.”¹⁰
• Studies have linked pornography use with violent and aggressive sexual behavior. In study, 60% of men claimed they would rape a woman “if there were no chance of getting caught.” ¹¹
• Pornography can influence individuals’ attitudes toward women. Those who view porn are more likely to think of women as “eager and willing to accommodate any and every sexual act.” ¹²

1. http://caster.ssw.upenn.edu/~restes/CSEC.htm
2. 28. Cite: Estes, R. & Weiner, N. “Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S. , Canada , and Mexico .” University of Pennsylvania , 2001
3. Cite: Estes, R. & Weiner, N. “Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S. , Canada , and Mexico .” University of Pennsylvania , 2001
4. 2007, Feb 7). Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Schumer (D-NY) Introduce the Safe Act of 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Web site: www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=3061
5. Estes, Ricahrd J. and Neil Alan Weiner.
6. Family Safe Media, (2006). Pornography Statistics. Retrieved February 25, 2008, from Preserving Family Values in a Media Driven Society Web site: www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html
7. www.onenewsnow.com/2007/02/bill_tackles_us_child_porn_epi.php
8. “FACT: Pornography is Harmful.” Enough is Enough 1-3. 26 Dec 2007 www.levelbest.com/design/sites/enough/index.html.
9. “Is Online Porn Leaving Kids Too Sex-Savvy?” ABC News 28 Oct 2007 1-2. 26 February 2008 abcnews.go.com/WNT/Story?id=131574&page=1.
10. Hauck, Stephen . "Porn." CBS42 News 06 Nov 2007 1-3. 03 Mar 2008 www.cbs42.com/news/local/7280401.html.
11. “FACT: Pornography is Harmful.” Enough is Enough 1-3. 03 March 2008. www.levelbest.com/design/sites/Enough/index.html.
12. “Porn Profits: Corporate America’s Secret.” ABC News 27 May 2004 1-3. 26 Feb 2008 abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Story?id=132370&page=1.

FAQ's

What is the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC)?

• CSEC encompasses the sexual abuse by adults and payment in cash or kind to the child or a third person or persons. It is a fundamental violation of children’s rights, which as defined by the U.N. protocol constitutes Human Trafficking.
• CSEC is the slavery of children and consists of practices that are demeaning, degrading and often life-threatening to children. The child is treated as a commercial and sexual object. ¹
  

The Scope of the problem:

• The sale of child pornography has become a $3 billion annual industry.²
• More than 32 million individuals visit a porn site every month.²
• Of all porn sites—1 out of 5 pornographic images is of a child.³

What does the exploitation of American Children look like? How many and who are they?

• According to Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act 2005, an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 adolescents are commercially sexually exploited annually in the U.S.
• The victims are American children, youth of all races and all different backgrounds, and range in age from infants to teens.
• 12 is the average age of entry into pornography and prostitution.⁴
• As many as 2.8 million children live on the streets, a third of whom are lured into prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.⁵
• Victims include kids running away from a broken home, pre-teen and teen girls looking for love, and innocent youth snatched off the streets or discovered and enticed on the Internet.

How are Traffickers and Users getting to our children?

• With the advent of Internet, chat rooms and online meeting places are treasure mines for predators. With a tolerated sexual industry such as explicit advertisement and pornography, the scope of the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children continues to explode.
• William W. Mercer, a U.S. attorney for Montana, testified that the caseload of the child exploitation section had increased 445 percent in the last four years, adding that federal prosecutions of child pornography and abuse cases increased to more than 1,500 cases last year from 344 in 1995 ⁶
• One in five youth who regularly use the Internet has been sexually solicited or approached.⁷

Who are the Users and why do they do it?

• 77% of online visitors to adult content sites are male. Their average age is 41 and they have an annual income of $60,000. 46% are married.⁸
• Over 70% of incarcerated sex offenders fueled their addiction by viewing child pornography.
• For every 10 men in church, 5 are struggling with pornography⁹

1. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/comp/child/standards/resolution/stockholm.htm
   (www.protectkids.com)
2. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Internet Sex Crimes Against Minors: The Response of Law Enforcement)
3. Estes, Richard J. and Neil Alan Weiner
4. National Runaway Switchboard, www.nrscrisisline.org/about_nrs/faq.html
5. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40713FA3A540C748CDDAD0894DE404482
6. Center for Crimes Research, University of New Hampshire
7. Forrester Research Report, 2001
8. The Call to Biblical Manhood. Man in the Mirror, 6 July, 2004

Sexual Addiction

The experience of sexual arousal can be adrenalized and intense when viewing pornography, and like any ‘high’ your body will crave another hit. The result is a pattern of addiction and escalation. Soft-core pictures of women in lingerie will soon become boring and you will seek full nudity, and as that loses novelty you will look for something more enticing. Dr. Victor Cline, of the University of Utah, has studied this escalation and reports that it proceeds according to four steps.¹

Addiction You keep coming back to porn. It becomes a regular part of your life. You’re hooked and can’t quit.

Escalation You start to look for more graphic pornography. You start using porn that disgusted you earlier, but is now enticing to you.

Desensitization You begin feeling numb towards the images you see. Even the most graphic porn is no longer arousing. You become desperate to feel the same thrill again, but you can’t find it.

Acting out sexually This is the point that you make a critical jump and start acting out the images you have seen and rehearsed in your mind.²

Shame No matter how great the pleasure, the guilt quickly replaces the short-term adrenaline high with shame. In his book When Good Men Are Tempted, Bill Perkins says, “Like a deadly whirlpool that pulls its victims down, the addictive cycle can drag down the strongest man. Just ask Samson. Soon after boldly going to the house of the women he desired shame washed away the pleasure. Samson had entered the woman’s house boldly. He left under the cover of darkness, hoping nobody would see him.”³

1. Dr. Victor B. Cline, “Pornography’s Effect on Adults and Children,” Morality in Media, 2001 (12 December 2001).
2. Patrick Carnes, Out of the shadows: Understanding sexual addiction, (Minneapolis: CompCare 1983)..
3. Bill Perkins, “When Good Men Are Tempted. Zondervan Publishing House 1997 p42-44

Government Action

U.S. Government Efforts to Address the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

1. Federal Bureau of Investigation: Innocence Lost

As part of an ongoing federal effort to eradicate the trafficking and prostitution of children, The Innocence Lost National Initiative has been expanded from 13 to 31 cities with a high reported incidence of children forced into prostitution.

The investigations are intensive, intelligence-driven, and rely on sophisticated techniques as well as developing informants and witnesses. Overall, as of January 2007, the initiative has led to more than 697 arrests, 145 indictments, and 135 convictions. Prosecution at the federal level has resulted in the dismantling of 20 criminal organizations engaged in the prostitution of children.

Click here to read more about the FBI Innocence Lost Initiative.

2. Department of Justice: Project Safe Childhood

The Department of Justice developed “Project Safe Childhood” to address the growing threat of sexual exploitation crimes committed against children through the Internet. As technology advances, and as the Internet becomes more accessible, the number of computer-facilitated sexual exploitation crimes committed against children — including child pornography offenses and enticement crimes — will only continue to grow. The goal of Project Safe Childhood is to enhance the national response to this growing threat to America’s youth.

In fiscal year 2005, federal prosecutors charged 1,447 child exploitation cases involving child pornography, coercion, and enticement offenses against 1,503 defendants. This year, the Department of Justice will award more than $14 million to the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task forces funded by the Department’s Office of Justice Programs. The ICACs are key partners in Project Safe Childhood.

Click here to read more about Project Safe Childhood

3. Department of Homeland Security, ICE: Operation Predator

Operation Predator is an initiative developed to protect children worldwide. The program identifies and deports foreign child predators, identifies children depicted in child pornography and helps rescue them, and assists in prosecuting the people responsible for making and distributing the images. They also work with foreign governments in international investigations.

As of October 2005, there have been over 6,500 arrests under Operation Predator. Over 1,000 of those arrests occurred within the first three months of the operation. More than half of their arrests have been against foreign nationals, who are deported from the United States after they serve their time. They have also made arrests against human smugglers and child pornographers. Operation Predator has become the main force behind President Bush’s PROTECT Act, which makes it illegal for Americans to travel abroad in order to have sex with a minor.

4. The World Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) and the U.S. Mid-Term Review

The World Congress on CSEC was first called in 1996 to be held every five years in order to address the issue of CSEC internationally. Between each congress, each participating country is asked to host a Mid-Term Review to evaluate best practices, gaps in current efforts, and challenges faced within that country. Shared Hope International was approached by the U.S. State Department to co-host the U.S. Mid-Term Review on CSEC in 2006. The Mid-Term Review consisted of a collection of surveys from three government agencies and 35 NGOs across the United States.

The Mid-Term Review conference was held in Washington, D.C., April 3-4, 2006, which brought together over 120 government agency representatives, law enforcement officials, academics, private industry representatives, and Non-Governmental Organization leaders in a structured discussion of the trafficking, prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and supply and demand of children in the U.S.

The information gathered through the surveys and conference is currently being summarized and analyzed and will be compiled into a final document to be presented to the 3rd World Congress on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in 2008 on behalf of the United States.

Click here to read more about the U.S. Mid-Term Review

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