ECPAT-USA And Boys Too Report (2022) [pdf]
Attention to commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in the U.S. has increased significantly with passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and its subsequent reauthorizations. Since the Act’s original passage in 2000, U.S. federal law defines anyone under 18 years of age who is “induced to perform a commercial sex act” as a victim of human trafficking, not as a criminal. In addition, beginning in 2010, the annual Trafficking in Persons Report published by the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Office has acknowledged CSEC in the U.S. Understandably, most of the focus of law enforcement, government, media, policy makers, service providers, researchers, and funders has been on commercial sexual exploitation of girls (CSEG). Commercially sexually exploited boys (CSEB), on the other hand, who may be considered too few to be counted or not in need of help or services, have registered as a barely visible blip on the radar. The little attention paid to boys has focused on them as exploiters, pimps and buyers of sexual services or as active participants in sex work—not as victims or survivors. Most service providers who were interviewed for this report in 2010-11, acknowledge the existence of CSEB yet only provide services to CSEG or are unwilling or unable to help boys.
