USAID launched its new Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) initiative on February 23 in efforts to eradicate modern day slavery. Learn more...

Recent media coverage has identified more and more cases of sex trafficking across America where young girls are being sold for sex on Village Voice Media owned website Backpage.com. Traffickers pay for ad space on Backpage.com’s adult section, often posting pictures of minors advertised for commercial sex on the site. Backpage.com profits from these advertisements, making them by definition a facilitator for domestic minor sex trafficking. Shared Hope International is leading a national campaign inviting mayors across the nation to join our efforts to encourage Village Voice Media to eliminate child sex trafficking on Backpage.com.

Last year, Shared Hope issued failing grades to over half the states for their legal provisions to protect America’s innocent against domestic minor sex trafficking. We challenged each state to raise their grade. They heard us! Taking this challenge head on, more than 30 states have introduced a total of 90 bills (and counting!) that will help combat human trafficking in their states. 

The Washington state Senate unanimously passed a raft of Protected Innocence bills targeted at tightening the state laws against child sex trafficking, including the pioneering SB 6251, aimed at stopping the online facilitation of child sex trafficking. The bill sponsored by Seattle Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-WA) establishes a new crime of advertising commercial sexual abuse of a minor in Washington.

In an effort to crackdown on human trafficking in Maryland, the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force is joining with state advocates on February 15 in Annapolis to support six bills that target child sex trafficking.

She was just 12 years old when she was led into "the life" by her 14-year-old half-sister.  After several horrible weeks, she was rescued by police officers -- they found her sister in a hotel room, engaged in a sex act with a man, with Leah naked and crouched in a corner, crying hysterically.

In December 2011, Shared Hope International released a Protected Innocence Challenge Report Card for every state grading the framework of laws addressing the crime of domestic minor sex trafficking and the protections afforded to its victims. Not a single state earned an A. In fact, over half received failing grades. The question was posed: since not one state received an A, why don’t you grade on a curve system? Read on to learn about our zero tolerance policy standards for domestic minor sex trafficking, policy developments since the PII release, and why Shared Hope does not grade on a curve.