Sex trade of children rampant in US

A growing demand for commercial sex with children in the US has made US House to consider a new legislation to halt the issue of child exploitation.

source with video: presstv.ir

In the hearing for the new legislation called Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010, US House judiciary committee heard shocking testimony from the witnesses.

Reports show that at least 100, 000 children are exploited in sex trade in the US each year.

"The trafficking of young children, primarily women and little girls, aging from 12 to 15 is an ever-growing problem in the United States. We have two issues. We have young girls being trafficked through the United States from foreign countries, and we have domestic children that are being trafficked throughout the United States as well," Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) told a Press TV correspondent.

In the hearing for the new legislation called Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010, US House judiciary committee heard shocking testimony from the witnesses.

Reports show that at least 100, 000 children are exploited in sex trade in the US each year.

"The trafficking of young children, primarily women and little girls, aging from 12 to 15 is an ever-growing problem in the United States. We have two issues. We have young girls being trafficked through the United States from foreign countries, and we have domestic children that are being trafficked throughout the United States as well," Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) told a Press TV correspondent.

According to Malika Sadaa Saar, the founder of Rebecca Project for Human Rights, "the issue of domestically trafficked American girls is finally being named" and "addressed as epidemic within the US."

Witnesses said that the internet has made it much easier for under-aged girls to be sold for sex.

"Though it's hard to believe, the average age of first exploitation is young girls 12 to 13 years of age," said Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

Polls show a recent surge in child prostitution; a 40 percent increase in Michigan, a 20 percent jump in New York, a 64 percent in Minnesota, and similar startling increases in other states, the correspondent reported.

Many experts believe more should be done to prosecute those who buy sex from children and their, pimps. The men who buy it often go free while the children, their victims, are more often charged as offenders.