Child Exploitation

Subtopics

Human Trafficking

Online Exploitation

Prevent, identify, and respond to child exploitation.

Child exploitation can take many forms and affect youth of any age, race, geographic location, or socioeconomic status. Victimization can take place directly on school grounds as well as through online or social media platforms, which can be sites for predatory behaviors and interactions with malicious actors who target children and adolescents (e.g., adults seeking to sexually exploit children, to financially extort them through the threat or actual distribution of intimate images), and victimized students may suffer physical, mental, and emotional trauma.

Schools are uniquely positioned to support students facing exploitation. Because of the regular interaction between educators and students, school personnel can help identify and report suspected cases of trafficking and exploitation and connect affected students to critical services.

Understanding the factors that make students vulnerable to exploitation, such as adverse childhood experiences, history of trauma, housing instability/homelessness, or lack of supportive adult figures, and recognizing the warning signs is the first step in identifying potential victims. Signs or indicators may include unexplained absences from school, abruptly disconnecting from family or friends, or significant changes in behaviors including online activity, and if observed can be an opportunity to ask more questions or help students get the support they need.

School leaders can provide training and resources on the risk factors and indicators of child exploitation so that teachers and school staff can recognize potential cases, as well as offer age-appropriate safety education programs for students and engage with parents to raise awareness of the issue. School districts should also establish and articulate clearly defined policies, protocols, and procedures, supported by collaboration with relevant local community and law enforcement partners, for school personnel to follow if cases of child exploitation are suspected or disclosed.

To counteract risk factors, identifying and building protective factors and a safe and supportive school community can help to prevent youth from exploitative and trafficking situations. Protective factors can include encouraging youth to seek help, identifying resources to meet student needs, and offering ongoing education about healthy relationships, intimate partner violence, and child sex abuse. Schools should also put in place campus security measures and screen visitors to school grounds and events. As well, providing children, teens, parents, and teachers with information regarding the potential dangers of online environments and how to stay safe online can help prevent many instances of child exploitation.

Use the filter below to sort resources available based upon stages of preparedness and subtopic.

Featured Resources

These resources are a starting point for learning about child exploitation. Use these resources to help prevent, identify, and respond to child exploitation. Members of the school community can also download this SchoolSafety.gov infographic to learn more about the issue of child exploitation and access a sampling of resources.

Guidance

Human Trafficking in America’s Schools: What Schools Can Do To Prevent, Respond, and Help Students To Recover From Human Trafficking (Second Edition)

Department of Education, 2021

This guide is intended to provide awareness of the current prevalence of child trafficking and the forms it takes; information on risk factors and indicators of child trafficking; details about three prevention tiers and the implications for schools’ role in addressing child trafficking; information on how professional development of school staff and prevention education for students and families can reduce the likelihood of trafficking; and details on how policies, protocols, and partnerships with other community sectors can help prevent trafficking.

Program

NetSmartz

Third Party

NetSmartz is the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's online safety education program. It provides age-appropriate videos and activities to help teach children to be safer online with the goal of helping children to become more aware of potential online risks and empowering them to help prevent victimization by making safer choices on- and offline.

Program

Project iGuardian

Department of Homeland Security

Project iGuardian is focused on keeping children and teens safe from online predators through education and awareness. The project is an outreach effort to share information about the dangers of online environments, how to stay safe online, and how to report abuse and suspicious activity.

Filter Resources

All Child Exploitation Resources

The federal government identified additional resources that highlight strategies for school safety. Use these resources to learn more about child exploitation.

Webpage

Sextortion

Department of Homeland Security

This webpage provides information about what sextortion is and what parents can do to help prevent and stop it.

Tool

Take It Down

Third Party

This free service can help remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos taken of youth when they were under 18 years old. Take It Down allows users to remain anonymous while using the service and will work on public or unencrypted online platforms that have agreed to participate.

Program

How to be a Good Digital Parent Toolkit

Third Party, 2020

This program is designed to teach parents and other caregivers to confidently navigate the web with their kids. It consists of a comprehensive toolkit that parents and caregivers can use to host an event at schools or community spaces, and includes one kit focused on elementary kids (aged 6-11) and one focused on teens (aged 12+).