What we know

Globally, profits obtained from commercial sexual exploitation are estimated at $99 billion per year.

79% of the most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation.

Worldwide, almost 20% of all trafficking victims are children.
In a 2004 report, published by The National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (and funded by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), in the U.S., Internet-initiated sex crimes against minors entails:

• Victims were predominantly young teens.  Seventy-six percent were between 13 and 15 years old.

• Most first encounters between offenders and victims (76%) happened in online chat rooms.

• Ninety-nine percent (99%) of offenders were male. Almost all of the cases with male victims involved male offenders. 76% were age 26 or older; 47% were more than 20 years older than their victims.

• Although only 21% of offenders hid or misrepresented their motives, most offenders were open about an interest for a sexual encounter with their victims.

• Seventy-four percent (74%) involved face-to-face meetings and 93% of the initial face-to-face meetings entailed illegal sexual contact between offenders and victims.

• The majority of offenders did not use force or coercion to sexually abuse their victims and did not abduct them. Victims, who were predominantly young female teenagers, typically agreed to meet these adults, knowing the offenders sexual interest.