Combating Human Trafficking and Online Child Exploitation in the United States
This Executive Order (EO 13903) directs the federal government to strengthen its collective, cross-agency effort to combat human trafficking and the online sexual exploitation of children in the United States. It emphasizes a coordinated, resource-focused approach: ensuring interagency collaboration, improving public access to federal trafficking resources, refining data on how widespread trafficking is, and advancing law enforcement capabilities to detect and prosecute online exploitation. The order also prioritizes victim protection, including locating missing children, expanding housing options for victims, and funding prevention programs in schools. Several provisions require timely actions (e.g., within 180 days) and higher-level coordination across agencies, while clarifying that the EO does not create new rights and must operate within existing laws and funding. In short, the order acts as a government-wide directive to organize and accelerate federal efforts—through coordination, data improvements, victim support, and prevention education—against trafficking and online child exploitation rather than establishing new laws or programs itself.
Key Points
- 1Establishes a dedicated interagency focus within the Domestic Policy Council to coordinate federal anti-trafficking efforts, with a position filled by a detailed appointee from DOJ, Labor, HHS, Transportation, or Homeland Security.
- 2Requires the Secretary of State to publish online a comprehensive list of federal resources for combating trafficking, including tools to identify/report trafficking, protect victims, and provide outreach and training.
- 3Directs multiple senior departments (State, Justice, Labor, HHS, Homeland Security) to improve methods for estimating trafficking prevalence, monitor impact, publish methodologies as appropriate, and establish estimates of prevalence in the United States.
- 4Involves the Attorney General and DHS (with other agencies as appropriate) in enhancing interagency coordination to target traffickers, assess threats, and share intelligence; also to coordinate with the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.
- 5Within 180 days, requires proposing actions to overcome information-sharing barriers and improve real-time detection of online child sexual abuse material (often referred to as “child pornography”) to better identify and rescue victims, prosecute offenders, and remove material online.
- 6Expands victim protection efforts to locate missing children (including runaways and those in federal custody) by engaging social media platforms, tech companies, state/local/tribal agencies, NCMEC, and law enforcement; and creates an internal HHS-HUD working group to expand housing options for trafficking victims.
- 7Encourages prevention through education partnerships by funding youth-focused trafficking and exploitation prevention programs in schools, in coordination with state/local/tribal law enforcement and education authorities.