"It is estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 children are exploited annually by the sex industry within the United States alone," (Hodge and Lietz 2007). Many of these are usually trafficked in places that where large events are hosted, such as sporting events like the Super Bowl. Children are trafficked ,"wherever pimps and traffickers can make the most money, for example near military bases, near political or business conventions, or to locations where sporting events take place," (Farley 2006). Last year during the Stanley Cup Finals, the number of online pornography views decreased compared to the average number of watchers. However, minutes after the Finals were over, the number of Bostonian adults watching online pornography increased by 21% (Annear 2013). Since a lot of sexual exploitation occurs in cities hosting sports championships, sports teams and sport fanatics can bring awareness to this issue. Although an increase in online pornography views does not imply that children were being trafficked into Boston, it is reasonable to assume that the demand of pornography encouraged the demand of children elsewhere, so that pornographic videos could be made. Since sports teams have large audiences, teams can use their influence to let people know that trafficking has negative effects on children, and that fanatics are sometimes unknowingly contributing to the abuse.
Furthermore, Neil Weiner and Richard Estes (2001), have also stated, " At the turn of the century...children as young as 9 years of age populated the ethnically organized brothels of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and other large American cities." Basically, the sex industries that are typically associated with foreign countries, such as brothels, are not unique to those countries, seeing that the United States exhibits the same problems. Even though "Crime groups with ties to China, the Philippines, and Thailand also are known to be involved in trafficking children for sexual purposes into the U.S. ," many of the child trafficking that occurs within the United States is due to abductions and false promises of jobs (Weiner and Estes 2001). As stated earlier, an increase in youth programs might lead to people who run brothels and other trafficking rings to have less of an opportunity to abduct young people. The more programs there are to help youth earn money, the less likely the youth will be willing to accept the first job offers that they receive, in this case false job offers.
Although laws or other types of legislation do not completely eliminate the problem, the Unites States government has shown attempts at reducing child trafficking in the country. In 2000, "Congress enacted the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA). As an anti- slavery bill, the TVPA criminaliz[es] human trafficking as a federal felony," (Tanagho 2006). Also, different states, like Texas, Hawaii, Missouri, and Washington, have passed several laws that make it illegal "to offer to sell or actually sell travel services that facilitate travel for the purpose of engaging in prostitution," in order to prevent people from being trafficked into those states (Tanagho 2006). In these circumstances, the United States should pass similar laws in order to address all states as a whole. Preventing (or trying to prevent) people from being trafficked into certain states only addresses those states, which gives rise to the possibility that children might be trafficked to other states without such laws, instead. Thus, trafficking in the country is not reduced. If acts like the TVPA are passed nationwide, the rate of trafficking into the U.S. might decrease.