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Human Trafficking

This webpage is a tool to help inform educators and other Florida citizens on how to spot human trafficking and how to report it. Trafficking victims are subjected to force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Knowing the signs of human trafficking and knowing how to report it may actually save a life from modern day slavery.

Did you know?

Florida is third in the nation for reported human trafficking cases.

What is Human Trafficking?

Human Trafficking, under both federal and Florida law, is defined as the transporting, soliciting, recruiting, harboring, providing or obtaining of another person for transport; for the purposes of forced labor, domestic servitude or sexual exploitation using force, fraud and/or coercion. Human trafficking is modern slavery.

There are approximately 30 million people enslaved throughout the world with 2.5 million located right here in the United States.

  • Many of these victims are lured with false promises of financial or emotional security; instead, they are forced or coerced into commercial sex (prostitution), domestic servitude or other types of forced labor.
  • Any minor under the age of 18 who is induced to perform a commercial sex act is a victim of human trafficking according to U.S. law, regardless of whether there is force, fraud or coercion. Increasingly, criminal organizations, such as gangs, are luring children from local schools into commercial sexual exploitation or trafficking.
  • According to the U.S. Department of Justice, every two minutes a child is trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the United States.

Pursuant to State Board of Education Rule 6A-1.094124, Florida Administrative Code, Required Instruction Planning and Reporting, school districts must annually provide instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness. Using the health education standards adopted in Rule 6A-1.09401, F.A.C., Student Performance Standards, the instruction for child trafficking prevention will advance each year through developmentally appropriate instruction and skill building. Age-appropriate elements of effective and evidence-based programs and instruction to students in grades K-12 related to child trafficking prevention and awareness and must address, at a minimum, the following topics: 

  1. Recognition of signs of human trafficking;
  2. Awareness of resources, including national, state and local resources;
  3. Prevention of the abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and drugs;
  4. Information on the prevalence, nature, and strategies to reduce the risk of human trafficking, techniques to set healthy boundaries, and how to safely seek assistance; and
  5. Information on how social media and mobile device applications are used for human trafficking.

Training Materials

How to Report

Children and adults can be victims of human trafficking. “If you see something, say something.”

Resources

Florida

National

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