Why it Matters
No child should be bought or sold.
The commercial sexual exploitation of children— any sexual activity involving a child for which something of value is given, exchanged, or promised—and the illegal sex trade, is an over $32 billion industry in the U.S. It’s an organized machine that targets the most marginalized youth in our communities. Taking on an opponent of this size is not for the faint of heart. It’s not a fair fight. At My Life My Choice, we fight back by harnessing the strength of survivors. We empower youth to defend themselves and demand a society that does not tolerate the buying and selling of children. That’s the world we stand up for. We didn’t start this fight, but we will keep fighting it with everything we’ve got.
Our reach by the numbers.
Since 2002, My Life My Choice has successfully trained over 27,400 youth providers in Massachusetts and nationally. We ran prevention groups for more than 4,000 youth. This includes cisgender girls, transgender females, and transgender males whose experience of exploitation happened due to their gender identity or sex assigned at birth. We mentored more than 900 youth of all genders in Eastern Massachusetts, and trained facilitators on our Prevention Curriculum in 43 states, Canada, and Hong Kong. Exploitation hasn’t slowed down. Neither have we. We’ll keep growing our reach for as long there is a need.
Rated E for Emotional.
My Life My Choice was featured as a model that works in combatting the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Here is a powerful scene from the Independent Lens documentary, A Path Appears, featuring Nicholas Kristof, Blake Lively, and the My Life My Choice team.
