How can we help?
- What is sex trafficking?
- How are sex traffickers held accountable?
- What is online exploitation?
- How are the people who commit online exploitation held accountable?
- What are the consequences of sex trafficking and online exploitation?
- What damages can victims of sex trafficking and online sexual exploitation receive in California?
- What is the time limit for filing a civil claim for sexual abuse?
- Do you have a Los Angeles sex trafficking and online exploitation lawyer near me?
What is sex trafficking?
According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking and modern-day slavery. It is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for a commercial sex act, when force, fraud, or coercion is used, or when the person is a minor.
Sex trafficking of adults involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to make an adult engage in commercial sex acts. Sex trafficking of a minor involves any commercial sexual activity with a minor, even without force, fraud, or coercion.
The targets of sex trafficking include people of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and income levels – including citizens and non-citizens.
How are sex traffickers held accountable?
Criminal accountability
Federal and state law provides for significant criminal penalties for sex trafficking, including imprisonment and fines.
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, the primary federal human trafficking law (which includes sex trafficking) is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The law, 18 U.S.C. § 1591, provides for criminal penalties for trafficking. The law also requires mandatory restitution for victims upon conviction of federal trafficking offenses. 18 U.S.C. § 1593.
California Penal Code § 236.1 PC sets forth California’s criminal human trafficking/sex trafficking law.
Civil lawsuits
Civil actions can provide victims with substantial financial recovery against those that contributed to their exploitation.
Federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 1595, provides for monetary damages for trafficking victims:
An individual who is a victim . . . may bring a civil action against the perpetrator (or whoever knowingly benefits, or attempts or conspires to benefit, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in a venture that person knew or should have known has engaged in an act in violation of this chapter) in an appropriate district court of the United States and may recover damages and reasonable attorneys' fees.
At McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP, we can file sexual abuse claims against the businesses, organizations, and institutions involved in the recruitment, transportation, harboring, solicitation, or patronizing of sex trafficking victims.
Sex trafficking often happens when hotels and other businesses look the other way. We can also file claims against the entities that foster or enable sex trafficking, or that profit from sex trafficking. These entities include:
- Hotels and motels
- Online platform operators, under limited circumstances as permitted by federal law
- Dance and strip clubs
- Escort services
- Fake massage services
- Brothels
- Other businesses, organizations, and institutions
Businesses, such as hotels, may be held civilly liable when they knowingly benefit from participation in a venture they knew or should have known engaged in sex trafficking. In the past five years, some hotels have faced civil trafficking lawsuits and, in some cases, paid substantial settlements where plaintiffs plausibly alleged these businesses knowingly benefited from sex-trafficking ventures.
What is online exploitation?
Stop Child Abuse defines online exploitation as “the abuse and manipulation of children and adolescents facilitated by internet technologies.” Sadly, the internet allows offenders to conduct their behavior in secrecy. The internet helps abusers contact children, share abusive images, groom children for sexual exploitation, and even try to meet children in person or take advantage of children for financial profit.
Some of the factors leading to more sophisticated types of online sexual exploitation include:
- Advancements in technology make it easier for offenders to engage in and hide abusive conduct.
- Communication encryption services and the darknet make it more difficult for authorities to “detect and intervene in cases of exploitation,” and the “normalization of abusive behaviors, as offenders feel shielded from accountability.”
How are the people who commit online exploitation held accountable?
Criminal accountability
Some of the federal laws that govern and prohibit sexual online exploitation include the following:
- Federal Law on Child Pornography
- Federal Law on Child Sex Trafficking
- Federal Law on Child Sexual Abuse
- Federal Law on Child Support Enforcement
- Federal Law on the Extraterritorial Sexual Exploitation of Children
- Federal Law on Obscenity
- Federal Law on Sex Offender Registration
California enacted AB 1394 (Stats. 2023, ch. 579), effective January 1, 2025, which imposes reporting and response obligations on certain covered online platforms regarding child sexual abuse material and provides limited civil remedies for specified statutory violations.
California has many other laws that also regulate online/cyber exploitation.
Civil accountability
At McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP, we can file civil claims for online exploitation when federal or state law permits.
Generally, 18 U.S.C. 2255 gives victims of online sexual exploitation the right to seek compensation against those responsible for their abuse. In addition to lawsuits against the perpetrators, this statute authorizes civil claims against persons or entities whose conduct constitutes a violation of federal child exploitation laws, subject to applicable statutory requirements and defenses. Liability must be based on conduct constituting a specific, enumerated federal offense.
Eligible victims can file a civil claim, whether criminal charges are filed or not – though the basis of the claim should properly relate to a violation of a federal child exploitation law (such as those listed above). We can work to show that exploitation and violation were the cause of the victim’s suffering.
Victims who were minors (under 18) when the exploitation occurred are eligible even if they are adults now. Legal representatives and guardians can file civil claims for their minor children. In rare cases where trafficking-related misconduct is a legal cause of death, eligible heirs may have wrongful death remedies under California law.
In limited circumstances and subject to federal immunity doctrines, defendants may include social media platforms and other third parties.
We can explain what California laws govern civil liability claims for online sexual exploitation and what time limits apply.
What are the consequences of sex trafficking and online exploitation?
The consequences of sex trafficking and online exploitation are devastating. Many of the consequences are long-term. Examples include:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety and depression
- Substance abuse
- Self-harm and suicide attempt
- Negative self-image and identity issues
- Fear
- Difficulty trusting others
- Difficulty establishing or keeping relationships
- Other types of emotional, mental health, and complex trauma
Victims often need long-term psychological counseling, support group participation, and many other types of support. For many sex trafficking and online exploitation victims, their lives are never the same.
Our sexual abuse lawyers work with psychiatrists, psychologists, rape counselors, sexual abuse therapists, and other professionals to help you (or your child) and help support your claim.
What damages can victims of sex trafficking and online sexual exploitation receive in California?
Our Los Angeles sexual abuse lawyers work to show the full scope and severity of your emotional trauma and any physical trauma you may have, the full range of medical care you’ll need for the rest of your life, and all the ways your abuse is affecting every part of your life.
At McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP, we may seek compensation for the following past, current, and future damages, including:
- Your medical expenses for every type of medical service by every type of medical provider
- Any lost income, including wages and benefits, for as long as your trauma prevents you from working
- Any physical pain you have
- All aspects of your emotional and mental health trauma
- The inability to enjoy life’s pleasures
- Reasonable attorneys’ fees, as federal law or state law authorizes
- Punitive/exemplary damages, as federal law or state law authorizes
What is the time limit for filing a civil claim for sexual abuse?
Sex trafficking claims
Civil actions under 18 U.S.C. § 1595 must be filed by the later of 10 years after the claim arose or 10 years after the victim turns 18 (if the victim was a minor at the time).
We can explain what time limits apply to any personal injury actions you may file due to violations of California’s trafficking law.
Online sexual exploitation claims
A civil action under 18 U.S.C. § 2255 for child sexual exploitation has no time limit under federal law.
Best Lawyers
Super Lawyers
ABTA
ACTL
Best Law Firms
