2023 National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention & Interdiction

The Department of Justice’s 2023 National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention & Interdiction highlights efforts, goals, and proposed solutions to prevent and stop child sexual exploitation, hold offenders accountable, and protect victims.  The National Strategy also highlights the shocking growth in scale, complexity, and dangerousness of online threats to children and calls for a whole-of-society approach to develop a culture of safety for children online through various categories of action including legislation, funding, enforcement, technology, collaboration, research, prevention, reporting, and victim services.

This National Strategy builds on prior strategies and reflects the input of survivors and hundreds of subject matter experts from a wide variety of professions. In preparing this strategy, the Department hosted numerous listening sessions comprised of subject matter experts across federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies, law enforcement professionals, academics, and private industry and nonprofit sector professionals, all of whom brought unique backgrounds and perspectives on the dynamics driving child exploitation crimes. Several listening sessions were dedicated to hearing from survivors and caretakers who have been impacted by child exploitation crimes. Those listening sessions, along with countless hours of document formulation, review, and editing among subject matter experts, resulted in the publication of Subject Matter Expert Working Group Reports, each focused on a distinct child exploitation topic:

• Child Sexual Abuse Material
• Child Sex Trafficking in the United States
• Child Exploitation in Special Areas and Populations
• Extraterritorial Child Sexual Abuse
• Livestreaming and Virtual Child Sex Trafficking
• Sextortion, Crowdsourcing, Enticement, and Coercion
• Unique Resource and Enforcement Issues
• Technology
• Offender Psychology
• Partnerships
• Prevention
• Sex Offender Registration Violations
• Survivors, Caretakers, and Access to Survivor Care
• Wellness Challenges for Law Enforcement Personnel
   

The Appendices of the National Strategy fulfill certain statutory reporting requirements and reflect the totality of the federal government’s work since 2016, including federal investigations and prosecutions, interagency coordination, grant programs, policy and research initiatives, and other efforts to address the prevention and interdiction of child exploitation offenses. The Appendices also provide details on the Department’s legislative proposals and funding for crimes against children.

To view the 2023 National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention & Interdiction,  click here.